I understand that Hibernate 3.x used SLF4J but Hibernate 4.x switched to JBoss Logging.

I am writing because I do not understand this change. My company uses SLF4J in most of our apps, and it works great: you can just plug in whatever implementation you like. Logging is useful, but simple, and SLF4J is a simple, versatile solution.

JBoss Logging, on the other hand, has caused us many headaches. Our app is using SLF4J directed to Log4j 2.x, but Hibernate is sending its logs to java.util.logging! It seems JBoss logging only uses SLF4J if Logback is on the classpath (unsure why) and this particular version of JBoss Logging doesn't seem to detect Log4j 2.x.

I think the issue is more than just some quirks in JBoss Logging's implementation. The whole concept of trying to support any logging backend with this auto-detection mechanism is, in the end, inferior to SLF4J's architecture. It means to support a new backend, changes have to be made to JBoss Logging. With SLF4J, however, any logging vendor can provide their own compliant SLF4J backend. (See log4j 2.x's SLf4J Bridge[1] for example.)

When a great logging API, SLF4J, already exists, why use JBoss Logging? Hibernate is great, but I believe this one aspect of Hibernate is detrimental to its users.

[1] http://logging.apache.org/log4j/2.x/maven-artifacts.html#SLF4J_Bridge

Hi,

you can find an explanation in the documentation (http://docs.jboss.org/hibernate/orm/5.0/topical/html/logging/Logging.html):



Maybe you are experiencing a known bug: https://issues.jboss.org/browse/JBLOGGING-112

Hope this help,
Davide