The Logging community consists of those who use Logging components, help answer questions on discussions lists, contribute documentation and patches, and those who develop and maintain the code for Logging components. Almost all those who assist on a day to day basis resolving bug reports do this for a wide variety of reasons, and almost all of them do this on their own time.

Many bugs reported end up not being a bug in the Logging component's code, but are due to misconfiguration, problems caused by installed applications, the operating system, etc.

Before reporting a bug please make every effort to resolve the problem yourself. Just reporting a bug will not fix it. A good bug report includes a detailed description of the problem and a succinct test case which can reproduce the problem.

The remainder of this document points you toward resources you can use to resolve the problem you are having.

Resources to help resolve Logging problems

Here are some resources you can use to help you resolve the problem you are having before reporting a bug.

Start by consulting the available documentation

• Documentation - Review the documentation for the version of the Logging component you are using. The problem you are having may already be addressed in the docs.
• Logs - If the logging component supports this feature, enable internal debugging of the logging component. This frequently yields enough information to solve the problem.
• FAQ's - Search Frequently Asked Question documents. Available FAQ's include: The log4j FAQ

Then, consult the mailing lists

It is very likely you are not the first to run into a problem. Others may have already found a solution. Our various mailing lists will likely have discussed this problem before.

Before reporting a bug, you are advised to discuss it on the relevant mailing list first.

Consult the Bug Database

Please search the bug database to see if the bug you are seeing has already been reported.

• The bug may have already been fixed and is available in a later version or nightly build.
• Someone else may have reported the bug, you could add supporting information to help reproduce and resolve the bug.

Search the log4j bug database here.

Search the log4cxx bug database here.

Reporting a Logging bug

If after you have exhausted all other resources to resolve a problem with your Logging component you may want to file a bug report. Please make sure the problem is a bug in Logging and not a bug in your application.

Please make sure you provide as much information as possible. Its very hard to fix a bug if the person looking into the problem can't reproduce it. Here is a listing of information which should be included:

• Logging component - Logging component which has the bug.
• Version - Logging component version, if from a nightly build, version and date of build.
• Platform - Hardward platform in use.
• OS - Computer operating system and version.
• JVM - JVM Version, if a java component or program.
• Configuration - Attach configuration files if they would help track down the bug.
• Log file excerpts - Review your logs files, reproduce the bug with debugging enabled in your Logging component configuration. Then submit any relevant sections of the log which help document the bug.
• Stack Traces - Any stack traces generated by the bug, if any.
• Example - Example configuration files or web applications which demonstrate the bug. When submitting an example which reproduces the bug, please try to make it as simple as possible.
• Bug Fix Patch - A patch created using diff -u which fixes the bug. (If you have found a bug fix which can be applied to the Logging component's code)
• Miscellaneous - Any other information you feel will help track down the problem.

Just reporting a bug will not fix it. A good bug report includes a detailed description of the problem and a succinct test case which can reproduce the problem.