Akka actor logging not writing to file

Question

I'm attempting to log to a file rather than stdout.

My application.conf (in src/main/resources/):

akka {
  event-handlers = ["akka.event.slf4j.Slf4jEventHandler"]
  loglevel = "DEBUG"
}

logback.xml (in src/main/resources/):

<configuration>

    <appender name="FILE" class="ch.qos.logback.core.FileAppender">
        <file>log/app.log</file>
        <append>true</append>
        <encoder>
            <pattern>%date{yyyy-MM-dd} %X{akkaTimestamp} %-5level[%thread] %logger{1} - %msg%n</pattern>
        </encoder>
    </appender>

    <root level="DEBUG">
        <appender-ref ref="FILE"/>
    </root>
</configuration>

Creating the actor system:

val conf: Config = ConfigFactory.load()
val system = ActorSystem("Process", conf)

Finally, the actual logging:

class Processor() extends Actor with ActorLogging {
   def receive = {
      case Start =>
         log.info("Started")
   }
}

However, when running the app, I get the logging in stdout:

[info] Running com.imgzine.analytics.apps.ProcessEvents
[DEBUG] [06/02/2014 09:28:53.356] [run-main] [EventStream(akka://Process)] logger log1-Logging$DefaultLogger started
[DEBUG] [06/02/2014 09:28:53.358] [run-main] [EventStream(akka://Process)] Default Loggers started
[INFO] [06/02/2014 09:28:53.389] [Process-akka.actor.default-dispatcher-4] [akka://Process/user/processor] Started
[DEBUG] [06/02/2014 09:28:54.887] [Process-akka.actor.default-dispatcher-4] [EventStream] shutting down: StandardOutLogger started

And inside log/app.log, I find:

2014-06-02  DEBUG[ProcessEvents-akka.actor.default-dispatcher-2] c.m.c.c.c.s.RegisterConversionHelpers$ - Registering Scala Conversions.
2014-06-02  DEBUG[ProcessEvents-akka.actor.default-dispatcher-2] c.m.c.c.c.s.RegisterConversionHelpers$ - Deserializers for Scala Conversions registering
2014-06-02  DEBUG[ProcessEvents-akka.actor.default-dispatcher-2] c.m.c.c.c.s.RegisterConversionHelpers$ - Serializers for Scala Conversions registering
2014-06-02  DEBUG[ProcessEvents-akka.actor.default-dispatcher-2] c.m.c.c.c.s.RegisterConversionHelpers$ - Setting up OptionSerializer
2014-06-02  DEBUG[ProcessEvents-akka.actor.default-dispatcher-2] c.m.c.c.c.s.RegisterConversionHelpers$ - Setting up ScalaProductSerializer
2014-06-02  DEBUG[ProcessEvents-akka.actor.default-dispatcher-2] c.m.c.c.c.s.RegisterConversionHelpers$ - Setting up ScalaCollectionSerializer
2014-06-02  DEBUG[ProcessEvents-akka.actor.default-dispatcher-2] c.m.c.c.c.s.RegisterConversionHelpers$ - Setting up ScalaRegexSerializers
2014-06-02  DEBUG[ProcessEvents-akka.actor.default-dispatcher-2] c.m.c.c.c.s.RegisterConversionHelpers$ - Hooking up scala.util.matching.Regex serializer
2014-06-02  DEBUG[ProcessEvents-akka.actor.default-dispatcher-2] c.m.c.c.c.s.RegisterConversionHelpers$ - Reached base registration method on MongoConversionHelper.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

If you are using Akka 2.3.3 as stated in response to my comment, then your config around logging is out of date (using old logging config setup). Try replacing your logging config with:

akka {
  loggers = ["akka.event.slf4j.Slf4jLogger"]
  loglevel = "DEBUG"
}

If that does not work let me know and I'll advise on another solution.