A SLF4J Logger built primarily for use with GraalVM Native image that writes JSON structured logs (or plain format)
to System.out. It is designed to be used by applications that will be run in K8s or Lambda.
It supports GraalVM Native image, and also supports dynamic log levels. It is built with simple configuration in mind based on properties (no reflection).
It is not intended to be a full featured logging framework with appenders, filters, etc (sticking to System.out).
<dependency>
<groupId>io.avaje</groupId>
<artifactId>avaje-simple-logger</artifactId>
<version>1.3</version>
</dependency>Configure via adding a src/main/resources/avaje-logger.properties
## specify the default log level to use for testing
logger.defaultLogLevel=warn
## specify some default log levels
log.level.com.foo.bar=DEBUG
log.level.io.avaje=INFOFor testing, we might desire to log in a plain format rather than JSON format. We also might want to define some test specific log levels.
Add test specific configuration via src/test/resources/avaje-logger-test.properties
## for testing we desire plain format than json format
logger.format=plain
## default log level to use when running tests
logger.defaultLogLevel=INFO
## some test specific log levels
log.level.io.ebean.test.containers=TRACE
log.level.io.ebean.DDL=TRACE
#log.level.io.ebean.SQL=DEBUG
#log.level.io.ebean.TXN=DEBUGWe can override the configuration via setting a system property logger.config.
java -Dlogger.config=/path/to/my-logger.properties -jar myapp.jarNote that ~ can be used to represent the user home directory like:
java -Dlogger.config=~/my-logger.properties -jar myapp.jarWhen we specify an external configuration file via logger.config, then it is merged
with the default resource avaje-logger.properties configuration, with the external
configuration overriding the default configuration.
Note that GraalVM native image wants to initialize as much as possible at build time,
and specifically the System.Logger is initialized at build time. We want avaje-simple-logger to
be the System.Logger implementation, so avaje-simple-logger classes are also initialized at build time.
In the native-image build in user-specific feature(s): section we will see
io.avaje.simplelogger.graalvm.BuildInitialization indicating that is happening.
To debug avaje-simple-logger set the log level for io.avaje.simplelogger to DEBUG
log.level.io.avaje.simplelogger=DEBUGIf you are also using io.avaje:avaje-aws-appconfig, then you can additionally set io.avaje.config to TRACE.
log.level.io.avaje.config=TRACEConfigure the logger via main resource avaje-logger.properties
and test resource avaje-logger-test.properties
## specify the default log level to use
logger.defaultLogLevel=warn
## specify to log as `json` or `plain` format (defaults to json)
#logger.format=json
logger.format=plain
## specify if the logger name is abbreviated. Values:
## - full - use the full logger name
## - short - use the class name / suffix part of the logger name after the last `.`
## - (some integer e.g. 100) - abbreviate the logger name to the target length (shorten the package names)
logger.nameTargetLength=full
logger.nameTargetLength=short
logger.nameTargetLength=100
logger.nameTargetLength=100
## specify an explicit timezone to use, defaults to using default timezone
logger.timezone=UTC
## specify an explicit timestamp format to use, defaults to ISO_OFFSET_DATE_TIME
## valid values: ISO_OFFSET_DATE_TIME, ISO_ZONED_DATE_TIME, ISO_LOCAL_DATE_TIME, ISO_DATE_TIME, ISO_INSTANT
logger.timestampPattern=ISO_OFFSET_DATE_TIME
By default, the log format is JSON. Example:
{
"component":"my-application",
"env":"dev",
"timestamp":"2025-07-14T13:44:44.230959+12:00",
"level":"TRACE",
"logger":"io.avaje.config",
"message":"load from [resource:application-test.properties]",
"thread":"main"
}To override the json property names use logger.propertyNames delimited by = and , like:
## delimited by comma and equals
logger.propertyNames=logger=loggerName,env=environment,timestamp=@timestampExample overriding a single property:
logger.propertyNames=logger=loggerNameA component key value is added if:
- There is a
logger.componentproperty set inavaje-logger.properties - There is a
COMPONENTenvironment variable set - K8s is detected, it will be derived from the
HOSTNAMEenvironment variable
This key value is expected to represent the application component that is the source of the logs.
Examples:
## a literal value
logger.component=my-application
## uses system property `SERVICE_NAME` or environment variable `SERVICE_NAME`
logger.component=${SERVICE_NAME}
## uses system property `service.name` or environment variable `SERVICE_NAME`
logger.component=${service.name}
An env key value is added automatically if:
- There is a
logger.environmentproperty set inavaje-logger.properties - There is an
ENVIRONMENTenvironment variable set
Examples:
## uses system property `app.env` or environment variable `APP_ENV`, defaults to `localdev`
logger.environment=${app.env:localdev}
## literal value
logger.environment=DEVavaje-simple-logger automatically registers with avaje-config such that any configuration changes that
start with log.level. are logging level configuration changes, and these are applied.
avaje-config supports plugins like AWS AppConfig, where
configuration changes can be dynamically made to the application. For example, log.level. changes
can be dynamically made this way.
If an application does not need dynamic configuration, then we can just use avaje-simple-json-logger. This excludes the avaje-config dependency.
<dependency>
<groupId>io.avaje</groupId>
<artifactId>avaje-simple-json-logger</artifactId>
<version>1.0</version>
</dependency>Note that log levels can still be modified programmatically via:
Map<String, String> nameLevels = new HashMap<>();
nameLevels.put("com.foo", "debug");
nameLevels.put("com.foo.bar", "info");
...
LoggerContext.get().putAll(nameLevels);