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    <h2>SLF4J user manual</h2>

    <p>The Simple Logging Facade for Java (SLF4J) serves as a simple
    facade or abstraction for various logging frameworks, such as
    java.util.logging, logback and log4j. SLF4J allows the end-user to
    plug in the desired logging framework at <em>deployment</em> time.
    Note that SLF4J-enabling your library/application implies the
    addition of only a single mandatory dependency, namely
    <em>slf4j-api-${project.version}.jar</em>.</p>

    <p><span class="label">since 1.6.0</span> If no binding is found on the
    class path, then SLF4J will default to a no-operation
    implementation.
    </p>

    <p><span class="label">since 1.7.0</span> Printing methods in the
    <a href="apidocs/org/slf4j/Logger.html"><code>Logger</code></a>
    interface now offer variants accepting <a
    href="http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/guide/language/varargs.html">varargs</a>
    instead of <code>Object[]</code>. This change implies that SLF4J
    requires JDK 1.5 or later.  Under the hood the Java compiler
    transforms the varargs part in methods into
    <code>Object[]</code>. Thus, the Logger interface generated by the
    compiler is indistinguishable in 1.7.x from its 1.6.x
    counterpart. It follows that SLF4J version 1.7.x is totally 100%
    no-ifs-or-buts compatible with SLF4J version 1.6.x.
    </p>

    <p><span class="label">since 1.7.5</span> Significant improvement
    in logger retrieval times. Given the extent of the improvement,
    users are highly encouraged to migrate to SLF4J 1.7.5 or later.
    </p>

    <p><span class="label">since 1.7.9</span> By setting the
    <code>slf4j.detectLoggerNameMismatch</code> system property to
    true, SLF4J can automatically <a
    href="codes.html#loggerNameMismatch">spot incorrectly named
    loggers</a>.
    </p>


    <h3 class="doAnchor" name="hello_world">Hello World</h3>

    <p>As customary in programming tradition, here is an example
    illustrating the simplest way to output "Hello world" using SLF4J.
    It begins by getting a logger with the name "HelloWorld". This
    logger is in turn used to log the message "Hello World".
    </p>

<pre class="prettyprint source">import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;

public class HelloWorld {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(HelloWorld.class);
    logger.info("Hello World");
  }
}</pre>

     <p>To run this example, you first need to <a
     href="download.html">download the slf4j distribution</a>, and
     then to unpack it. Once that is done, add the file
     <em>slf4j-api-${project.version}.jar</em> to your class path.</p>

     <p>Compiling and running <em>HelloWorld</em> will result in the
     following output being printed on the console.</p>

<pre>SLF4J: Failed to load class "org.slf4j.impl.StaticLoggerBinder".
SLF4J: Defaulting to no-operation (NOP) logger implementation
SLF4J: See http://www.slf4j.org/codes.html#StaticLoggerBinder for further details.</pre>

     <p>This warning is printed because no slf4j binding could be
     found on your class path.</p>

     <p>The warning will disappear as soon as you add a <a
     href="#swapping">binding</a> to your class path. Assuming you add
     <em>slf4j-simple-${project.version}.jar</em> so that your class
     path contains:</p>

     <ul>
       <li>slf4j-api-${project.version}.jar</li>
       <li>slf4j-simple-${project.version}.jar</li>
     </ul>

     <p>Compiling and running <em>HelloWorld</em> will now result in
     the following output on the console.</p>

     <pre class="output">0 [main] INFO HelloWorld - Hello World</pre>

     <h3 class="doAnchor" name="typical_usage">Typical usage
     pattern</h3>

     <p>The sample code below illustrates the typical usage pattern
     for SLF4J. Note the use of {}-placeholders on line 15. See the
     question <a href="faq.html#logging_performance">"What is the
     fastest way of logging?"</a> in the FAQ for more details.
     </p>

     <p></p>

      <pre class="prettyprint source"> 1: <b>import org.slf4j.Logger;</b>
 2: <b>import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;</b>
 3:
 4: public class Wombat {
 5:
 6:   <b>final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(Wombat.class);</b>
 7:   Integer t;
 8:   Integer oldT;
 9:
10:   public void setTemperature(Integer temperature) {
11:
12:     oldT = t;
13:     t = temperature;
14:
15:     <b>logger.debug("Temperature set to {}. Old temperature was {}.", t, oldT);</b>
16:
17:     if(temperature.intValue() > 50) {
18:       <b>logger.info("Temperature has risen above 50 degrees.");</b>
19:     }
20:   }
21: } </pre>


      <h3 class="doAnchor" name="swapping">Binding with a logging
      framework at deployment time</h3>

      <p>As mentioned previously, SLF4J supports various logging
      frameworks. The SLF4J distribution ships with several jar files
      referred to as "SLF4J bindings", with each binding corresponding
      to a supported framework.  </p>

      <dl>

        <dt><em>slf4j-log4j12-${project.version}.jar</em>
        </dt>
        <dd>Binding for <a
        href="http://logging.apache.org/log4j/1.2/index.html">log4j
        version 1.2</a>, a widely used logging framework. You also
        need to place <em>log4j.jar</em> on your class path.<p/></dd>

        <dt><em>slf4j-jdk14-${project.version}.jar</em> </dt>
        <dd>Binding for java.util.logging, also referred to as JDK 1.4
        logging <p/></dd>

        <dt><em>slf4j-nop-${project.version}.jar</em></dt>
        <dd>Binding for <a
        href="http://www.slf4j.org/api/org/slf4j/helpers/NOPLogger.html">NOP</a>,
        silently discarding all logging.<p/></dd>

        <dt><em>slf4j-simple-${project.version}.jar</em></dt>
        <dd>Binding for <a
        href="http://www.slf4j.org/apidocs/org/slf4j/impl/SimpleLogger.html">Simple
        </a> implementation, which outputs all events to
        System.err. Only messages of level INFO and higher are
        printed. This binding may be useful in the context of small
        applications.<p/></dd>

        <dt><em>slf4j-jcl-${project.version}.jar</em></dt>

        <dd>Binding for <a
        href="http://commons.apache.org/logging/">Jakarta Commons
        Logging</a>. This binding will delegate all SLF4J logging to
        JCL.<p/>
        </dd>

        <dt><em>logback-classic-${logback.version}.jar (requires logback-core-${logback.version}.jar)</em></dt>

        <dd><span class="label notice">Native implementation</span> There are also
        SLF4J bindings external to the SLF4J project, e.g. <a
        href="http://logback.qos.ch/">logback</a> which implements
        SLF4J natively.  Logback's
        <a href="http://logback.qos.ch/apidocs/ch/qos/logback/classic/Logger.html">
        <code>ch.qos.logback.classic.Logger</code></a> class is a
        direct implementation of SLF4J's <a
        href="http://www.slf4j.org/apidocs/org/slf4j/Logger.html">
        <code>org.slf4j.Logger</code></a> interface. Thus, using SLF4J
        in conjunction with logback involves strictly zero memory and
        computational overhead.

        </dd>
      </dl>

      <p>
      </p>


      <p>To switch logging frameworks, just replace slf4j bindings on
      your class path. For example, to switch from java.util.logging
      to log4j, just replace slf4j-jdk14-${project.version}.jar with
      slf4j-log4j12-${project.version}.jar.
      </p>

      <p>SLF4J does not rely on any special class loader machinery. In
      fact, each SLF4J binding is hardwired <em>at compile time</em>
      to use one and only one specific logging framework.  For
      example, the slf4j-log4j12-${project.version}.jar binding is
      bound at compile time to use log4j.  In your code, in addition
      to <em>slf4j-api-${project.version}.jar</em>, you simply drop
      <b>one and only one</b> binding of your choice onto the
      appropriate class path location. Do not place more than one
      binding on your class path. Here is a graphical illustration of
      the general idea.
      </p>

      <p><a href="images/concrete-bindings.png">
      <img border="1" src="images/concrete-bindings.png" alt="click to enlarge" width="800"/>
      </a></p>

      <p>The SLF4J interfaces and their various adapters are extremely
      simple. Most developers familiar with the Java language should
      be able to read and fully understand the code in less than one
      hour.  No knowledge of class loaders is necessary as SLF4J does
      not make use nor does it directly access any class loaders. As a
      consequence, SLF4J suffers from none of the class loader
      problems or memory leaks observed with Jakarta Commons Logging
      (JCL).
      </p>

      <p>Given the simplicity of the SLF4J interfaces and its
      deployment model, developers of new logging frameworks should
      find it very easy to write SLF4J bindings.
      </p>

      <h3 class="doAnchor" name="libraries">Libraries</h3>

      <p>Authors of widely-distributed components and libraries may
      code against the SLF4J interface in order to avoid imposing an
      logging framework on their end-user.  Thus, the end-user may
      choose the desired logging framework at deployment time by
      inserting the corresponding slf4j binding on the classpath,
      which may be changed later by replacing an existing binding with
      another on the class path and restarting the application.  This
      approach has proven to be simple and very robust.
      </p>

      <p><b>As of SLF4J version 1.6.0</b>, if no binding is found on
      the class path, then slf4j-api will default to a no-operation
      implementation discarding all log requests. Thus, instead of
      throwing a <code>NoClassDefFoundError</code> because the
      <code>org.slf4j.impl.StaticLoggerBinder</code> class is missing,
      SLF4J version 1.6.0 and later will emit a single warning message
      about the absence of a binding and proceed to discard all log
      requests without further protest. For example, let Wombat be
      some biology-related framework depending on SLF4J for
      logging. In order to avoid imposing a logging framework on the
      end-user, Wombat's distribution includes <em>slf4j-api.jar</em>
      but no binding. Even in the absence of any SLF4J binding on the
      class path, Wombat's distribution will still work
      out-of-the-box, and without requiring the end-user to download a
      binding from SLF4J's web-site. Only when the end-user decides to
      enable logging will she need to install the SLF4J binding
      corresponding to the logging framework chosen by her.
      </p>

      <p><span class="label">Basic rule</span> <b>Embedded components
      such as libraries or frameworks should not declare a dependency
      on any SLF4J binding but only depend on slf4j-api</b>. When a
      library declares a transitive dependency on a specific binding,
      that binding is imposed on the end-user negating the purpose of
      SLF4J. Note that declaring a non-transitive dependency on a
      binding, for example for testing, does not affect the
      end-user.</p>

      <p>SLF4J usage in embedded components is also discussed in the
      FAQ in relation with <a
      href="faq.html#configure_logging">logging configuration</a>, <a
      href="faq.html#optional_dependency">dependency reduction</a> and
      <a href="faq.html#optional_dependency">testing</a>.</p>

      <h3 class="doAnchor" name="projectDep">Declaring project
      dependencies for logging</h3>

      <p>Given Maven's transitive dependency rules, for "regular"
      projects (not libraries or frameworks) declaring logging
      dependencies can be accomplished with a single dependency
      declaration.
      </p>

      <p><span class="label notice">logback-classic</span> If you wish
      to use logback-classic as the underlying logging framework, all
      you need to do is to declare "ch.qos.logback:logback-classic" as
      a dependency in your <em>pom.xml</em> file as shown below. In
      addition to <em>logback-classic-${logback.version}.jar</em>,
      this will pull <em>slf4j-api-${project.version}.jar</em> as well
      as <em>logback-core-${logback.version}.jar</em> into your
      project. Note that explicitly declaring a dependency on
      <em>logback-core-${logback.version}</em> or
      <em>slf4j-api-${project.version}.jar</em> is not wrong and may
      be necessary to impose the correct version of said artifacts by
      virtue of Maven's "nearest definition" dependency mediation
      rule.
      </p>

<pre class="prettyprint source">&lt;dependency>
  &lt;groupId>ch.qos.logback&lt;/groupId>
  &lt;artifactId>logback-classic&lt;/artifactId>
  &lt;version>${logback.version}&lt;/version>
&lt;/dependency></pre>

     <p/>

      <p><span class="label notice">log4j</span> If you wish to use
      log4j as the underlying logging framework, all you need to do is
      to declare "org.slf4j:slf4j-log4j12" as a dependency in your
      <em>pom.xml</em> file as shown below. In addition to
      <em>slf4j-log4j12-${project.version}.jar</em>, this will pull
      <em>slf4j-api-${project.version}.jar</em> as well as
      <em>log4j-${log4j.version}.jar</em> into your project.  Note
      that explicitly declaring a dependency on
      <em>log4j-${log4j.version}.jar</em> or
      <em>slf4j-api-${project.version}.jar</em> is not wrong and may
      be necessary to impose the correct version of said artifacts by
      virtue of Maven's "nearest definition" dependency mediation
      rule.</p>

<pre class="prettyprint source">&lt;dependency>
  &lt;groupId>org.slf4j&lt;/groupId>
  &lt;artifactId>slf4j-log4j12&lt;/artifactId>
  &lt;version>${project.version}&lt;/version>
&lt;/dependency></pre>

     <p/>

      <p><span class="label notice">java.util.logging</span> If you
      wish to use java.util.logging as the underlying logging
      framework, all you need to do is to declare
      "org.slf4j:slf4j-jdk14" as a dependency in your <em>pom.xml</em>
      file as shown below. In addition to
      <em>slf4j-jdk14-${project.version}.jar</em>, this will pull
      <em>slf4j-api-${project.version}.jar</em> into your project.
      Note that explicitly declaring a dependency on
      <em>slf4j-api-${project.version}.jar</em> is not wrong and may
      be necessary to impose the correct version of said artifact by
      virtue of Maven's "nearest definition" dependency mediation
      rule.</p>

<pre class="prettyprint source">&lt;dependency>
  &lt;groupId>org.slf4j&lt;/groupId>
  &lt;artifactId>slf4j-jdk14&lt;/artifactId>
  &lt;version>${project.version}&lt;/version>
&lt;/dependency></pre>


      <h3 class="doAnchor" name="compatibility">Binary
      compatibility</h3>

      <p>An SLF4J binding designates an artifact such as
      <em>slf4j-jdk14.jar</em> or <em>slf4j-log4j12.jar</em> used to
      <em>bind</em> slf4j to an underlying logging framework, say,
      java.util.logging and respectively log4j.
      </p>

      <p class="highlight">From the client's perspective all versions
      of slf4j-api are compatible.  Client code compiled with
      slf4j-api-N.jar will run perfectly fine with slf4j-api-M.jar for
      any N and M. You only need to ensure that the version of your
      binding matches that of the slf4j-api.jar. You do not have to
      worry about the version of slf4j-api.jar used by a given
      dependency in your project. </p>


      <p>Mixing different versions of <em>slf4j-api.jar</em> and SLF4J
      binding can cause problems. For example, if you are using
      slf4j-api-${project.version}.jar, then you should also use
      slf4j-simple-${project.version}.jar, using
      slf4j-simple-1.5.5.jar will not work.</p>


      <p>However, from the client's perspective all versions of
      slf4j-api are compatible. Client code compiled with
      <em>slf4j-api-N.jar</em> will run perfectly fine with
      <em>slf4j-api-M.jar</em> for any N and M. You only need to
      ensure that the version of your binding matches that of the
      slf4j-api.jar. You do not have to worry about the version of
      slf4j-api.jar used by a given dependency in your project. You
      can always use any version of <em>slf4j-api.jar</em>, and as
      long as the version of <em>slf4j-api.jar</em> and its binding
      match, you should be fine.
      </p>

      <p>At initialization time, if SLF4J suspects that there may be
      an slf4j-api vs. binding version mismatch problem, it will emit
      a warning about the suspected mismatch.
      </p>


      <h3 class="doAnchor" name="consolidate">Consolidate logging via
      SLF4J</h3>

      <p>Often times, a given project will depend on various
      components which rely on logging APIs other than SLF4J. It is
      common to find projects depending on a combination of JCL,
      java.util.logging, log4j and SLF4J. It then becomes desirable to
      consolidate logging through a single channel. SLF4J caters for
      this common use-case by providing bridging modules for JCL,
      java.util.logging and log4j. For more details, please refer to
      the page on <a href="legacy.html"><b>Bridging legacy
      APIs</b></a>.
      </p>

      <h3 class="doAnchor" name="mdc">Mapped Diagnostic Context (MDC) support</h3>

      <p>"Mapped Diagnostic Context" is essentially a map maintained
      by the logging framework where the application code provides
      key-value pairs which can then be inserted by the logging
      framework in log messages. MDC data can also be highly helpful
      in filtering messages or triggering certain actions.</p>

      <p>SLF4J supports MDC, or mapped diagnostic context. If the
      underlying logging framework offers MDC functionality, then
      SLF4J will delegate to the underlying framework's MDC. Note that
      at this time, only log4j and logback offer MDC functionality. If
      the underlying framework does not offer MDC, for example
      java.util.logging, then SLF4J will still store MDC data but the
      information therein will need to be retrieved by custom user
      code.</p>

      <p>Thus, as a SLF4J user, you can take advantage of MDC
      information in the presence of log4j or logback, but without
      forcing these logging frameworks upon your users as
      dependencies.
      </p>

      <p>For more information on MDC please see the <a
      href="http://logback.qos.ch/manual/mdc.html">chapter on MDC</a>
      in the logback manual.
      </p>


      <h3 class="doAnchor" name="summary">Executive summary</h3>

      <table  class="bodyTable striped" cellspacing="4" cellpadding="4">
        <tr>
          <th align="left">Advantage</th>
          <th align="left">Description</th>
        </tr>

        <tr>

          <td>Select your logging framework at deployment time</td>

          <td>The desired logging framework can be plugged in at
          deployment time by inserting the appropriate jar file
          (binding) on your class path.
          </td>
        </tr>


        <tr>
          <td>Fail-fast operation</td>

          <td>Due to the way that classes are loaded by the JVM, the
          framework binding will be verified automatically very early
          on.  If SLF4J cannot find a binding on the class path it
          will emit a single warning message and default to
          no-operation implementation.
          </td>
        </tr>


        <tr>
          <td>Bindings for popular logging frameworks
          </td>

          <td>SLF4J supports popular logging frameworks, namely log4j,
          java.util.logging, Simple logging and NOP. The <a
          href="http://logback.qos.ch">logback</a> project supports
          SLF4J natively.  </td>

        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Bridging legacy logging APIs</td>

          <td>
            <p>The implementation of JCL over SLF4J, i.e
            <em>jcl-over-slf4j.jar</em>, will allow your project to
            migrate to SLF4J piecemeal, without breaking compatibility
            with existing software using JCL. Similarly,
            log4j-over-slf4j.jar and jul-to-slf4j modules will allow
            you to redirect log4j and respectively java.util.logging
            calls to SLF4J. See the page on <a
            href="legacy.html">Bridging legacy APIs</a> for more
            details.
            </p>
          </td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Migrate your source code</td>
          <td>The <a href="migrator.html">slf4j-migrator</a> utility
          can help you migrate your source to use SLF4J.
          </td>
        </tr>


        <tr>
          <td>Support for parameterized log messages</td>

          <td>All SLF4J bindings support parameterized log messages
          with significantly <a
          href="faq.html#logging_performance">improved performance</a>
          results.</td>
        </tr>


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