Overview – Apache Commons Logging
Apache Commons Logging ™
Last Published: 04 Mar 2026
Version: 1.3.6
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The Logging Component
When writing a library it is very useful to log information. However there
are many logging implementations out there, and a library cannot impose the use
of a particular one on the overall application that the library is a part of.
The Logging package is an ultra-thin bridge between different logging
implementations. A library that uses the commons-logging API can be used with
any logging implementation at runtime. Commons Logging comes with support for a
number of popular logging implementations, and writing adapters for others is a
reasonably simple task.
Applications (rather than libraries) may also choose to use commons-logging.
While logging-implementation independence is not as important for applications
as it is for libraries, using commons-logging does allow the application to
change to a different logging implementation without recompiling code.
Note that commons-logging does not attempt to initialize or terminate the underlying
logging implementation that is used at runtime; that is the responsibility of
the application. However many popular logging implementations do automatically
initialize themselves; in this case an application may be able to avoid
containing any code that is specific to the logging implementation used.
Documentation
The
Release Notes
document the new features and bug fixes that have been
included in the latest release.
The
Javadoc API documents
for the latest release are available online.
In particular, you should read the package overview of the
org.apache.commons.logging
package. In addition, there is a (short)
User Guide
The
Wiki site
has
the latest updates, an FAQ, and much other useful information.
Users needing to become experts or wanting to help develop JCL should
(in addition) consult the
Tech Guide
This gives short introductions to topics such as advanced class loading.
Releases
Binary and source distributions are available
here
The full release history is
here
Release 1.3.x
See
change-report
Release 1.2 - July 2014
The main purpose of the 1.2 release is to drop support for Java 1.1.
For a full list of changes since the 1.1.3 release, please refer to the
change-report
Release 1.1.3 - May 2013
The 1.1.3 release only updates the Bundle-SymbolicName in the manifest
to "org.apache.commons.logging".
For a full list of changes since the 1.1.1 release, please refer to the
change-report
Release 1.1.2 - March 2013
The 1.1.2 release is a packaging of bug fixes since release 1.1.1.
For the full details, see the release notes for this version.
Release 1.1.1 - November 2007
This release is a minor update to the 1.1 release that fixes a number of bugs, and
resolves packaging issues for maven 1.x and maven 2.x users.
For the full details, see the release notes for this version.
Release 1.1 - 10 May 2006
This release makes several changes that are intended to resolve issues that
have been encountered when using commons-logging in servlet containers or j2ee
containers where complex classpaths are present and multiple copies of
commons-logging libraries are present at different levels.
This release also adds support for the TRACE level added to Log4j in the
1.2.12 release. In former commons-logging versions, the log.trace method
caused Log4j to output the message at the DEBUG level (the lowest level
supported by Log4j at that time).
For the full details, see the release notes for this version.
Release 1.0.5 (Alpha)
Note:
the 1.0.5 release was abandoned at alpha status.
The next JCL release will be designated 1.1 since we feel this more
accurately reflects the improvements made to the codebase.
Release 1.0.4 - 16 Jun 2004
The 1.0.4 release of commons-logging is a service release containing support
for both the 1.2.x and 1.3.x series of Log4J releases.
Release 1.0.3 - 7 Apr 2003
The 1.0.3 release is primarily a maintenance and code cleanup release with minimal new features.
Release 1.0.2 - 27 September 2002
The 1.0.2 release is a packaging of bug fixes since release 1.0.1.
Release 1.0.1 - 13 August 2002
The 1.0.1 release is a packaging of bug fixes and minor enhancements since release 1.0.
Development Builds
Regular builds of the current Git
master
branch code are made available in the
snapshot repository
. See the
wiki
for details.
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The Apache Software Foundation
Apache Commons, Apache Commons Logging, Apache, the Apache logo, and the Apache Commons project logos are trademarks of The Apache Software Foundation.
All other marks mentioned may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.