Collecting java.util.logging to log4j2

Everybody wants to write a log. And in Java everybody wants to write their own logging framework or at least use of the many different ones. Then someone comes up with logging framework framework such as SLF4J.

OK but what was I about to say. As so many times, I had a piece of Java software writing a log file using Log4J2. I was using some libs/someone elses code that uses java.util.logging to write their log. I wanted to capture those logs and include them in my Log4J2 log file for debugging, error resolution or whatever.

This case was when trying to log errors from the InfluxDB Java driver. The driver uses java.util.logging for minimal external dependencies or something. I used Log4J2 in my app.

So the usual question of how do you merge java.util.logging code, that you do not control, with your own code using Log4J2 to produce a single unified log file?

Most Googling would tell me all about SLF4J etc. I did not want yet-another framework on top of existing frameworks, and yet some more (transitive) dependencies and all sorts of weird stuff. Because I am old and naughty and don’t like too many abstractions just because.

So the code to do this with zero external dependencies.

First a log Handler object for java.util.logging to write to Log4J2:

import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;

import java.util.logging.Handler;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.LogRecord;

/**
* @author Daddy Bigbelly.
*/
public class JekkuHandler extends Handler {
//notice that this is the Log4J2 logger here, inside a java.util.logging Handler object
private static final Logger log = LogManager.getLogger();

  @Override
  public void publish(LogRecord record) {
    Level level = record.getLevel();
    if (level.intValue() == Level.SEVERE.intValue()) {
      log.error(record.getMessage(), record.getThrown());
    } else if (level.intValue() >= Level.INFO.intValue()) {
      log.info(record.getMessage(), record.getThrown());
    } else {
      log.debug(record.getMessage(), record.getThrown());
    }
  }

  @Override
  public void flush() {}

  @Override
  public void close() throws SecurityException {}
}

Next setting it up and using it, with the InfluxDB Java driver as an example:

import org.influxdb.InfluxDB;
import org.influxdb.InfluxDBFactory;
import org.influxdb.dto.BatchPoints;
import org.influxdb.dto.Point;
import org.influxdb.dto.Query;
import org.influxdb.impl.BatchProcessor;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler;
import java.util.logging.FileHandler;
import java.util.logging.Formatter;
import java.util.logging.Handler;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
import java.util.logging.SimpleFormatter;

/**
* @author Daddy Bigbelly.
*/

public class LogCaptureExample {
  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    //oh no the root password is there
    InfluxDB db = InfluxDBFactory.connect("http://myinfluxdbhost:8086", "root", "root");
    String dbName = "aTimeSeries";
    db.createDatabase(dbName);
    db.enableBatch(2000, 1, TimeUnit.SECONDS);

    //if you look at the influxdb driver code for batchprocessor, 
    //where we wanted to capture the log from, you see it using the classname to set up the logger. 
    //so we get the classname here and use it to hijack the writes for that logger (the one we want to capture)
    System.out.println(BatchProcessor.class.getName());
    Logger logger = Logger.getLogger("org.influxdb.impl.BatchProcessor");
    Handler handler = new JekkuHandler();
    logger.addHandler(handler);

    //this runs forever, but the batch mode can throw an error if the network drops.
    //so disconnect network to test this in middle of execution
    while (true) {
      Point point1 = Point.measurement("cpu")
        .time(System.currentTimeMillis(), TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS)
        .addField("idle", 90L)
        .addField("user", 9L)
        .addField("system", 1L)
        .build();
      db.write(dbName, "autogen", point1);
    }
  }
}

You could probably quite easily configure a global java.util.logger that would capture all logging written with java.util.logging this way. I did not need it so its not here.

In a similar way, you should be able to capture java.util.logging to any other log framework just by changing where the custom Handler writes the logs to.

Well there you go. Was that as exciting for you as it was for me?