Dynamically Changing log4j log level

Question

What are the different approaches for changing the log4j log level dynamically, so that I will not have to redeploy the application. Will the changes be permanent in those cases?

Answer 1

With log4j 1.x I find the best way is to use a DOMConfigurator to submit one of a predefined set of XML log configurations (say, one for normal use and one for debugging).

Making use of these can be done with something like this:

  public static void reconfigurePredefined(String newLoggerConfigName) {
    String name = newLoggerConfigName.toLowerCase();
    if ("default".equals(name)) {
      name = "log4j.xml";
    } else {
      name = "log4j-" + name + ".xml";
    }

    if (Log4jReconfigurator.class.getResource("/" + name) != null) {
      String logConfigPath = Log4jReconfigurator.class.getResource("/" + name).getPath();
      logger.warn("Using log4j configuration: " + logConfigPath);
      try (InputStream defaultIs = Log4jReconfigurator.class.getResourceAsStream("/" + name)) {
        new DOMConfigurator().doConfigure(defaultIs, LogManager.getLoggerRepository());
      } catch (IOException e) {
        logger.error("Failed to reconfigure log4j configuration, could not find file " + logConfigPath + " on the classpath", e);
      } catch (FactoryConfigurationError e) {
        logger.error("Failed to reconfigure log4j configuration, could not load file " + logConfigPath, e);
      }
    } else {
      logger.error("Could not find log4j configuration file " + name + ".xml on classpath");
    }
  }

Just call this with the appropriate config name, and make sure that you put the templates on the classpath.