Short introduction to log4cxx

This document is largely inspired of the Short introduction to log4j by Ceki Gülcü

Contents

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Loggers, Appenders and Layouts
  • Logger hierarchy
  • Appenders and Layouts
• Configuration
• Default Initialization Procedure
• Nested Diagnostic Contexts
• Performance
• Conclusion

Abstract

This document describes the log4cxx API, its unique features and design rationale. Log4cxx is an open source project based on the work of several authors. It allows the developer to control which log statements are output with arbitrary granularity. It is fully configurable at runtime using external configuration files. Best of all, log4cxx has a gentle learning curve. Beware: judging from user feedback, it is also quite addictive.

Introduction

The log4cxx framework is based on log4j, see http://logging.apache.org/log4j for more information on log4cxx.

The package is distributed under the Apache Software License , a fully-fledged open source license certified by the open source initiative. The latest log4cxx version, including full-source code, class files and documentation can be found at http://logging.apache.org/log4cxx .

Almost every large application includes its own logging or tracing API. Inserting log statements into code is a low-tech method for debugging it. It may also be the only way because debuggers are not always available or applicable. This is usually the case for multithreaded applications and distributed applications at large.

Experience indicates that logging was an important component of the development cycle. It offeres several advantages. It provides precise context about a run of the application. Once inserted into the code, the generation of logging output requires no human intervention. Moreover, log output can be saved in persistent medium to be studied at a later time. In addition to its use in the development cycle, a sufficiently rich logging package can also be viewed as an auditing tool.

Logging does have its drawbacks. It can slow down an application. If too verbose, it can cause scrolling blindness. To alleviate these concerns, log4cxx is designed to be reliable, fast and extensible. Since logging is rarely the main focus of an application, the log4cxx API strives to be simple to understand and to use.

Loggers, Appenders and Layouts

Log4cxx has three main components: loggers, appenders and layouts. These three types of components work together to enable developers to log messages according to message type and level, and to control at runtime how these messages are formatted and where they are reported.

Logger hierarchy

The first and foremost advantage of any logging API over plain std::cout resides in its ability to disable certain log statements while allowing others to print unhindered. This capability assumes that the logging space, that is, the space of all possible logging statements, is categorized according to some developer-chosen criteria.

Loggers are named entities. Logger names are case-sensitive and they follow the hierarchical naming rule:

Named Hierarchy A logger is said to be an ancestor of another logger if its name followed by a dot is a prefix of the descendant logger name. A logger is said to be a parent of a child logger if there are no ancestors between itself and the descendant logger.

For example, the logger named com.foo is a parent of the logger named com.foo.Bar. Similarly, cpp is a parent of cpp.util and an ancestor of cpp.util.Vector. This naming scheme should be familiar to most developers.

The root logger resides at the top of the logger hierarchy. It is exceptional in two ways:

1. it always exists,
2. it cannot be retrieved by name.

Invoking the class static log4cxx::Logger::getRootLogger method retrieves it. All other loggers are instantiated and retrieved with the class static log4cxx::Logger::getLogger method. This method takes the name of the desired logger as a parameter.Some of the basic methods in the Logger class are listed below.

#include <log4cxx/logger.h>

class Logger
{
public:
    // Creation & retrieval methods:
    static LoggerPtr getRootLogger();
    static LoggerPtr getLogger(const String& name);

    // printing methods:
    void debug(const String& message);
    void info(const String& message);
    void warn(const String& message);
    void error(const String& message);
    void fatal(const String& message);

    // generic printing method:
    void log(const LevelPtr& l, const String& message);
};

Loggers may be assigned levels. The set of possible levels, that is DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR and FATAL are defined in the log4cxx::Level class. Although we do not encourage you to do so, you may define your own levels by sub-classing the Level class. A perhaps better approach will be explained later on.

If a given logger is not assigned a level, then it inherits one from its closest ancestor with an assigned level. More formally:

Level Inheritance The inherited level for a given logger C, is equal to the first non-null level in the logger hierarchy, starting at C and proceeding upwards in the hierarchy towards the root logger.

To ensure that all loggers can eventually inherit a level, the root logger always has an assigned level.

Below are four tables with various assigned level values and the resulting inherited levels according to the above rule.

Example 1

Logger name	Assigned level	Inherited level
root	Proot	Proot
X	none	Proot
X.Y	none	Proot
X.Y.Z	none	Proot

In example 1 above, only the root logger is assigned a level. This level value, Proot, is inherited by the other loggers X, X.Y and X.Y.Z.

Example 2

Logger name	Assigned level	Inherited level
root	Proot	Proot
X	Px	Px
X.Y	Pxy	Pxy
X.Y.Z	Pxyz	Pxyz

In example 2, all loggers have an assigned level value. There is no need for level inheritence.

Example 3

Logger name	Assigned level	Inherited level
root	Proot	Proot
X	Px	Px
X.Y	none	Px
X.Y.Z	Pxyz	Pxyz

In example 3, the loggers root, X and X.Y.Z are assigned the levels Proot, Px and Pxyz respectively. The logger X.Y inherits its level value from its parent X.

Example 4

Logger name	Assigned level	Inherited level
root	Proot	Proot
X	Px	Px
X.Y	none	Px
X.Y.Z	none	Px

In example 4, the loggers root and X and are assigned the levels Proot and Px respectively. The loggers X.Y and X.Y.Z inherits their level value from their nearest parent X having an assigned level..

Logging requests are made by invoking one of the printing methods of a logger instance. These printing methods are debug, info, warn, error, fatal and log.

By definition, the printing method determines the level of a logging request. For example, if c is a logger instance, then the statement c.info("..") is a logging request of level INFO.

A logging request is said to be enabled if its level is higher than or equal to the level of its logger. Otherwise, the request is said to be disabled. A logger without an assigned level will inherit one from the hierarchy. This rule is summarized below.

Basic Selection Rule A log request of level p in a logger with (either assigned or inherited, whichever is appropriate) level q, is enabled if p >= q.

This rule is at the heart of log4cxx. It assumes that levels are ordered. For the standard levels, we have DEBUG < INFO < WARN < ERROR < FATAL.

Here is an example of this rule.

// get a logger instance named "com.foo"
LoggerPtr logger = Logger::getLogger(_T("com.foo"));

// Now set its level. Normally you do not need to set the
// level of a logger programmatically. This is usually done
// in configuration files.
logger->setLevel(Level::INFO);

LoggerPtr barlogger = Logger::getLogger(_T("com.foo.Bar"));

// This request is enabled, because WARN >= INFO.
logger->warn(_T("Low fuel level."));

// This request is disabled, because DEBUG < INFO.
logger->debug(_T("Starting search for nearest gas station."));

// The logger instance barlogger, named "com.foo.Bar",
// will inherit its level from the logger named
// "com.foo" Thus, the following request is enabled
// because INFO >= INFO.
barlogger->info(_T("Located nearest gas station."));

// This request is disabled, because DEBUG < INFO.
barlogger->debug(_T("Exiting gas station search"));

Calling the getLogger method with the same name will always return a reference to the exact same logger object.

For example, in

LoggerPtr x = Logger::getLogger("wombat");
LoggerPtr y = Logger::getLogger("wombat");

x and y refer to exactly the same logger object.

Thus, it is possible to configure a logger and then to retrieve the same instance somewhere else in the code without passing around references. In fundamental contradiction to biological parenthood, where parents always preceed their children, log4cxx loggers can be created and configured in any order. In particular, a "parent" logger will find and link to its descendants even if it is instantiated after them.

Configuration of the log4cxx environment is typically done at application initialization. The preferred way is by reading a configuration file. This approach will be discussed shortly.

Log4cxx makes it easy to name loggers by software component. This can be accomplished by statically instantiating a logger in each class, with the logger name equal to the fully qualified name of the class. This is a useful and straightforward method of defining loggers. As the log output bears the name of the generating logger, this naming strategy makes it easy to identify the origin of a log message. However, this is only one possible, albeit common, strategy for naming loggers. Log4cxx does not restrict the possible set of loggers. The developer is free to name the loggers as desired.

Nevertheless, naming loggers after the class where they are located seems to be the best strategy known so far.

Appenders and Layouts

The ability to selectively enable or disable logging requests based on their logger is only part of the picture. Log4cxx allows logging requests to print to multiple destinations. In log4cxx speak, an output destination is called an appender. Currently, appenders exist for the console, files, GUI components, remote socket servers, NT Event Loggers, and remote UNIX Syslog daemons. It is also possible to log asynchronously.

More than one appender can be attached to a logger.

The addAppender method adds an appender to a given logger. Each enabled logging request for a given logger will be forwarded to all the appenders in that logger as well as the appenders higher in the hierarchy. In other words, appenders are inherited additively from the logger hierarchy. For example, if a console appender is added to the root logger, then all enabled logging requests will at least print on the console. If in addition a file appender is added to a logger, say C, then enabled logging requests for C and C's children will print on a file and on the console. It is possible to override this default behavior so that appender accumulation is no longer additive by setting the additivity flag to false.

The rules governing appender additivity are summarized below.

Appender Additivity The output of a log statement of logger C will go to all the appenders in C and its ancestors. This is the meaning of the term "appender additivity". However, if an ancestor of logger C, say P, has the additivity flag set to false, then C's output will be directed to all the appenders in C and it's ancestors upto and including P but not the appenders in any of the ancestors of P. Loggers have their additivity flag set to true by default.

The table below shows an example:

Logger Name	Added Appenders	Additivity Flag	Output Targets	Comment
root	A1	not applicable	A1	The root logger is anonymous but can be accessed with the Logger::getRootLogger() method. There is no default appender attached to root.
x	A-x1, A-x2	true	A1, A-x1, A-x2	Appenders of "x" and root.
x.y	none	true	A1, A-x1, A-x2	Appenders of "x" and root.
x.y.z	A-xyz1	true	A1, A-x1, A-x2, A-xyz1	Appenders in "x.y.z", "x" and root.
security	A-sec	false	A-sec	No appender accumulation since the additivity flag is set to false.
security.access	none	true	A-sec	Only appenders of "security" because the additivity flag in "security" is set to false.

More often than not, users wish to customize not only the output destination but also the output format. This is accomplished by associating a layout with an appender. The layout is responsible for formatting the logging request according to the user's wishes, whereas an appender takes care of sending the formatted output to its destination. The PatternLayout, part of the standard log4cxx distribution, lets the user specify the output format according to conversion patterns similar to the C language printf function.

For example, the PatternLayout with the conversion pattern "%r [%t] %-5p %c - %m%n" will output something akin to:

176 [12345] INFO  org.foo.Bar - Located nearest gas station.

The first field is the number of milliseconds elapsed since the start of the program. The second field is the identifier of the thread making the log request. The third field is the level of the log statement. The fourth field is the name of the logger associated with the log request. The text after the '-' is the message of the statement.

Configuration

Inserting log requests into the application code requires a fair amount of planning and effort. Observation shows that approximately 4 percent of code is dedicated to logging. Consequently, even moderately sized applications will have thousands of logging statements embedded within their code. Given their number, it becomes imperative to manage these log statements without the need to modify them manually.

The log4cxx environment is fully configurable programmatically. However, it is far more flexible to configure log4cxx using configuration files. Currently, configuration files can be written in XML or in properties (key=value) format.

Let us give a taste of how this is done with the help of an imaginary application MyApp that uses log4cxx.

// file MyApp.cpp

#include "com/foo/bar.h";
using namespace com::foo;

// include log4cxx header files.
#include <log4cxx/logger.h>
#include <log4cxx/basicconfigurator.h>
#include <log4cxx/helpers/exception.h>

using namespace log4cxx;
using namespace log4cxx::helpers;

// Define a static logger variable so that it references the
// Logger instance named "MyApp".
LoggerPtr logger = Logger::getLogger(_T("MyApp"));

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
        int result = EXIT_SUCCESS;
        try
        {
                // Set up a simple configuration that logs on the console.
                BasicConfigurator::configure();

                logger->info(_T("Entering application."));
                Bar bar;
                bar.doIt();
                logger->info(_T("Exiting application."));
        }
        catch(Exception&)
        {
                result = EXIT_FAILURE;
        }

        return result;
}

MyApp begins by including log4cxx related headers. It then defines a static logger variable with the name MyApp which happens to be the fully qualified name of the class.

MyApp uses the Bar class defined in the header file com/foo/bar.h and the source file bar.cpp.

// file <com/foo/bar.h>

#include <log4cxx/logger.h>;

namespace com
{
        namespace foo
        {
                class Bar
                {
                        static log4cxx::LoggerPtr logger;

                public:
                        void doIt();
                };
        };
};

// file <bar.cpp>

#include "com/foo/bar.h"

using namespace com::foo;
using namespace log4cxx;

LoggerPtr Bar::logger = Logger::getLogger(_T("com.foo.bar"));

void Bar::doIt()
{
        logger->debug(_T("Did it again!"));
}

The invocation of the BasicConfigurator::configure method creates a rather simple log4cxx setup. This method is hardwired to add to the root logger ConsoleAppender. The output will be formatted using a PatternLayout set to the pattern "\%-4r [\%t] \%-5p \%c \%x - \%m\%n".

Note that by default, the root logger is assigned to Level::DEBUG.

The output of MyApp is:

0    [12345] INFO  MyApp  - Entering application.
36   [12345] DEBUG com.foo.Bar  - Did it again!
51   [12345] INFO  MyApp  - Exiting application.

As a side note, let me mention that in log4cxx child loggers link only to their existing ancestors. In particular, the logger named com.foo.Bar is linked directly to the root logger, thereby circumventing the unused com or com.foo loggers. This significantly increases performance and reduces log4cxx's memory footprint.

The MyApp class configures log4cxx by invoking BasicConfigurator::configure method. Other classes only need to include the <log4cxx/logger.h> header file, retrieve the loggers they wish to use, and log away.

The previous example always outputs the same log information. Fortunately, it is easy to modify MyApp so that the log output can be controlled at run-time. Here is a slightly modified version.

// file MyApp2.cpp

#include "com/foo/bar.h";
using namespace com::foo;

// include log4cxx header files.
#include <log4cxx/logger.h>
#include <log4cxx/basicconfigurator.h>
#include <log4cxx/propertyconfigurator.h>
#include <log4cxx/helpers/exception.h>

using namespace log4cxx;
using namespace log4cxx::helpers;

// Define a static logger variable so that it references the
// Logger instance named "MyApp".
LoggerPtr logger = Logger::getLogger(_T("MyApp"));

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
        int result = EXIT_SUCCESS;
        try
        {
                if (argc > 1)
                {
                        // BasicConfigurator replaced with PropertyConfigurator.
                        USES_CONVERSION;
                        String propertyFileName = A2W(argv[1]);
                        PropertyConfigurator::configure(propertyFileName);
                }
                else
                {
                        BasicConfigurator::configure();
                }

                logger->info(_T("Entering application."));
                Bar bar
                bar.doIt();
                logger->info(_T("Exiting application."));
        }
        catch(Exception&)
        {
                result = EXIT_FAILURE;
        }

        return result;
}

This version of MyApp instructs PropertyConfigurator to parse a configuration file and set up logging accordingly.

Here is a sample configuration file that results in exactly same output as the previous BasicConfigurator based example.

# Set root logger level to DEBUG and its only appender to A1. log4j.rootLogger=DEBUG, A1 # A1 is set to be a ConsoleAppender. log4j.appender.A1=org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender # A1 uses PatternLayout. log4j.appender.A1.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout log4j.appender.A1.layout.ConversionPattern=%-4r [%t] %-5p %c %x - %m%n

It can be noticed that the PropertyConfigurator file format is the same as in log4j.

Suppose we are no longer interested in seeing the output of any component belonging to the com::foo namespace. The following configuration file shows one possible way of achieving this.

log4j.rootLogger=DEBUG, A1 log4j.appender.A1=org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender log4j.appender.A1.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout # Print the date in ISO 8601 format log4j.appender.A1.layout.ConversionPattern=%d [%t] %-5p %c - %m%n # Print only messages of level WARN or above in the namespace com::foo. log4j.logger.com.foo=WARN

The output of MyApp configured with this file is shown below.

2000-09-07 14:07:41,508 [12345] INFO  MyApp - Entering application.
2000-09-07 14:07:41,529 [12345] INFO  MyApp - Exiting application.

As the logger com.foo.Bar does not have an assigned level, it inherits its level from com.foo, which was set to WARN in the configuration file. The log statement from the Bar::doIt method has the level DEBUG, lower than the logger level WARN. Consequently, doIt() method's log request is suppressed.

Here is another configuration file that uses multiple appenders.

log4j.rootLogger=debug, stdout, R log4j.appender.stdout=org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender log4j.appender.stdout.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout # Pattern to output the caller's file name and line number. log4j.appender.stdout.layout.ConversionPattern=%5p [t] (F:L) - m%n log4j.appender.R=org.apache.log4j.RollingFileAppender log4j.appender.R.File=example.log log4j.appender.R.MaxFileSize=100KB # Keep one backup file log4j.appender.R.MaxBackupIndex=1 log4j.appender.R.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout log4j.appender.R.layout.ConversionPattern=%p t c - m%n

Calling the enhanced MyApp with the this configuration file will output the following on the console.

 INFO [main] (MyApp2.cpp:31) - Entering application.
DEBUG [main] (Bar.h:16) - Doing it again!
 INFO [main] (MyApp2.cpp:34) - Exiting application.

In addition, as the root logger has been allocated a second appender, output will also be directed to the example.log file. This file will be rolled over when it reaches 100KB. When roll-over occurs, the old version of example.log is automatically moved to example.log.1.

Note that to obtain these different logging behaviors we did not need to recompile code. We could just as easily have logged to a UNIX Syslog daemon, redirected all com.foo output to an NT Event logger, or forwarded logging events to a remote log4cxx server, which would log according to local server policy, for example by forwarding the log event to a second log4cxx server.

Default Initialization Procedure

The log4cxx library does not make any assumptions about its environment. In particular, there are no default log4cxx appenders. Under certain well-defined circumstances however, the initialization of the logger hierarchy will attempt to automatically configure log4cxx.

The exact default initialization algorithm is defined as follows:

1. Set the configurationOptionStr string variable to the value of the log4j.configuration environment variable. The preferred way to specify the default initialization file is through the log4j.configuration environment variable. In case the environment variable log4j.configuration is not defined, then set the string variable configurationOptionStr to its default value "log4j.properties".
   
   
2. Attempt to convert the configurationOptionStr variable to a valid file name.
   
   
3. If no file could be found, abort default initialization. Otherwise, configure log4cxx from the file name.
   
   The PropertyConfigurator will be used to parse the file to configure log4cxx unless the file name ends with the ".xml" extension, in which case the DOMConfigurator will be used. You can optionaly specify a custom configurator. The value of the log4j.configuratorClass environment variable is taken as the fully qualified class name of your custom configurator. The custom configurator you specify must implement the Configurator interface.

Nested Diagnostic Contexts

Most real-world systems have to deal with multiple clients simultaneously. In a typical multithreaded implementation of such a system, different threads will handle different clients. Logging is especially well suited to trace and debug complex distributed applications. A common approach to differentiate the logging output of one client from another is to instantiate a new separate logger for each client. This promotes the proliferation of loggers and increases the management overhead of logging.

A lighter technique is to uniquely stamp each log request initiated from the same client interaction. Neil Harrison described this method in the book "Patterns for Logging Diagnostic Messages," in Pattern Languages of Program Design 3, edited by R. Martin, D. Riehle, and F. Buschmann (Addison-Wesley, 1997).

To uniquely stamp each request, the user pushes contextual information into the NDC, the abbreviation of Nested Diagnostic Context. The NDC class is shown below.

class NDC
{
public:
    // Used when printing the diagnostic
    static String get();

    // Remove the top of the context from the NDC.
    static String pop();

    // Add diagnostic context for the current thread.
    static void push(const String& message);

    // Remove the diagnostic context for this thread.
    static void remove();
 };

The NDC is managed per thread as a stack of contextual information. Note that all methods of the log4cxx::NDC class are static. Assuming that NDC printing is turned on, every time a log request is made, the appropriate log4cxx component will include the entire NDC stack for the current thread in the log output. This is done without the intervention of the user, who is responsible only for placing the correct information in the NDC by using the push and pop methods at a few well-defined points in the code. In contrast, the per-client logger approach commands extensive changes in the code.

To illustrate this point, let us take the example of a server delivering content to numerous clients. The server can build the NDC at the very beginning of the request before executing other code. The contextual information can be the client's host name and other information inherent to the request, typically caller identity. Hence, even if the server is serving multiple clients simultaneously, the logs initiated by the same code, i.e. belonging to the same logger, can still be distinguished because each client request will have a different NDC stack. Contrast this with the complexity of passing a freshly instantiated logger to all code exercised during the client's request.

Nevertheless, some sophisticated applications, such as virtual hosting web servers, must log differently depending on the virtual host context and also depending on the software component issuing the request. Recent log4cxx releases support multiple hierarchy trees. This enhancement allows each virtual host to possess its own copy of the logger hierarchy.

Performance

One of the often-cited arguments against logging is its computational cost. This is a legitimate concern as even moderately sized applications can generate thousands of log requests. Much effort was spent measuring and tweaking logging performance. Log4cxx claims to be fast and flexible: speed first, flexibility second.

The user should be aware of the following performance issues.

1. Logging performance when logging is turned off.
   
   When logging is turned off entirely or just for a set of levels, the cost of a log request consists of a method invocation plus an integer comparison. On a 233 MHz Pentium II machine this cost is typically in the 5 to 50 nanosecond range.
   
   However, The method invocation involves the "hidden" cost of parameter construction.
   
   For example, for some logger logger, writing,

   logger->debug("The user named [" + strName + "] is logged");
   

   incurs the cost of constructing the message parameter, i.e. concatenating intermediate strings, regardless of whether the message will be logged or not.
   
   This cost of parameter construction can be quite high and it depends on the size of the parameters involved.
   
   To avoid the parameter construction cost write:

   if(logger->isDebugEnabled()
   {
           logger->forcedLog(Level::DEBUG, 
                   "The user named [" + strName + "] is logged");
   }
   

   or in a simpler way:

   LOG4CXX_DEBUG(logger, "The user named [" + strName + "] is logged");
   

   
   Certain users resort to preprocessing or compile-time techniques to compile out all log statements. This leads to perfect performance efficiency with respect to logging. However, since the resulting application binary does not contain any log statements, logging cannot be turned on for that binary. In my opinion this is a disproportionate price to pay in exchange for a small performance gain.
   
   
2. The performance of deciding whether to log or not to log when logging is turned on.
   
   This is essentially the performance of walking the logger hierarchy. When logging is turned on, log4cxx still needs to compare the level of the log request with the level of the request logger. However, loggers may not have an assigned level; they can inherit them from the logger hierarchy. Thus, before inheriting a level, the logger may need to search its ancestors.
   
   There has been a serious effort to make this hierarchy walk to be as fast as possible. For example, child loggers link only to their existing ancestors. In the BasicConfigurator example shown earlier, the logger named com.foo.Bar is linked directly to the root logger, thereby circumventing the nonexistent com or com.foo loggers. This significantly improves the speed of the walk, especially in "sparse" hierarchies.
   
   The typical cost of walking the hierarchy is typically 3 times slower than when logging is turned off entirely.
   
   
3. Actually outputting log messages This is the cost of formatting the log output and sending it to its target destination. Here again, a serious effort was made to make layouts (formatters) perform as quickly as possible. The same is true for appenders. The typical cost of actually logging is about 100 to 300 microseconds.

Although log4cxx has many features, its first design goal was speed. Some log4cxx components have been rewritten many times to improve performance. Nevertheless, contributors frequently come up with new optimizations. You should be pleased to know that when configured with the SimpleLayout performance tests have shown log4cxx to log as quickly as std::cout.

Conclusion

Log4cxx is a popular logging package written in C++. One of its distinctive features is the notion of inheritance in loggers. Using a logger hierarchy it is possible to control which log statements are output at arbitrary granularity. This helps reduce the volume of logged output and minimize the cost of logging.

One of the advantages of the log4cxx API is its manageability. Once the log statements have been inserted into the code, they can be controlled with configuration files. They can be selectively enabled or disabled, and sent to different and multiple output targets in user-chosen formats. The log4cxx package is designed so that log statements can remain in shipped code without incurring a heavy performance cost.

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