## Chapter 4: Appenders

Authors: Ceki Gülcü, Sébastien Pennec

| Copyright © 2000-2006, QOS.ch This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License .

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## What is an Appender

Logback delegates the task of writing a logging event to appenders. Appenders must implement the `ch.qos.logback.core.Appender` interface. The salient methods of this interface are summarized below:

    package ch.qos.logback.core;

    import ch.qos.logback.core.spi.ContextAware;
    import ch.qos.logback.core.spi.FilterAttachable;
    import ch.qos.logback.core.spi.LifeCycle;

    public interface Appender extends LifeCycle, ContextAware, FilterAttachable {

      public String getName();
      void doAppend(Object event);
      public void setLayout(Layout layout);
      public Layout getLayout();
      public void setName(String name);

    }

Most of the methods in the Appender interface are made of setter and getter methods. A notable exception is the `doAppend()` method taking an Object instance as its only parameter. This method is perhaps the most important in the logback framework. It is responsible for outputting the logging events in a suitable format to the appropriate output device. Appenders are named entities. This ensures that they can be referenced by name, a quality confirmed to be especially significant in configuration scripts. An appender can contain multiple filters, thus the `Appender` interface extending the `FilterAttachable` interface. Filters are discussed in detail in a subsequent chapter.

Appenders are ultimately responsible for outputting logging events. However, they may delegate the actual formatting of the event to a `Layout` object. Each layout is associated with one and only one appender, referred to as the containing appender. Some appenders have a built-in or fixed event format, such that they do not require a layout. For example, the `SocketAppender` simply serialize logging events before transmitting them over the wire.

## AppenderBase

The `ch.qos.logback.core.AppenderBase` class is an abstract class implementing the `Appender` interface. It provides basic functionality shared by all appenders, such as methods for getting or setting their name, their started status, their layout and their filters. It is the super-class of all appenders shipped with logback. Although an abstract class, `AppenderBase` actually implements the `doAppend()` method in the `Append` interface. Perhaps the clearest way to discuss `AppenderBase` class is by presenting a bit of its actual source code.

    public synchronized void doAppend(Object eventObject) {

      // prevent re-entry.
      if (guard) {
        return;
      }

      try {
        guard = true;

        if (!this.started) {
          if (statusRepeatCount++ < ALLOWED_REPEATS) {
            addStatus(new WarnStatus(
                "Attempted to append to non started appender [" + name + "].",this));
          }
          return;
        }

        if (getFilterChainDecision(eventObject) == FilterReply.DENY) {
          return;
        }

        // ok, we now invoke derived class' implementation of append
        this.append(eventObject);

      } finally {
        guard = false;
      }
    }

This implementation of the `doAppend()` method is synchronized. It follows that logging to the same appender from different threads is safe. While a thread, say T, is executing the `doAppend()` method, subsequent calls by other threads are queued until T leaves the `doAppend()` method, ensuring T's exclusive access to the appender.

The first thing the `doAppend()` method does is to set the `guard` variable to `true`. This ensures that the method will not call itself and create an infinite loop. Just imagine that a component, called somewhere beyond the `append()` method, wants to log something. Its call could be directed to the very same appender that just called it, which would then call it again.

The first statement of the `doAppend()` method, once the `try` block is reached, is to check whether the `started` field is true. If it is not, `doAppend()` will send a warning message and return. In other words, once stopped, it is impossible to write to a closed appender. `Appender` objects implement the `LifeCycle` interface, which implies that they implement `start()`, `stop()` and `isStarted()` methods. After setting all the options of an appender, Joran, logback's configuration framework, calls the `start()` method to signal the appender to bind or activate its options. Indeed, depending on the appender, certain options cannot be activated because of interferences with other options, or appenders can even not start at all if some options are missing. For example, since file creation depends on truncation mode, `FileAppender` cannot act on the value of its `File` option until the value of the Append option is also known for certain.

If a warning message is sent due to incorrect calls to the `doAppend()` method, logback's powerful `Status` error reporting system is used. In case several incorrect calls on `doAppend()` are issued, `AppenderBase` does not send an unlimited number of warnings. Once a certain limit is reached, the `AppenderBase` instance stops its warnings.

The next `if` statement checks the result of the attached `Filter` objects. Depending on the decision resulting from the filter chain, events can be denied or alternatively accepted. In the absence of a decision by the filter chain, events are accepted by default.

Lastly, the `doAppend()` method invoke the derived classes' implementation of the `append()` method, which does the actual work of appending the event to the appropriate device.

In appenders, the term option or property is reserved for named attributes that are dynamically inferred using JavaBeans introspection.

## Logback Core

Core is logback's central module. It offers functionnalities that are available to any other module based on logback core. The `Appender` classes contained in the core module are can be used by any module without any customization.

### WriterAppender

`WriterAppender` appends events to a `java.io.Writer`. This class provides basic services that other appenders build upon. Users do not usually instantiate `WriterAppender` objects directly. Since `java.io.Writer` type cannot be mapped to a string, there is no way to specify the target `Writer` object in a configuration script. Simply put, you cannot configure a `WriterAppender` from a script. However, this does not mean that `WriterAppender` lacks configurable options. These options are described next.

Option Name | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---

Encoding

`String`

The encoding specifies the method of conversion between 16-bit Unicode characters into raw 8-bit bytes. This appender will use the local platform's default encoding unless you specify otherwise using the Encoding option. According to the `java.lang` package documentation, acceptable values are dependent on the VM implementation although all implementations are required to support at least the following encodings: US-ASCII, ISO-8859-1, UTF-8, UTF-16BE, UTF-16LE and UTF-16. By default, the Encoding option is `null` such that the platform's default encoding is used.

ImmediateFlush

`boolean`

If set to true, each write of a logging event is followed by a flush operation on the underlying `Writer` object. Conversely, if the option is set to false, each write will not be followed by a flush. In general, skipping the flush operation improves logging throughput by roughly 15%. The downside is that if the application exits abruptly, the unwritten characters buffered inside the `Writer` might be lost. This can be particularly troublesome as those unwritten characters may contain crucial information needed in identifying the reasons behind a crash. By default, the ImmediateFlush option is set to true.

In general, if you disable immediate flushing, then make sure to flush any output streams when your application exits. Otherwise, log messages will be lost as illustrated by the next example.

Example 4.1: Exiting an application without flushing (logback-examples/src/main/java/chapter4/ExitWoes1.java)

    package chapter4;

    import java.io.FileOutputStream;
    import java.io.OutputStream;
    import java.io.OutputStreamWriter;

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

    import ch.qos.logback.classic.LoggerContext;
    import ch.qos.logback.core.WriterAppender;
    import ch.qos.logback.core.layout.EchoLayout;

    public class ExitWoes1 {

      public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        LoggerContext lc = (LoggerContext) LoggerFactory.getILoggerFactory();
        WriterAppender writerAppender = new WriterAppender();
        writerAppender.setContext(lc);
        writerAppender.setLayout(new EchoLayout());

        OutputStream os = new FileOutputStream("exitWoes1.log");
        writerAppender.setWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(os));
        writerAppender.setImmediateFlush(false);
        writerAppender.start();

        Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(ExitWoes1.class);

        logger.debug("Hello world.");
      }
    }

This example creates a `WriterAppender` that uses an `OutputStreamWriter` wrapping a `FileOutputStream` as its underlying `Writer` object, with immediate flushing disabled. It then proceeds to log a single debug message. According to `OutputStreamWriter` javadocs, each invocation of a `write()` method causes the encoding converter to be invoked on the given character(s). The resulting bytes are accumulated in a buffer before being written to the underlying output stream. As astonishing as this may seem, running `ExitWoes1` will not produce any output in the file exitWoes1.log because the Java VM does not flush output streams when it exits. Calling the `shutdownAndReset()` method of a `LoggerContext` ensures that all appenders in the hierarchy are closed and their buffers are flushed. The `ExitWoes2` class uses this statement and outputs a logging request.

The `WriterAppender` is the super class of four other appenders, namely `ConsoleAppender`, `FileAppender` which in turn is the super class of `RollingFileAppender`. The next figure illustrates the class diagram for `WriterAppender` and its subclasses.

A UML diagram showing FileAppender

### ConsoleAppender

The `ConsoleAppender`, as the name indicates, appends on the console, or more precisely on System.out or System.err, the former being the default target. `ConsoleAppender` formats events with a layout specified by the user. Both System.out and System.err are `java.io.PrintStream` objects. Consequently, they are wrapped inside an `OutputStreamWriter` which buffers I/O operations but not character conversions.

Option Name | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
Encoding | `String` | See `WriterAppender` options.
ImmediateFlush | `boolean` | See `WriterAppender` options.
Target | `String` | One of the String values System.out or System.err. The default target is System.out.

Here is a sample configuration that uses `ConsoleAppender`.

Example 4.2: ConsoleAppender configuration (logback-examples/src/main/java/chapter4/conf/logback-Console.xml)

    <configuration>

      <appender name="STDOUT"
        class="ch.qos.logback.core.ConsoleAppender">
        <layout class="ch.qos.logback.classic.PatternLayout">
          <Pattern>%-4relative [%thread] %-5level %logger{35} - %msg %n</Pattern>
        </layout>
      </appender>

      <root>
        <level value="debug" />
        <appender-ref ref="STDOUT" />
      </root>
    </configuration>

To run this example, just issue the following command, once in the logback-examples directory:

    java chapter4.ConfigurationTester src/main/java/chapter4/conf/logback-Console.xml

### FileAppender

The `FileAppender`, a subclass of `WriterAppender`, appends log events into a file. The file to write to is specified by the File option. If the file already exists, it is either appended to, or truncated depending on the value of the Append option. It uses a `FileOutputStream` which is wrapped by an `OutputStreamWriter`. Note that `OutputStreamWriter` buffers I/O operations but not character conversions. To optimize character conversions one can set the BufferedIO option to true which effectively wraps the `OutputStreamWriter` with a `BufferedWriter`. Options for `FileAppender` are summarized below.

Option Name | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
Append | `boolean` | If true, events are appended at the end of an existing file. Otherwise, if Append is false, any existing file is truncated. The Append option is set to true by default.
Encoding | `String` | See `WriterAppender` options.

BufferedIO

`boolean`

The BufferedIO option is set to false by default. If set to true, the underlying `OutputStreamWriter` is wrapped by a `BufferedWriter` object. Setting BufferedIO to true automatically sets the ImmediateFlush option to false. The name BufferedIO is slightly misleading because buffered IO is already supported by `OutputStreamWriter`. Setting BufferedIO to true has the effect of buffering I/O as well as character to raw byte conversions, saving a few CPU cycles in the process.

BufferSize | `int` | Size of `BufferedWriter` buffer. The default value is 8192.

File

`int`

The name of the file to write to. If the file does not exist, it is created.
On the MS Windows platform users frequently forget to escape back slashes. For example, the value c:\temp\test.log is not likely to be interpreted properly as '\t' is an escape sequence interpreted as a single tab character (\u0009). Correct values can be specified as c:/temp/test.log or alternatively as c:\\temp\\test.log. The File option has no default value.

ImmediateFlush | `boolean` | See `WriterAppender` options.

By default, `FileAppender` performs a flush operation for each event, ensuring that events are immediately written to disk. Setting the ImmediateFlush option to false can drastically reduce I/O activity by letting `OutputStreamWriter` buffer bytes before writing them on disk. For short messages, we have observed 2 or 3 fold increases in logging throughput, i.e. the number of logs output per unit of time. For longer messages, the throughput gains are somewhat less dramatic, and range between 1.4 and 2 fold. Enabling the BufferedIO option, that is buffering character to byte conversions, increases performance by an additional 10% to 40% compared to only disk I/O buffering (ImmediateFlush=false). Performance varies somewhat depending on the host machine as well as JDK version. Throughput measurements are based on the `chapter4.IO` application. Please refer to logback-examples/src/main/java/chapter4/IO.java for actual source code.

Configuring `FileAppender` can be done the following way:

Example 4.3: FileAppender configuration (logback-examples/src/main/java/chapter4/conf/logback-fileAppender.xml)

    <configuration>

      <appender name="FILE" class="ch.qos.logback.core.FileAppender">
        <File>testFile.log</File>
        <Append>true</Append>
        <Encoding>UTF-8</Encoding>
        <BufferedIO>false</BufferedIO>
        <ImmediateFlush>true</ImmediateFlush>

        <layout class="ch.qos.logback.classic.PatternLayout">
          <Pattern>%-4relative [%thread] %-5level %logger{35} - %msg%n</Pattern>
        </layout>
      </appender>

      <root>
        <level value="debug" />
        <appender-ref ref="FILE" />
      </root>
    </configuration>

To run this example, use the provided `ConfigurationTester` by issuing the following command, once in the logback-examples/target/classes:

    java chapter4.ConfigurationTester src/main/java/chapter4/conf/logback-fileAppender.xml

### RollingFileAppender

`RollingFileAppender` extends `FileAppender` by allowing rolling from a log file to another. For example, `RollingFileAppender` can log to a log.txt file and, once a certain condition is met, change its logging target to another file.

There are two important logback componenents that interact with `RollingFileAppender`. First, `RollingPolicy` implementations define the procedure that will be followed when the rollover happens. The second componenent is `TriggeringPolicy` implementations that are used to check wether the rollover must happen or not at a given time.

To be of any use, a `RollingFileAppender` must have both a `RollingPolicy` and a `TriggeringPolicy` set up. However, if its `RollingPolicy` also implements the `TriggeringPolicy` interface, then only the former needs to be set up.

Here are the available options for `RollingFileAppender`:

Option Name | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
Append | `boolean` | See `FileAppender` options.
BufferedIO | `boolean` | See `FileAppender` options.
BufferSize | `int` | See `FileAppender` options.
Encoding | `String` | See `WriterAppender` options.
File | `String` | See `FileAppender` options.
ImmediateFlush | `boolean` | See `WriterAppender` options.
RollingPolicy | `RollingPolicy` | This option is the component that will dictate `RollingFileAppender`'s behaviour when rollover occurs. See more information below.
TriggeringPolicy | `TriggeringPolicy` | This option is the component that will tell `RollingFileAppender` when to activate the rollover procedure. See more information below.

### Rolling policies

`RollingPolicy` implementations are responsible for the rollover procedure. They manage file renaming and in occasion file deleting.

The `RollingPolicy` interface is presented below:

    package ch.qos.logback.core.rolling;

    import ch.qos.logback.core.FileAppender;
    import ch.qos.logback.core.spi.LifeCycle;

    public interface RollingPolicy extends LifeCycle {

      public void rollover() throws RolloverFailure;
      public String getNewActiveFileName();
      public void setParent(FileAppender appender);
    }

The `rollover` method proceeds to the file change, renaming or deletion. The `getNewActiveFileName()` method is called to compute a new file name, with respect to the configuration elements that were injected in the `RollingPolicy`. Lastly, a `RollingPolicy` knows about its parent.

#### FixedWindowRollingPolicy

When rolling over, `FixedWindowRollingPolicy` renames files according to a fixed window algorithm as described below.

The File option, which is configured in the `FileAppender` element, is required. It represents the name of the file to write to. The FileNamePattern option represents the file name pattern for the archived (rolled over) log files. The FileNamePattern option, which is also required, must include an integer token, that is the string %i somewhere within the pattern.

Here are the available options for `FixedWindowRollingPolicy`

Option Name | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---

FileNamePattern

`String`

This option represents the pattern that will be followed by the `FixedWindowRollingPolicy` when renaming the log files. If must contain the string %i, which will indicate the position where to insert the file's index.

For example, using MyLogFile%i.log, associated with minimum and maximum values of 1 and 3 will produce files named MyLogFile1.log, MyLogFile2.log and MyLogFile3.log.

File compression is also specified in the FileNamePattern option. MyLogFile%i.log.zip will indicate to the `FixedWindowRollingPolicy` that the archived file must be compressed using the zip format. The gz format is also supported.

MaxIndex | `int` | This option represents the maximum border of the window algorithm.
MinIndex | `int` | This option represents the minimum border of the window algorithm.

Given that this rollover algorithm requires as many file renaming operations as the window size, large window sizes are discouraged. The current implementation will automatically reduce the window size to 12 when larger values are specified by the user.

Here is an example of file handling by `FixedWindowRollingPolicy`. We suppose that the MinIndex is set to 1 and MaxIndex is set to 3. The FileNamePattern option is set to foo%i.log, and the FileNamePattern option is set to foo.log.

Steps | Active file name | Archived file names | Description
--- | --- | --- | ---
0 | foo.log | - | No rollover has happened yet, logback logs into the initial file.
1 | foo.log | foo1.log | First rollover. foo.log is renamed into foo1.log and a new foo.log file is created and used for the output.
2 | foo.log | foo2.log, foo1.log | Second rollover. foo.log is renamed into foo1.log and the old foo1.log is renamed into foo2.log. Again, a new foo.log file is created and used for the output.
3 | foo.log | foo3.log, foo2.log, foo1.log | Third rollover. foo.log is renamed into foo1.log and the old foo1.log is renamed into foo2.log. As well, the old foo2.log is renamed into foo3.log. A new foo.log file is created and used for the output.
4 | foo.log | foo3.log, foo2.log, foo1.log | From the fourth rollover, the old foo3.log file is deleted. The files are all renamed with an increment to their index, and a new foo.log file is created and used for the output. From this moment on, there will always be 4 log files available, each being present for the time of 3 rollovers and being deleted afterwards.

Here is a sample configuration to use `RollingFileAppender` and `FixedWindowRollingPolicy`.

Example 4.4: Sample configuration of a `RollingFileAppender` using a `FixedWindowRollingPolicy` (logback-examples/src/main/java/chapter4/conf/logback-RollingFixedWindow.xml)

    <configuration>
      <appender name="FILE" class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.RollingFileAppender">
        <File>testFile.log</File>
        <rollingPolicy class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.FixedWindowRollingPolicy">
          <FileNamePattern>testFile.%i.log.zip</FileNamePattern>
          <MinIndex>1</MinIndex>
          <MaxIndex>3</MaxIndex>
        </rollingPolicy>

        <triggeringPolicy class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy">
          <MaxFileSize>5MB</MaxFileSize>
        </triggeringPolicy>
        <layout class="ch.qos.logback.classic.PatternLayout">
          <Pattern>%-4relative [%thread] %-5level %logger{35} - %msg%n</Pattern>
        </layout>
      </appender>

      <root>
        <level value="debug" />
        <appender-ref ref="FILE" />
      </root>
    </configuration>

#### TimeBasedRollingPolicy

`TimeBasedRollingPolicy` is both easy to configure and quite powerful. It allows the rollover to be made based on time conditions. It is possible to specify that the rollover must occur each day, or month, for example.

`TimeBasedRollingPolicy`'s only option is the FileNamePattern.

In order to use `TimeBasedRollingPolicy`, the FileNamePattern option must be set. It basically specifies the name of the rolled log files. The value FileNamePattern should consist of the name of the file, plus a suitably placed %d conversion specifier. The %d conversion specifier may contain a date and time pattern as specified by the `java.text.SimpleDateFormat` class. If the date and time pattern is omitted, then the default pattern of yyyy-MM-dd is assumed. The following examples should clarify the point.

FileNamePattern | Roll-over schedule | Example
--- | --- | ---

/wombat/folder/foo.%d

Daily rollover (at midnight). Due to the omission of the optional time and date pattern for the %d token specifier, the default pattern of yyyy-MM-dd is assumed, which corresponds to daily rollover.

During November 23rd, 2006, logging output will go to the file /wombat/foo.2006-11-23. At midnight and for the rest of the 24th, logging output will be directed to /wombat/foo.2006-11-24.

/wombat/foo.%d{yyyy-MM}.log | Rollover at the beginning of each month. | During the month of October 2006, logging output will go to /wombat/foo.2006-10.log. After midnight of October 31st and for the rest of November, logging output will be directed to /wombat/foo.2006-11.log.
/wombat/foo.%d{yyyy-ww}.log | Rollover at the first day of each week. Note that the first day of the week depends on the locale. | During the 23rd week of 2006, the file /wombat/foo.2006-23.log will contain the actual logging output. Logging for the 24th week of 2006 will be output to /wombat/foo.2006-24.log until it is rolled over at the beginning of the next week.
/wombat/foo.%d{yyyy-MM-dd-a}.log | Rollover at midnight and midday of each day. | During the first 12 hours of November 3rd, 2006, the logging will be output to /wombat/foo.2006-11-03-AM.log. After noon, and until midnight, the logging will be output to /wombat/foo.2006-11-03-PM.log.
/wombat/foo.%d{yyyy-MM-dd_HH}.log | Rollover at the top of each hour. | Between 11.00,001 and 11.59,999, on November 3rd, 2006, the logging will be output to /wombat/foo.2006-11-03_11.log. After that, and until 12.59,999, the logging will be output to /wombat/foo.2006-11-03_12.log.
/wombat/foo.%d{yyyy-MM-dd_HH-mm}.log | Rollover at the beggining of every minute. | Between 11.32,001 and 11.32,999, on November 3rd, 2006, the logging will be output to /wombat/foo.2006-11-03_11-32.log. After that, and until 12.33,999, the logging will be output to /wombat/foo.2006-11_12-33.log.

Any characters in the pattern outside the ranges ['a'..'z'] and ['A'..'Z'] will be treated as quoted text. For instance, characters like '.', ' ', '#' and '@' will appear in the resulting time text even when they are not enclosed within single quotes. Nevertheless, we would recommend against using the colon ":" character anywhere within the FileNamePattern option. The text before the colon is interpreted as the protocol specification of a URL, which is most probably not what you intend. The slash "/" character, a common date field separator, must also be avoided. It is taken as a file separator causing the rollover operation to fail because the target file cannot be created. Although less common, the backslash character "\" is equally troublesome.

Just like `FixedWindowRollingPolicy`, `TimeBasedRollingPolicy` supports automatic file compression. This feature is enabled if the value of the FileNamePattern option ends with .gz or .zip.

FileNamePattern | Rollover schedule | Example
--- | --- | ---

/wombat/foo.%d.gz

Daily rollover (at midnight) with automatic GZIP compression of the arcived files.

During November 23rd, 2004, logging output will go to the file /wombat/foo.2004-11-23. However, at midnight that file will be compressed to become /wombat/foo.2004-11-23.gz. For the 24th of November, logging output will be directed to /wombat/folder/foo.2004-11-24 until its rolled over at the beginning of the next day.

As we have seen, the FileNamePattern serves two purposes. First, by studying the pattern, logback computes the requested rollover periodicity. Second, it computes each files' name based on the pattern. It is entirely possible for two different file name patterns to specify the same periodicity. The date patterns yyyy-MM and yyyy@MM both specify monthly rollover periodicity, although the rolled files will carry different names.

Given the use of the FileNamePattern, we see that the `TimeBasedRollingPolicy` is responsible for the rollover as well as for the triggering of said rollover. Therefore, `TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy` implements both `RollingPolicy` and `TriggeringPolicy` interfaces. A `RollingFileAppender` that uses `TimeBasedRollingPolicy` can be started and used correctly even if its configuration does not contain any reference to a `TriggeringPolicy`.

With `TimeBasedRollingPolicy`, it is possible to decouple the location of the active log file and the archived log files

The File option defines the log file for the current period whereas archived files are those files which have been rolled over in previous periods.

By setting the File option you can decouple the location of the active log file and the location of the archived log files. The actual logging will be done in the file specified by the File option. This way, the active file name will never change. By not setting the File option, logback uses the FileNamePattern to name the active file, whose name will change each time a rollover occurs.

For various efficiency reasons, rollovers are not time-driven but depend on the arrival of logging events. For example, on 8th of March 2002, assuming the FileNamePattern is set to yyyy-MM-dd (daily rollover), the arrival of the first event after midnight will trigger rollover. If there are no logging events during, say 23 minutes and 47 seconds after midnight, then rollover will occur at 00:23'47 AM on March 9th and not at 0:00 AM. Thus, depending on the arrival rate of events, rollovers might be triggered with some latency. However, regardless of the delay, the rollover algorithm is known to be correct, in the sense that all logging events generated during a certain period will be output in the correct file delimiting that period.

Here is a sample configuration of a `RollingFileAppender` which uses a `TimeBasedRollingPolicy`

Example 4.5: Sample configuration of a `RollingFileAppender` using a `TimeBasedRollingPolicy` (logback-examples/src/main/java/chapter4/conf/logback-RollingTimeBased.xml)

    <configuration>
      <appender name="FILE" class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.RollingFileAppender">
        <File>logFile.log</File>
        <rollingPolicy class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.TimeBasedRollingPolicy">
          <FileNamePattern>logFile.%d{yyyy-MM-dd}.log</FileNamePattern>
        </rollingPolicy>

        <layout class="ch.qos.logback.classic.PatternLayout">
          <Pattern>%-4relative [%thread] %-5level %logger{35} - %msg%n</Pattern>
        </layout>
      </appender>

      <root>
        <level value="debug" />
        <appender-ref ref="FILE" />
      </root>
    </configuration>

### Triggering policies

`TriggeringPolicy` implementations are responsible for instructing the `RollingFileAppender` to rollover.

The `TriggeringPolicy` interface is pretty simple.

    package ch.qos.logback.core.rolling;

    import java.io.File;
    import ch.qos.logback.core.spi.LifeCycle;

    public interface TriggeringPolicy extends LifeCycle {

      public boolean isTriggeringEvent(final File activeFile, final Object event);
    }

The `isTriggeringEvent()` method takes the active file, and the currently processed logging event. It's implementation decides, based on these parameters, whether the rollover must occur or not, by returning a boolean value.

#### SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy

`SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy` looks at size of the file being currently written to. If it grows larger than the specified size, the `FileAppender` using the `SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy` will proceed to the rollover of the current file and log to a new one.

This `TriggeringPolicy` only accepts one parameter, that is the MaxFileSize option. This option's default value is 10 MB.

The MaxFileSize option can be specified in a simple and easy way, by specifying the unit that should be used. One can enter any numeric value, with three possible units, namely KB, MB and GB. Consequently, values like 5MB, 500KB or 2GB are all valid.

Here is a sample configuration with a `RollingFileAppender` using a `SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy`.

Example 4.6: Sample configuration of a `RollingFileAppender` using a `SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy` (logback-examples/src/main/java/chapter4/conf/logback-RollingSizeBased.xml)

    <configuration>
      <appender name="FILE" class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.RollingFileAppender">
        <File>testFile.log</File>
        <rollingPolicy class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.FixedWindowRollingPolicy">
          <FileNamePattern>testFile.%i.log.zip</FileNamePattern>
          <MinIndex>1</MinIndex>
          <MaxIndex>3</MaxIndex>
        </rollingPolicy>

        <triggeringPolicy class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy">
          <MaxFileSize>5MB</MaxFileSize>
        </triggeringPolicy>
        <layout class="ch.qos.logback.classic.PatternLayout">
          <Pattern>%-4relative [%thread] %-5level %logger{35} - %msg%n</Pattern>
        </layout>
      </appender>

      <root>
        <level value="debug" />
        <appender-ref ref="FILE" />
      </root>
    </configuration>

`TriggeringPolicy` implementations do not only serve with `RollingFileAppender` objects. They can also be used to tell `SMTPAppender`, which will be covered soon, when to send an email containing the last logging events.

In that case, the `isTriggeringEvent()` method takes null as its first parameter (of type `File`) and takes the logging event as its second parameter. It is based on that last element that the decision is made to send the email or not. By default, a `TriggeringPolicy` is included with `SMTPAppender` that triggers the mail each time an event with a `Level` of ERROR or more is issued.

## Logback Classic

While logging event are declared as `Object` in logback core, they are instances of the `LoggingEvent` class in logback classic.

### SocketAppender

The appenders covered this far were only able to log on local resources. In contrast, the `SocketAppender` is designed to log to a remote entity by transmitting serialized `LoggingEvent` objects over the wire. Remote logging is non-intrusive as far as the logging event is concerned. On the receiving end after de-serialization, the event can be logged as if it were generated locally. Multiple `SocketAppender` instances running of different machines can direct their logging output to a central log server whose format is fixed. `SocketAppender` does not admit an associated layout because it sends serialized events to a remote server. `SocketAppender` operates above the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) layer which provides a reliable, sequenced, flow-controlled end-to-end octet stream. Consequently, if the remote server is reachable, then log events will eventually arrive there. Otherwise, if the remote server is down or unreachable, the logging events will simply be dropped. If and when the server comes back up, then event transmission will be resumed transparently. This transparent reconnection is performed by a connector thread which periodically attempts to connect to the server.

Logging events are automatically buffered by the native TCP implementation. This means that if the link to server is slow but still faster than the rate of event production by the client, the client will not be affected by the slow network connection. However, if the network connection is slower then the rate of event production, then the client can only progress at the network rate. In particular, in the extreme case where the network link to the server is down, the client will be eventually blocked. Alternatively, if the network link is up, but the server is down, the client will not be blocked, although the log events will be lost due to server unavailability.

Even if a `SocketAppender` is no longer attached to any logger, it will not be garbage collected in the presence of a connector thread. A connector thread exists only if the connection to the server is down. To avoid this garbage collection problem, you should close the `SocketAppender` explicitly. Long lived applications which create/destroy many `SocketAppender` instances should be aware of this garbage collection problem. Most other applications can safely ignore it. If the JVM hosting the `SocketAppender` exits before the `SocketAppender` is closed, either explicitly or subsequent to garbage collection, then there might be untransmitted data in the pipe which may be lost. This is a common problem on Windows based systems. To avoid lost data, it is usually sufficient to `close()` the `SocketAppender` either explicitly or by calling the `LoggerContext`'s `shutdownAndReset()` method before exiting the application.

The remote server is identified by the RemoteHost and Port options. `SocketAppender` options are listed in the following table.

Option Name | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
IncludeCallerData | `boolean` | The IncludeCallerData option takes a boolean value. If true, the caller data will be available to the remote host. By default no caller data is sent to the server.
Port | `int` | The port number of the remote server.

ReconnectionDelay

`int`

The ReconnectionDelay option takes a positive integer representing the number of milliseconds to wait between each failed connection attempt to the server. The default value of this option is 30'000 which corresponds to 30 seconds. Setting this option to zero turns off reconnection capability. Note that in case of successful connection to the server, there will be no connector thread present.

RemoteHost | `String` | The host name of the server.

The standard logback distribution includes a simple log server application named `ch.qos.logback.classic.net.SimpleSocketServer` that can service multiple `SocketAppender` clients. It waits for logging events from `SocketAppender` clients. After reception by `SimpleSocketServer`, the events are logged according to local server policy. The `SimpleSocketServer` application takes two parameters: port and configFile; where port is the port to listen on and configFile is configuration script in XML format.

Assuming you are in the logback-examples/ directory, start `SimpleSocketServer` with the following command:

    java ch.qos.logback.classic.net.SimpleSocketServer 6000 \
      src/main/java/chapter4/socket/server1.xml

where 6000 is the port number to listen on and server1.xml is a configuration script that adds a `ConsoleAppender` and a `RollingFileAppender` to the root logger. After you have started `SimpleSocketServer`, you can send it log events from multiple clients using `SocketAppender`. The examples associated with this manual include two such clients: `chapter4.SocketClient1` and `chapter4.SocketClient2` Both clients wait for the user to type a line of text on the console. The text is encapsulated in a logging event of level debug and then sent to the remote server. The two clients differ in the configuration of the `SocketAppender`. `SocketClient1` configures the appender programmatically while `SocketClient2` requires a configuration file.

Assuming `SimpleSocketServer` is running on the local host, you connect to it with the following command:

    java chapter4.socket.SocketClient1 localhost 6000

Each line that you type should appear on the console of the `SimpleSocketServer` launched in the previous step. If you stop and restart the `SimpleSocketServer` the client will transparently reconnect to the new server instance, although the events generated while disconnected will be simply (and irrevocably) lost.

Unlike `SocketClient1`, the sample application `SocketClient2` does not configure logback by itself. It requires a configuration file in XML format. The configuration file client1.xml shown below creates a `SocketAppender` and attaches it to the root logger.

Example 4.7: SocketAppender configuration (logback-examples/src/main/java/chapter4/socket/client1.xml)

    <configuration>

      <appender name="SOCKET" class="ch.qos.logback.classic.net.SocketAppender">
        <RemoteHost>${host}</RemoteHost>
        <Port>${port}</Port>
        <ReconnectionDelay>10000</ReconnectionDelay>
        <IncludeCallerData>${includeCallerData}</IncludeCallerData>
      </appender>

      <root>
        <level value ="debug"/>
        <appender-ref ref="SOCKET" />
      </root>

    </configuration>

Note that in the above configuration scripts the values for the RemoteHost, Port and IncludeCallerData options are not given directly but as substituted variable keys. The values for the variables can be specified as system properties:

    java -Dhost=localhost -Dport=6000 -DincludeCallerData=false \
      chapter4.socket.SocketClient2 src/main/java/chapter4/socket/client1.xml

This command should give similar results to the previous `SocketClient1` example.

Allow us to repeat for emphasis that serialization of logging events is not intrusive. A de-serialized event carries the same information as any other logging event. It can be manipulated as if it were generated locally; except that serialized logging events by default do not include caller data. Here is an example to illustrate the point. First, start `SimpleSocketServer` with the following command:

      java ch.qos.logback.classic.net.SimpleSocketServer 6000 \
      src/main/java/chapter4/socket/server2.xml

The configuration file server2.xml creates a `ConsoleAppender` whose layout outputs the callers file name and line number along with other information. If you run `SocketClient2` with the configuration file client1.xml as previously, you will notice that the output on the server side will contain two question marks between parentheses instead of the file name and the line number of the caller:

    2006-11-06 17:37:30,968 DEBUG [Thread-0] [?:?] chapter4.socket.SocketClient2 - Hi

The outcome can be easily changed by instructing the `SocketAppender` to include caller data by setting the IncludeCallerData option to true. Using the following command will do the trick:

    java -Dhost=localhost -Dport=6000 -DincludeCallerData=true \
      chapter4.socket.SocketClient2 src/main/java/chapter4/socket/client1.xml

As deserialized events can be handled in the same way as locally generated events, they even can be sent to a second server for further treatment. As an exercise, you may wish to setup two servers where the first server tunnels the events it receives from its clients to a second server.

### SMTPAppender

The `SMTPAppender` accumulates logging events in a fixed-size buffer and sends them in an email when a user specified event occurs. By default, the email is sent as the reception of an event of level ERROR or higher.

The various options for `SMTPAppender` are summarized in the following table.

Option Name | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
SMTPHost | `String` | The host name of the SMTP server. This parameter is mandatory.
To | `String` | The email address of the recipient. Multiple recipients can be specified by using several <To> elements.
From | `String` | The stated originator of the email messages sent by `SMTPAppender`.

Subject

`String`

The subject of the email. The String can contain a `Pattern` that `PatternLayout` uses. In that case, the subject is created just before the transmission of the email, with information about the last logging event that was issued.

For example, setting Log: %logger - %msg as the Subject option will send an email with the logger name and message string of the event that triggered the email transmission.

By default, `SMTPAppender` will form a subject with logger name and the message of the last logging event.

BufferSize | `String` | The BufferSize option takes a positive integer representing the maximum number of logging events to collect in a cyclic buffer. When the BufferSize is reached, oldest events are deleted as new events are added to the buffer. The default size of the cyclic buffer is 512.

Evaluator

`String`

This option is declared by creating a new `<EventEvaluator/>` element. The name of the class that the user wishes to use as the `SMTPAppender`'s `Evaluator` can be given by adding an attribute to the newly created element.

More details about the use of event evaluators with `SMTPAppender` follow further down this document.

In the absence of this option, `SMTPAppender` is assigned a default event evaluator which triggers email transmission as a response to any event of level ERROR or higher.

The SMTPAppender keeps only the last BufferSize logging events in its cyclic buffer, throwing away older events when its buffer becomes full. The number of logging events delivered in any e-mail sent by `SMTPAppender` is upper-bounded by BufferSize. This keeps memory requirements bounded while still delivering a reasonable amount of application context.

The `SMTPAppender` relies on the JavaMail API. It has been tested with JavaMail API version 1.4. The JavaMail API requires the JavaBeans Activation Framework package. You can download the JavaMail API and the Java-Beans Activation Framework from their respective websites. Make sure to place these two jar files in the classpath before trying the following examples.

A sample application called `chapter4.mail.EMail` takes two parameters. The first parameter is an integer corresponding to the number of logging events to generate. The second parameter is the logback configuration file in XML format. The last logging event generated by chapter4.mail.Email application is always an ERROR event which triggers the transmission of an email message.

Here is a sample configuration file you can supply to chapter4.mail.Email:

Example 4.8: A sample `SMTPAppender` configuration (logback-examples/src/main/java/chapter4/mail/mail1.xml)

    <configuration>

      <appender name="EMAIL" class="ch.qos.logback.classic.net.SMTPAppender">
        <SMTPHost>ADDRESS-OF-YOUR-SMTP-HOST</SMTPHost>
        <To>DESTINATION-EMAIL</To>
        <From>SENDER-EMAIL</From>
        <layout class="ch.qos.logback.classic.PatternLayout">
          <Pattern>%date %-5level %logger{35} - %message%n</Pattern>
        </layout>
      </appender>

      <root>
        <level value ="debug"/>
        <appender-ref ref="EMAIL" />
      </root>
    </configuration>

Before trying out `chapter4.mail.Email` application with the above configuration file, you must set the SMTPHost, To and From options to values appropriate for your environment. Once you have set the proper values, change directory to logback-examples and execute the following command:

    java chapter4.mail.EMail 300 src/main/java/chapter4/mail/mail.xml

The chosen recipient should see an email message containing 300 logging events formatted by `PatternLayout`.

In another configuration file mail2.xml, the values for the SMTPHost, To and From options are determined by variable substitution. Here is the relevant part of mail2.xml.

      <appender name="EMAIL" class="ch.qos.logback.classic.net.SMTPAppender">
        <SMTPHost>${smtpHost}</SMTPHost>
        <To>${to}</To>
        <From>${from}</From>
        <layout class="ch.qos.logback.classic.html.HTMLLayout"/>
      </appender>

You can supply the various values on the command line:

    java -Dfrom=source@xyz.com -Dto=recipient@xyz.com
      -DsmtpHost=some_smtp_host src/main/java/chapter4.mail.EMail 10000 chapter4/mail/mail2.xml

Be sure to replace with the correct values appropriate for your environment.

Given that the default size of the cyclic buffer is 512, the recipient should see an email message containing 512 events conveniently formatted in an HTML table. Note that this run of the `chapter4.mail.Email` application generated 10'000 events of which only the last 512 were included in the email.

By default, the `SMTPAppender` will initiate the transmission of an email message as a response to an event of level ERROR or higher. However, it is possible to override this default behavior by providing a custom implementation of the `EventEvaluator` interface.

The `SMTPAppender` submits each incoming event to its evaluator by calling `evaluate()` method in order to check whether the event should trigger an email or just be placed in the cyclic buffer. When the evaluator gives a positive answer to its evaluation, an email is sent. The `SMTPAppender` contains one and only one evaluator object. This object may possess its own state. For illustrative purposes, the `CounterBasedEvaluator` class listed next, implements an event evaluator whereby every 1024th event triggers an email message.

Example 4.9: A `EventEvaluator` implementation that evaluates to `true` every 1024th event (logback-examples/src/main/java/chapter4/mail/CounterBasedEvaluator.java)

    package chapter4.mail;

    import ch.qos.logback.core.boolex.EvaluationException;
    import ch.qos.logback.core.boolex.EventEvaluator;
    import ch.qos.logback.core.spi.ContextAwareBase;

    public class CounterBasedEvaluator extends ContextAwareBase implements EventEvaluator {

      static int LIMIT = 1024;
      int counter = 0;
      String name;

      public boolean evaluate(Object event) throws NullPointerException,
          EvaluationException {
        counter++;

        if (counter == LIMIT) {
          counter = 0;

          return true;
        } else {
          return false;
        }
      }

      public String getName() {
        return name;
      }

      public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
      }
    }

Note that this implementation extends `ContextAwareBase` and implements `EventEvaluator`. This allows the user to concentrate on the core functions of her `EventEvaluator` and let the base class provide the common functionnality.

Setting the EventEvaluator option of `SMTPAppender` instructs it to use a custom evaluator. The next configuration file attaches a `SMTPAppender` to the root logger. This appender has a buffer size of 2048 and uses a `CounterBasedEvaluator` instance as its event evaluator.

Example 4.10: `SMTPAppender` with custom `Evaluator` and buffer size (logback-examples/src/main/java/chapter4/mail/mail3.xml)

    <configuration>
      <appender name="EMAIL" class="ch.qos.logback.classic.net.SMTPAppender">
        <Evaluator class="chapter4.mail.CounterBasedEvaluator" />
        <BufferSize>1050</BufferSize>
        <SMTPHost>${smtpHost}</SMTPHost>
        <To>${to}</To>
        <From>${from}</From>
        <layout class="ch.qos.logback.classic.html.HTMLLayout"/>
      </appender>

      <root>
        <level value ="debug"/>
        <appender-ref ref="EMAIL" />
      </root>
    </configuration>

### DBAppender

The `DBAppender` inserts loggin events into three database tables in a format independent of the Java programming language.

These three tables are logging_event, logging_event_property and logging_event_exception. They all must exist before `DBAppender` can be used. Logback ships with SQL scripts that will create the tables. They can be found in the found in the logback-classic/src/main/java/ch/qos/logback/classic/db/dialect directory. There is a specific script for each of the most popular database systems. If the script for your particular type of database system is missing, it should be quite easy to write one, taking example on the already existing scripts. If you send them to us, we will gladly include missing scripts in future releases.

If your JDBC driver supports the `getGeneratedKeys` method introduced in JDBC 3.0 specification, then no more steps are required, excluding usual configuration.

Otherwise, there must be an `SQLDialect` appropriate for your database system. Currently, we have dialects for PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle and MsSQL. As mentioned previously, an `SQLDialect` is required only if the JDBC driver for your database system does not support the `getGeneratedKeys` method.

The table below summarizes the database types and their support of the `getGeneratedKeys()` method.

RDBMS | supports `getGeneratedKeys()` method | specific SQLDialect support
--- | --- | ---
PostgreSQL | NO | present and used
MySQL | YES | present, but not actually needed or used
Oracle | YES | present, but not actually needed or used
DB2 | YES | not present, and not needed or used
MsSQL | YES | not present, and not needed or used
HSQL | NO | present and used

Experiments show that writing a single event into the database takes approximately 10 milliseconds, on a "standard" PC. If pooled connections are used, this figure drops to around 1 milliseconds. Note that most JDBC drivers already ship with connection pooling support.

Configuring logback to use `DBAppender` can be done in several different ways, depending on the tools one has to connect to the database, and the database itself. All manners of configuring `DBAppender` are about setting its `ConnectionSource` object, which we will cover in a short moment.

Once logback is configured properly, the logging events are sent to the specified database. As stated previously, there are three tables used by logback to store logging event data.

The logging_event table contains the following fields:

Field | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
timestmp | `big int` | The timestamp that was valid at the logging event's creation.
formatted_message | `text` | The message that has been added to the logging event, after formatting with `org.slf4j.impl.MessageFormatter`, in case object were passed along with the message.
logger_name | `varchar` | The name of the logger used to issue the logging request.
level_string | `varchar` | The level of the logging event.

reference_flag

`smallint`

This field is used by logback to identify logging events that have an exception or `MDC`property values associated.

It's value is computed by `ch.qos.logback.classic.db.DBHelper`. A logging event that contains `MDC` or `Context` properties has a flag number of 1. One that contains an exception has a flag number of 2. A logging event that contains both elements has a flag number of 3.

caller_filename | `varchar` | The name of the file where the logging request was issued.
caller_class | `varchar` | The class where the logging request was issued.
caller_method | `varchar` | The name of the method where the logging request was issued.
caller_line | `char` | The line number where the logging request was issued.
event_id | `int` | The database id of the logging event.

The logging_event_property is used to store the keys and values contained in the `MDC` or the `Context`. It contains these fields:

Field | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
event_id | `int` | The database id of the logging event.
mapped_key | `varchar` | The key of the `MDC` property
mapped_value | `text` | The value of the `MDC` property

The logging_event_exception table contains the following fields:

Field | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
event_id | `int` | The database id of the logging event.
i | `smallint` | The index of the line in the full stack trace.
trace_line | `varchar` | The corresponding line

To give a more visual example of the work done by `DBAppender`, here is a screenshot of a MySQL database with content provided by `DBAppender`.

The logging_event table:

Logging Event table

The logging_event_exception table:

Logging Event Exception table

The logging_event_property table:

Logging Event Property table

#### ConnectionSource

The ConnectionSource interface provides a pluggable means of transparently obtaining JDBC Connections for logback classes that require the use of a `java.sql.Connection`. There are currently three implementations of `ConnectionSource`, namely `DataSourceConnectionSource`, `DriverManagerConnectionSource` and `JNDIConnectionSource`.

The first example that we will review is a configuration using `DriverManagerConnectionSource` and a MySQL database. The following configuration file is what one would need.

Example 4.11: `DBAppender` configuration (logback-examples/src/main/java/chapter4/db/append-toMySQL-with-driverManager.xml)

    <configuration>

      <appender name="DB" class="ch.qos.logback.classic.db.DBAppender">
        <connectionSource class="ch.qos.logback.core.db.DriverManagerConnectionSource">
          <driverClass>com.mysql.jdbc.Driver</driverClass>
          <url>jdbc:mysql://host_name:3306/datebase_name</url>
          <user>username</user>
          <password>password</password>
        </connectionSource>
      </appender>

      <root>
        <level value="debug" />
        <appender-ref ref="DB" />
      </root>
    </configuration>

The correct driver must be declared. Here, the `com.mysql.jdbc.Driver` class is used. The url must begin with jdbc:myslq://.

The `DriverManagerConnectionSource` is an implementation of `ConnectionSource` that obtains the connection in the traditional JDBC manner based on the connection URL.

Note that this class will establish a new `Connection` for each call to `getConnection()`. It is recommended that you either use a JDBC driver that natively supports connection pooling or that you create your own implementation of `ConnectionSource` that taps into whatever pooling mechanism you are already using. (If you have access to a JNDI implementation that supports `javax.sql.DataSource`, e.g. within a J2EE application server, see `JNDIConnectionSource`).

Connecting to a database using a `DataSource` is rather similar. The configuration now uses `DataSourceConnectionSource`, which is an implementation of `ConnectionSource` that obtains the `Connection` in the recommended JDBC manner based on a `javax.sql.DataSource`.

Example 4.12: `DBAppender` configuration (logback-examples/src/main/java/chapter4/db/append-with-datasource.xml)

    <configuration>

      <appender name="DB" class="ch.qos.logback.classic.db.DBAppender">
         <connectionSource class="ch.qos.logback.core.db.DataSourceConnectionSource">

           <dataSource class="${dataSourceClass}">
           	 <!-- Joran cannot substitute variables
           	 that are not attribute values. Therefore, we cannot
           	 declare the next parameter like the others.
           	 -->
             <param name="${url-key:-url}" value="${url_value}"/>
             <serverName>${serverName}</serverName>
             <databaseName>${databaseName}</databaseName>
           </dataSource>

           <user>${user}</user>
           <password>${password}</password>
         </connectionSource>
      </appender>

      <root>
        <level value ="debug"/>
        <appender-ref ref="DB" />
      </root>
    </configuration>

Not that in this configuration sample, we make heavy use of substitution variables. They are sometimes handy when connection details have to be centralised in a single configuration file and shared by logback and other frameworks.

The third implementation of `ConnectionSource` that is shipped with logback is the `JNDIConnectionSource`.

The `JNDIConnectionSource` is an implementation of `ConnectionSource` that obtains a `javax.sql.DataSource` from a JNDI provider and uses it to obtain a `java.sql.Connection`. It is primarily designed to be used inside of J2EE application servers or application server clients, assuming the application server supports remote access of `javax.sql.DataSource`. In this way one can take advantage of connection pooling and whatever other goodies the application server provides.

    <connectionSource class="ch.qos.logback.core.db.JNDIConnectionSource">
      <param name="jndiLocation" value="jdbc/MySQLDS" />
      <param name="username" value="myUser" />
      <param name="password" value="myPassword" />
    </connectionSource>

Note that this class will obtain an `javax.naming.InitialContext` using the no-argument constructor. This will usually work when executing within a J2EE environment. When outside the J2EE environment, make sure that you provide a jndi.properties file as described by your JNDI provider's documentation.

#### Connection pooling

Logging events can be created at a rather fast pace. To keep up with the flow of events that must be inserted into a database, it is recommanded to use connection pooling with `DBAppender`.

Experiment shows that using connection pooling with `DBAppender` gives a big performance boost. With the following configuration file, logging events are sent to a MySQL database, without any pooling.

Example 4.13: `DBAppender` configuration without pooling (logback-examples/src/main/java/chapter4/db/append-toMySQL-with-datasource.xml)

    <configuration>

      <appender name="DB" class="ch.qos.logback.classic.db.DBAppender">
        <connectionSource class="ch.qos.logback.core.db.DataSourceConnectionSource">
          <dataSource class="com.mysql.jdbc.jdbc2.optional.MysqlDataSource">
            <serverName>${serverName}</serverName>
            <port>${port$</port>
            <databaseName>${dbName}</databaseName>
            <user>${user}</user>
            <password>${pass}</password>
          </dataSource>
        </connectionSource>
      </appender>

      <root>
        <level value="debug" />
        <appender-ref ref="DB" />
      </root>
    </configuration

With this configuration file, sending 500 logging events to a MySQL database takes a whopping 5 seconds, that is 10 miliseconds per requests. This figure is unacceptable when dealing with large applications.

A dedicated external library is necessary to use connection pooling with `DBAppender`. The next example uses c3p0. To be able to use c3p0, one must download it and place c3p0-VERSION.jar in the classpath.

Example 4.14: `DBAppender` configuration with pooling (logback-examples/src/main/java/chapter4/db/append-toMySQL-with-datasource-and-pooling.xml)

    <configuration>

      <appender name="DB" class="ch.qos.logback.classic.db.DBAppender">
        <connectionSource
          class="ch.qos.logback.core.db.DataSourceConnectionSource">
          <dataSource
            class="com.mchange.v2.c3p0.ComboPooledDataSource">
            <driverClass>com.mysql.jdbc.Driver</driverClass>
            <jdbcUrl>jdbc:mysql://${serverName}:${port}/${dbName}</jdbcUrl>
            <user>${user}</user>
            <password>${password}</password>
          </dataSource>
        </connectionSource>
      </appender>

      <root>
        <level value="debug" />
        <appender-ref ref="DB" />
      </root>
    </configuration>

With this new configuration, sending 500 logging requests to the same MySQL database as previously used takes around 0.5 seconds, for an average time of 1 milisecond per request. The gain is a 10 factor.

### SyslogAppender

The syslog protocol is a very simple protocol: a syslog sender sends a small message to a syslog receiver. The receiver is commonly called syslog daemon or syslog server. Logback can send messages to a remote syslog daemon. This is achieved by using `SyslogAppender`.

Here are its options:

Option Name | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
SyslogHost | `String` | The host name of the syslog server.
Port | `String` | The port number on the syslog server to connect to. Normally, one would not want to change the default value, that is 514.
Facility | `String` | The Facility is meant to identify the source of a message. The Facility option must be set one of the strings KERN, USER, MAIL, DAEMON, AUTH, SYSLOG, LPR, NEWS, UUCP, CRON, AUTHPRIV, FTP, NTP, AUDIT, ALERT, CLOCK, LOCAL0, LOCAL1, LOCAL2, LOCAL3, LOCAL4, LOCAL5, LOCAL6, LOCAL7. Case is not important.
SuffixPattern | `String` | The SuffixPattern option specifies the format of the non-standardized part the message sent to the syslog server. By default, its value is [%thread] %logger %msg %exception. Any value that a `PatternLayout` could use is a correct SuffixPattern.

The syslog severity of a logging event is converted from the level of the logging event. The DEBUG level is converted to 7, INFO is converted to 6, WARN is converted to 4 and ERROR is converted to 3.

Since the format of a syslog request follows rather strict rules, there is no layout to be used with `SyslogAppender`. However, the using the SuffixPattern option lets the user display whatever information she wishes.

Here is a sample configuration using a `SyslogAppender`.

Example 4.15: `SyslogAppender` configuration (logback-examples/src/main/java/chapter4/conf/logback-syslog.xml)

    <configuration>

      <appender name="SYSLOG"
        class="ch.qos.logback.classic.net.SyslogAppender">
        <SyslogHost>remote_home</SyslogHost>
        <Facility>AUTH</Facility>
        <SuffixPattern>%-4relative [%thread] %-5level - %msg</SuffixPattern>
      </appender>

      <root>
        <level value="debug" />
        <appender-ref ref="STDOUT" />
      </root>
    </configuration>

When testing this configuration, one should verify that the remote syslog daemon accepts requests from an external source. Experience shows that syslog daemons usually deny such requests by default.

## Logback Access

Most of the appenders found in logback classic can be used within logback access. They function mostly in the same way as their logback classic counterpart. In the next section, we will cover their use, but will focuse on the differences with the classic appenders.

### SocketAppender

The `SocketAppender` is designed to log to a remote entity by transmitting serialized `AccessEvent` objects over the wire. Remote logging is non-intrusive as far as the access event is concerned. On the receiving end after de-serialization, the event can be logged as if it were generated locally.

The options of access' `SocketAppender` are the same as those available for classic's `SocketAppender`.

### SMTPAppender

Access' `SMTPAppender` works in the same way as its Classic counterpart. However, the evaluator option is rather different. By default, a `URLEvaluator` object is used by `SMTPAppender`. This evaluator contains a list of URLs that are checked agains the current request's URL. When one of the pages given to the `URLEvaluator` is requested, `SMTPAppender` sends an email.

Here is a sample configuration of a `SMTPAppender` in the access environnement.

Example 4.15: `SMTPAppender` configuration (logback-examples/src/main/java/chapter4/conf/access/logback-smtp.xml)

    <appender name="SMTP"
      class="ch.qos.logback.access.net.SMTPAppender">
      <layout class="ch.qos.logback.access.html.HTMLLayout">
        <Pattern>%h%l%u%t%r%s%b</Pattern>
      </layout>

      <Evaluator class="ch.qos.logback.access.net.URLEvaluator">
        <URL>url1.jsp</URL>
        <URL>directory/url2.html</URL>
      </Evaluator>
      <From>sender_email@host.com</From>
      <SMTPHost>mail.domain.com</SMTPHost>
      <To>recipient_email@host.com</To>
    </appender>

This way of triggering the email lets user select pages that are important steps in a specific process, for example. When such a page is accessed, the email is sent with the pages that were accessed previously, and any information the user wants to be included in the email.

### DBAppender

`DBAppender` is used to insert the access events into a database.

Two tables are used by `DBAppender`: access_event and access_event_header. They all must exist before `DBAppender` can be used. Logback ships with SQL scripts that will create the tables. They can be found in the found in the logback-access/src/main/java/ch/qos/logback/access/db/dialect directory. There is a specific script for each of the most popular database systems. If the script for your particular type of database system is missing, it should be quite easy to write one, taking example on the already existing scripts. If you send them to us, we will gladly include missing scripts in future releases.

The access_event table's fields are described below:

Field | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
timestmp | `big int` | The timestamp that was valid at the access event's creation.
requestURI | `varchar` | The URI that was requested.
requestURL | `varchar` | The URL that was requested. This is a string composed of the request method, the request URI and the request protocol.
remoteHost | `varchar` | The name of the remote host.
remoteUser | `varchar` | The name of the remote user.
remoteAddr | `varchar` | The remote IP address.
protocol | `varchar` | The request protocol, like HTTP or HTTPS.
method | `varchar` | The request method, usually GET or POST.
serverName | `varchar` | The name of the server that issued the request.
event_id | `int` | The database id of the access event.

The access_event_header table contains the header of each requests. The information is organised as shown below:

Field | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
event_id | `int` | The database id of the corresponding access event.
header_key | `varchar` | The header name, for example User-Agent.
header_value | `varchar` | The header value, for example Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; fr; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0

All options of classic's `DBAppender` are available in access' `DBAppender`. The latter offers one more option, described below.

Option Name | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
insertHeaders | `boolean` | Tells the `DBAppender` to populate the database with the header information of all incoming requests.

Here is a sample configuration that uses `DBAppender`.

    <configuration>

      <appender name="DB" class="ch.qos.logback.access.db.DBAppender">
        <connectionSource class="ch.qos.logback.core.db.DriverManagerConnectionSource">
          <driverClass>com.mysql.jdbc.Driver</driverClass>
          <url>jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/logbackdb</url>
          <user>logback</user>
          <password>logback</password>
        </connectionSource>
        <insertHeaders>true</insertHeaders>
      </appender>

      <appender-ref ref="DB" />
    </configuration>

## Writing your own Appender

You can easily write your appender by sub-classing `AppenderBase`. It handles support for filters, status among other functionality shared by most appenders. The derived class only needs to implement one method, namely `append(Object eventObject)`.

The `CountingConsoleAppender`, which we list next, appends a limited number of incoming events on the console. It shuts down after the limit is reached. It uses a `Layout` to format the events and accepts a parameter, thus a few more methods are needed.

Example 4.16: `CountingConsoleAppender` (logback-examples/src/main/java/chapter4/CountingConsoleAppender.java)

    package chapter4;

    import ch.qos.logback.core.AppenderBase;
    import ch.qos.logback.core.Layout;

    public class CountingConsoleAppender extends AppenderBase {
      static int DEFAULT_LIMIT = 16;
      int counter = 0;
      int limit = DEFAULT_LIMIT;

      private Layout layout;

      public CountingConsoleAppender() {
      }

      public void setLimit(int limit) {
        this.limit = limit;
      }

      public int getLimit() {
        return limit;
      }

      @Override
      public void start() {
        if (this.layout == null) {
          addError("No layout set for the appender named ["+ name +"].");
          return;
        }

        super.start();
      }

      public void append(Object eventObject) {

        if (counter >= limit) {
          return;
        }

        // output the events as formatted by our layout
        System.out.print(this.layout.doLayout(eventObject));

        // prepare for next event
        counter++;
      }

      public Layout getLayout() {
        return layout;
      }

      public void setLayout(Layout layout) {
        this.layout = layout;
      }
    }

The `start()` method checks for the presence of a `Layout`. In case none is found, the appender is not started.

This custom appender illustrates a two points:

- All options that follow the setter/getter JavaBeans conventions are handled transparently. The `start()` method, that is called automatically, has the responsability to check that the given options are coherent.
- The `AppenderBase.doAppend()` method invokes the append() method of its derived classes where actual output operations occur. It is in this method that appenders format events by invoking their layouts.

The `CountingConsoleAppender` can be configured like any appender. See sample file logback-examples/src/main/java/chapter4/countingConsole.xml for an example.