How to do a JUnit assert on a message in a logger

Question

I have some code-under-test that calls on a Java logger to report its status. In the JUnit test code, I would like to verify that the correct log entry was made in this logger. Something along the following lines:

methodUnderTest(bool x){
    if(x)
        logger.info("x happened")
}

@Test tester(){
    // perhaps setup a logger first.
    methodUnderTest(true);
    assertXXXXXX(loggedLevel(),Level.INFO);
}

I suppose that this could be done with a specially adapted logger (or handler, or formatter), but I would prefer to re-use a solution that already exists. (And, to be honest, it is not clear to me how to get at the logRecord from a logger, but suppose that that's possible.)

Answer 1

Mocking the Appender can help capture the log lines. Find sample on: http://clearqa.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/test-log-lines.html

// Fully working test at: https://github.com/njaiswal/logLineTester/blob/master/src/test/java/com/nj/Utils/UtilsTest.java

@Test
public void testUtilsLog() throws InterruptedException {

    Logger utilsLogger = (Logger) LoggerFactory.getLogger("com.nj.utils");

    final Appender mockAppender = mock(Appender.class);
    when(mockAppender.getName()).thenReturn("MOCK");
    utilsLogger.addAppender(mockAppender);

    final List<String> capturedLogs = Collections.synchronizedList(new ArrayList<>());
    final CountDownLatch latch = new CountDownLatch(3);

    //Capture logs
    doAnswer((invocation) -> {
        LoggingEvent loggingEvent = invocation.getArgumentAt(0, LoggingEvent.class);
        capturedLogs.add(loggingEvent.getFormattedMessage());
        latch.countDown();
        return null;
    }).when(mockAppender).doAppend(any());

    //Call method which will do logging to be tested
    Application.main(null);

    //Wait 5 seconds for latch to be true. That means 3 log lines were logged
    assertThat(latch.await(5L, TimeUnit.SECONDS), is(true));

    //Now assert the captured logs
    assertThat(capturedLogs, hasItem(containsString("One")));
    assertThat(capturedLogs, hasItem(containsString("Two")));
    assertThat(capturedLogs, hasItem(containsString("Three")));
}

Answer 2

Use the below code. I am using same code for my spring integration test where I am using log back for logging. Use method assertJobIsScheduled to assert the text printed in the log.

import ch.qos.logback.classic.Logger;
import ch.qos.logback.classic.spi.LoggingEvent;
import ch.qos.logback.core.Appender;

private Logger rootLogger;
final Appender mockAppender = mock(Appender.class);

@Before
public void setUp() throws Exception {
    initMocks(this);
    when(mockAppender.getName()).thenReturn("MOCK");
    rootLogger = (Logger) LoggerFactory.getLogger(ch.qos.logback.classic.Logger.ROOT_LOGGER_NAME);
    rootLogger.addAppender(mockAppender);
}

private void assertJobIsScheduled(final String matcherText) {
    verify(mockAppender).doAppend(argThat(new ArgumentMatcher() {
        @Override
        public boolean matches(final Object argument) {
            return ((LoggingEvent)argument).getFormattedMessage().contains(matcherText);
        }
    }));
}

Answer 3

Effectively you are testing a side-effect of a dependent class. For unit testing you need only to verify that

logger.info()

was called with the correct parameter. Hence use a mocking framework to emulate logger and that will allow you to test your own class's behaviour.

Answer 4

Another idea worth mentioning, although it's an older topic, is creating a CDI producer to inject your logger so the mocking becomes easy. (And it also gives the advantage of not having to declare the "whole logger statement" anymore, but that's off-topic)

Example:

Creating the logger to inject:

public class CdiResources {
  @Produces @LoggerType
  public Logger createLogger(final InjectionPoint ip) {
      return Logger.getLogger(ip.getMember().getDeclaringClass());
  }
}

The qualifier:

@Qualifier
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Target({TYPE, METHOD, FIELD, PARAMETER})
public @interface LoggerType {
}

Using the logger in your production code:

public class ProductionCode {
    @Inject
    @LoggerType
    private Logger logger;

    public void logSomething() {
        logger.info("something");
    }
}

Testing the logger in your test code (giving an easyMock example):

@TestSubject
private ProductionCode productionCode = new ProductionCode();

@Mock
private Logger logger;

@Test
public void testTheLogger() {
   logger.info("something");
   replayAll();
   productionCode.logSomething();
}

Answer 5

Inspired by @RonaldBlaschke's solution, I came up with this:

public class Log4JTester extends ExternalResource {
    TestAppender appender;

    @Override
    protected void before() {
        appender = new TestAppender();
        final Logger rootLogger = Logger.getRootLogger();
        rootLogger.addAppender(appender);
    }

    @Override
    protected void after() {
        final Logger rootLogger = Logger.getRootLogger();
        rootLogger.removeAppender(appender);
    }

    public void assertLogged(Matcher<String> matcher) {
        for(LoggingEvent event : appender.events) {
            if(matcher.matches(event.getMessage())) {
                return;
            }
        }
        fail("No event matches " + matcher);
    }

    private static class TestAppender extends AppenderSkeleton {

        List<LoggingEvent> events = new ArrayList<LoggingEvent>();

        @Override
        protected void append(LoggingEvent event) {
            events.add(event);
        }

        @Override
        public void close() {

        }

        @Override
        public boolean requiresLayout() {
            return false;
        }
    }

}

... which allows you to do:

@Rule public Log4JTester logTest = new Log4JTester();

@Test
public void testFoo() {
     user.setStatus(Status.PREMIUM);
     logTest.assertLogged(
        stringContains("Note added to account: premium customer"));
}

You could probably make it use hamcrest in a smarter way, but I've left it at this.

Answer 6

Here is a simple and efficient Logback solution.
It doesn't require to add/create any new class.
It relies on ListAppender : a whitebox logback appender where log entries are added in a public List field that we could so use to make our assertions.

Here is a simple example.

Foo class :

import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;

public class Foo {

    static final Logger LOGGER = LoggerFactory.getLogger(Foo .class);

    public void doThat() {
        logger.info("start");
        //...
        logger.info("finish");
    }
}

FooTest class :

import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
import ch.qos.logback.classic.Level;
import ch.qos.logback.classic.Logger;
import ch.qos.logback.classic.spi.ILoggingEvent;
import ch.qos.logback.core.read.ListAppender;

public class FooTest {

    @Test
    void doThat() throws Exception {
        // get Logback Logger 
        Logger fooLogger = (Logger) LoggerFactory.getLogger(Foo.class);

        // create and start a ListAppender
        ListAppender<ILoggingEvent> listAppender = new ListAppender<>();
        listAppender.start();

        // add the appender to the logger
        fooLogger.addAppender(listAppender);

        // call method under test
        Foo foo = new Foo();
        foo.doThat();

        // JUnit assertions
        List<ILoggingEvent> logsList = listAppender.list;
        assertEquals("start", logsList.get(0)
                                      .getMessage());
        assertEquals(Level.INFO, logsList.get(0)
                                         .getLevel());

        assertEquals("finish", logsList.get(1)
                                       .getMessage());
        assertEquals(Level.INFO, logsList.get(1)
                                         .getLevel());
    }
}

JUnit assertions don't sound very adapted to assert some specific properties of the list elements.
Matcher/assertion libraries as AssertJ or Hamcrest appears better for that :

With AssertJ it would be :

import org.assertj.core.api.Assertions;

Assertions.assertThat(listAppender.list)
          .extracting(ILoggingEvent::getMessage, ILoggingEvent::getLevel)
          .containsExactly(Tuple.tuple("start", Level.INFO), Tuple.tuple("finish", Level.INFO));