How do you flush a buffered log4j FileAppender?

Question

In log4j, when using a FileAppender with BufferedIO=true and BufferSize=xxx properties (i.e. buffering is enabled), I want to be able to flush the log during normal shutdown procedure. Any ideas on how to do this?

Answer 1

I have written an appender that fixes this, see GitHub or use name.wramner.log4j:FlushAppender in Maven. It can be configured to flush on events with high severity and it can make the appenders unbuffered when it receives a specific message, for example "Shutting down". Check the unit tests for configuration examples. It is free, of course.

Answer 2

Managed to answer my own question :-)

When shutting down the LogManager:

LogManager.shutdown();

all buffered logs get flushed.

Answer 3

Try:

LogFactory.releaseAll();

Answer 4

public static void flushAllLogs()
{
    try
    {
        Set<FileAppender> flushedFileAppenders = new HashSet<FileAppender>();
        Enumeration currentLoggers = LogManager.getLoggerRepository().getCurrentLoggers();
        while(currentLoggers.hasMoreElements())
        {
            Object nextLogger = currentLoggers.nextElement();
            if(nextLogger instanceof Logger)
            {
                Logger currentLogger = (Logger) nextLogger;
                Enumeration allAppenders = currentLogger.getAllAppenders();
                while(allAppenders.hasMoreElements())
                {
                    Object nextElement = allAppenders.nextElement();
                    if(nextElement instanceof FileAppender)
                    {
                        FileAppender fileAppender = (FileAppender) nextElement;
                        if(!flushedFileAppenders.contains(fileAppender) && !fileAppender.getImmediateFlush())
                        {
                            flushedFileAppenders.add(fileAppender);
                            //log.info("Appender "+fileAppender.getName()+" is not doing immediateFlush ");
                            fileAppender.setImmediateFlush(true);
                            currentLogger.info("FLUSH");
                            fileAppender.setImmediateFlush(false);
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            //log.info("fileAppender"+fileAppender.getName()+" is doing immediateFlush");
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
    catch(RuntimeException e)
    {
        log.error("Failed flushing logs",e);
    }
}

Answer 5

public static void flushAll() {
    final LoggerContext logCtx = ((LoggerContext) LogManager.getContext());
    for(final org.apache.logging.log4j.core.Logger logger : logCtx.getLoggers()) {
        for(final Appender appender : logger.getAppenders().values()) {
            if(appender instanceof AbstractOutputStreamAppender) {
                ((AbstractOutputStreamAppender) appender).getManager().flush();
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 6

Maybe you could override WriterAppender#shouldFlush( LoggingEvent ), so it would return true for a special logging category, like log4j.flush.now, and then you call:

LoggerFactory.getLogger("log4j.flush.now").info("Flush")

http://logging.apache.org/log4j/1.2/apidocs/org/apache/log4j/WriterAppender.html#shouldFlush%28org.apache.log4j.spi.LoggingEvent%29