The core.Logger#setLevel method should work like

Configurator#setLevel #2281

Author: garydgregory

log4j-1.2-api/src/main/java/org/apache/log4j/legacy/core/CategoryUtil.java

@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.core.Appender;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.core.Filter;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.core.LogEvent;
+import org.apache.logging.log4j.core.config.Configurator;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.core.config.LoggerConfig;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.spi.LoggerContext;
 
@@ -127,7 +128,7 @@ public static void setAdditivity(final Logger logger, final boolean additive) {
      */
     public static void setLevel(final Logger logger, final Level level) {
         if (isCore(logger)) {
-            asCore(logger).setLevel(level);
+            Configurator.setLevel(asCore(logger), level);
         }
     }
 

log4j-1.2-api/src/test/java/org/apache/log4j/LoggerTest.java

@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.core.test.appender.ListAppender;
 import org.junit.After;
 import org.junit.AfterClass;
+import org.junit.Before;
 import org.junit.BeforeClass;
 import org.junit.Test;
 
@@ -76,8 +77,10 @@ public static void tearDownClass() {
     }
 
     @After
+    @Before
     public void tearDown() {
         LoggerContext.getContext().reconfigure();
+        Logger.getRootLogger().setLevel(Level.DEBUG);
         a1 = null;
         a2 = null;
     }

pom.xml

@@ -542,6 +542,7 @@
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.rat</groupId>
         <artifactId>apache-rat-plugin</artifactId>
+        <version>0.16.1</version>
         <configuration>
           <consoleOutput>true</consoleOutput>
           <excludes combine.children="append">