Classpath Setup

In order to run the examples provided in the documentation, you need to add the following jars to your class path:

The logback-*.jar files are part of the logback distribution whereas slf4j-api-1.7.13.jar ships with SLF4J, a separate project.

Running from the command line

Assuming your current directory is $LOGBACK_HOME/logback-examples, where $LOGBACK_HOME stands for the directory where you installed logback, you can launch the first sample application, chapters.introduction.HelloWord1 with the following command:

java -cp lib/slf4j-api-1.7.13.jar;../logback-core-1.1.3.jar;\ ../logback-classic-1.1.3.jar;logback-examples-1.1.3.jar\ chapters.introduction.HelloWorld1

It is more convenient to set the CLASSPATH environment variable once and for all before running the examples.

The setClasspath.cmd script located in the $LOGBACK_HOME/logback-examples folder will configure the class path for the MS Windows platform. For Unix, you can use setClasspath.sh.

Please edit the script in order to adapt the LB_HOME variable to match your local environment.

Please be aware that many examples will launch Java classes along with configuration files. To access these files by using the same commands as written in the documentation, you will need to issue the commands from within the $LOGBACK_HOME/logback-examples directory.

SMTPAppender requires JavaMail API

SMTPAppender related examples require the JavaMail API version 1.4 or later. Once you download JavaMail, you need to place mail.jar on your class path.

Here is the corresponding Maven dependency declaration for your convenience.

<!-- The javax.activation:activation:1.1 dependency will be -->
<!-- automatically pulled in by Maven's transitivity rules -->
<dependency>
  <groupId>javax.mail</groupId>
  <artifactId>mail</artifactId>
  <version>1.4</version>
</dependency>

GEventEvaluator and logback.groovy configuration files require the Groovy runtime

GEventEvaluator depends on the Groovy runtime. It was tested with Groovy version 2.4.0. Similarly, as the name indicates groovy configuration files require the groovy runtime to be present on your class path.

Here is the corresponding Maven dependency declaration for your convenience. 

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.codehaus.groovy</groupId>
  <artifactId>groovy-all</artifactId>
  <version>2.4.0</version>
</dependency>

Conditional processing and JaninoEventEvaluator require the Janino library

Conditional processing in configuration files requires the Janino library. Moreover, the evaluator examples based on JaninoEventEvaluator require Janino as well. Once you download Janino, simply place commons-compiler.jar and janino.jar on your application's class path.

Don't forget As of Janino version 2.6.0, in addition to janino.jar, commons-compiler.jar needs to be on the class path as well.

Here is the corresponding Maven dependency declaration for your convenience. 

<!-- The org.codehaus.janino:commons-compiler:2.7.8 dependency -->
<!-- will be automatically pulled in by Maven's transitivity rules -->
<dependency>
  <groupId>org.codehaus.janino</groupId>
  <artifactId>janino</artifactId>
  <version>2.7.8</version>
</dependency>

Building with an IDE

If you wish to contribute to the project or just hack for fun, you will probably want to import logback as a project into your favorite IDE. Logback uses Maven as its build tool. Logback offers a Groovy-based configurator so there is a dependency on the Groovy language. It follows that your IDE should have plugins for Maven and Groovy in order to build logback from your within IDE. The Groovy dependency just mentioned is a build-time dependency. The only mandatory logback dependency at runrime is the JRE, unless of course you wish to use the Groovy configurator in which case Groovy runtime will be a required dependency as well. Also note that building from the command line is fairly trivial, the command 'mvn install' given from $LOGBACK_HOME folder should suffice.

ask for help Notwithstanding the instructions below, if you have trouble building logback from the sources, just ask for help on the logback-dev mailing list.

Building logback with IntelliJ IDEA

Assuming you have the latest version of IntelliJ IDEA installed, no additional plugin installation is necessary. IntelliJ IDEA supports Maven as well as Groovy out of the box. You can import logback into IDEA by selecting File→ New Project → Import from external model→ Maven, then select $LOGBACK_HOME as the Root directory. The import should finish successfully in a few seconds.

Building with Eclipse

Building logback under Eclipse is a little trickier. Here are instructions for building logback under Eclipse in 61 easy steps.

The author does not wish to unduly disparage m2eclipse. However, as of this writing, that is October 2011, it appears that the key to building logback under Eclipse is to avoid using m2eclipse. If you have m2eclipse installed, you can disable it by removing the Maven Nature for a given project. In later versions of Eclipse, m2eclipse is installed bu default. As of logback version 1.0.7, the pom.xml file for logback-core now deactivates m2eclipse as explained in M2E plugin wiki.

And without further ado here are the steps:

  1. Install Eclipse
  2. Install the Groovy plugin for Eclipse.

    • You first need to determine the update site appropriate for your version of Eclipse. The list of available update sites is available from Groovy project documentation.

      For example, for Eclipse 4.2 (Juno) the URL of the update site is "http://dist.springsource.org/release/GRECLIPSE/e4.2/".

    • In Eclipse, select Help → Intall new Software → Work with the update site you chose in the previous step and then Select "Groovy-Eclipse Feature". Installation of other plugins in particular "m2e Configurator for Groovy-Eclipse" is not necessary 
  3. cd $LOGBACK_HOME
    where $LOGBACK_HOME stands for the location where you cloned the logback project from github
  4. From the command line, run mvn eclipse:eclipse in $LOGBACK_HOME
  5. In Eclipse, import the logback project: Import→ General→ Existing Projects into Workspace, select $LOGBACK_HOME folder for the import
  6. In Eclipse, remove the "**/EvaluatorTemplate.groovy" inclusion pattern from the logback-classic/src/main/groovy build path (logback-classic→ project properties → Java Build Path) as shown next:

  7. In Eclipse, remove the logback-classic/target/generated-sources/groovy-stubs/main directory from the list of source folders (logback-classic→ project properties → Java Build Path) as shown next.

  8. In Eclipse, clean all projects in Eclipse (Project → Clean)
  9. In Eclipse, select logback-classic project and check that it has "Groovy" nature. If not add it by right clicking on logback-classic project → Groovy → Convert Groovy to Project.

The above listed procedure has been last tested by the author using Eclipse Luna on March 5th 2015.