About logback-android
Where the project came from, what it aims to be, and how the pieces fit together.
What is it?
logback-android is a lite version of logback
that runs on Android. logback is the successor to the classic log4j project, designed by the same
author, and is one of the most widely used logging frameworks on the JVM. logback-android adapts
that engine for Android: it removes server-oriented components that don't make sense on a phone
(Groovy config, JMX, servlet integration) and adds Android-specific ones, like the
LogcatAppender and runtime variables for app data directories.
Your application code never talks to logback-android directly. Instead, it logs through SLF4J, the standard Java logging facade. logback-android plugs in underneath as the implementation, which means libraries written against SLF4J — the vast majority of Java logging code — work on Android without modification.
Design goals
- Fidelity to logback. Configuration files, pattern layouts, filters, and appender concepts behave the way the logback manual describes them, so existing knowledge transfers directly.
- Configurability without code. Logging behavior lives in
logback.xml, not scattered through your source. Change destinations, levels, and formats without recompiling. - Android awareness. Built-in properties such as
${DATA_DIR},${LOG_DIR},${EXT_DIR},${PACKAGE_NAME},${VERSION_NAME}, and${VERSION_CODE}resolve at runtime, so one config works across devices and app versions. - Small footprint. Only what an Android app needs, keeping method count and APK size down.
A short history
The project was started in 2011 by Anthony Trinh (@tony19) as a port of logback to Android, and has been maintained continuously since. The 1.x series tracked logback 1.1; the 2.x series moved to logback 1.2 with AndroidX-era tooling; and the current 3.x series modernizes the toolchain with JDK-specific artifacts:
| Artifact | Bytecode | minSdk |
|---|---|---|
com.github.tony19:logback-android | Java 11 | 26 (Android 8.0) |
com.github.tony19:logback-android-jdk8 | Java 8 | 21 (Android 5.0) |
Use logback-android unless your app must support devices older than Android 8.0,
in which case use logback-android-jdk8. For the legacy 1.x line, see the
1.x branch.
How the pieces fit
┌─────────────────────────────┐
│ Your app & libraries │
│ log.info("hello world") │
└──────────────┬──────────────┘
│ SLF4J API (facade)
┌──────────────▼──────────────┐
│ logback-android │
│ levels · filters · layout │
└──┬─────┬─────┬─────┬─────┬──┘
│ │ │ │ │
logcat file SQLite socket syslog/emailLicense & contributing
logback-android is free software released under the Apache License 2.0. Bug reports, feature requests, and pull requests are welcome on the GitHub repository.