Chapter 22. Logging

You can use the command line switches shown in Table 22.2, “Log level command-line options” to choose different log levels. In Table 22.3, “Stacktrace command-line options” you find the command line switches which affect stacktrace logging.

A simple option for logging in your build file is to write messages to standard output. Gradle redirects anything written to standard output to it's logging system at the QUIET log level.

println 'A message which is logged at QUIET level'

Gradle also provides a logger property to a build script, which is an instance of Logger. This interface extends the SLF4J Logger interface and adds a few Gradle specific methods to it. Below is an example of how this is used in the build script:

logger.quiet('An info log message which is always logged.')
logger.error('An error log message.')
logger.warn('A warning log message.')
logger.lifecycle('A lifecycle info log message.')
logger.info('An info log message.')
logger.debug('A debug log message.')
logger.trace('A trace log message.')

You can also hook into Gradle's logging system from within other classes used in the build (classes from the buildSrc directory for example). Simply use an SLF4J logger. You can use this logger the same way as you use the provided logger in the build script.

import org.slf4j.Logger
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory

Logger slf4jLogger = LoggerFactory.getLogger('some-logger')
slf4jLogger.info('An info log message logged using SLF4j')

Internally, Gradle uses Ant and Ivy. Both have their own logging system. Gradle redirects their logging output into the Gradle logging system. There is a 1:1 mapping from the Ant/Ivy log levels to the Gradle log levels, except the Ant/Ivy TRACE log level, which is mapped to Gradle DEBUG log level. This means the default Gradle log level will not show any Ant/Ivy output unless it is an error or a warning.

There are many tools out there which still use standard output for logging. By default, Gradle redirects standard output to the QUIET log level and standard error to the ERROR level. This behavior is configurable. The project object provides a LoggingManager, which allows you to change the log levels that standard out or error are redirected to when your build script is evaluated.

logging.captureStandardOutput LogLevel.INFO
println 'A message which is logged at INFO level'

To change the log level for standard out or error during task execution, tasks also provide a LoggingManager.

task logInfo {
    logging.captureStandardOutput LogLevel.INFO
    doFirst {
        println 'A task message which is logged at INFO level'
    }
}

Gradle also provides integration with the Java Util Logging, Jakarta Commons Logging and Log4j logging toolkits. Any log messages which your build classes write using these logging toolkits will be redirected to Gradle's logging system.

You can replace much of Gradle's logging UI with your own. You might do this, for example, if you want to customize the UI in some way - to log more or less information, or to change the formatting. You replace the logging using the Gradle.useLogger(java.lang.Object) method. This is accessible from a build script, or an init script, or via the embedding API. Note that this completely disables Gradle's default output. Below is an example init script which changes how task execution and build completion is logged.

useLogger(new CustomEventLogger())

class CustomEventLogger extends BuildAdapter implements TaskExecutionListener {

    public void beforeExecute(Task task) {
        println "[$task.name]"
    }

    public void afterExecute(Task task, TaskState state) {
        println()
    }
    
    public void buildFinished(BuildResult result) {
        println 'build completed'
        if (result.failure != null) {
            result.failure.printStackTrace()
        }
    }
}

> gradle -I init.gradle build
[compile]
compiling source

[testCompile]
compiling test source

[test]
running unit tests

[build]

build completed

Your logger can implement any of the listener interfaces listed below. When you register a logger, only the logging for the interfaces that it implements is replaced. Logging for the other interfaces is left untouched. You can find out more about the listener interfaces in Section 20.6, “Responding to the lifecycle in the build script”.