Java logging framework

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A Java logging framework is a computer data logging package for the Java platform. This article covers general purpose logging frameworks.

Logging refers to the recording of activity by an application and is a common issue for development teams. Logging frameworks ease and standardize the process of logging for the Java platform. In particular they provide flexibility by avoiding explicit output to the console (see Appender below). Where logs are written becomes independent of the code and can be customized at runtime.

Unfortunately the JDK did not include logging in its original release so by the time the Java Logging API was added several other logging frameworks had become widely used – in particular Apache Commons Logging (also known as Java Commons Logging or JCL) and Log4j. This led to problems when integrating different third-party libraries (JARs) each using different logging frameworks. Pluggable logging frameworks (wrappers) were developed to solve this problem.