How to show log4j output in surefire test resports

Question

When a test fails in maven the surefire test report xml files in target/surefire-reports/TEST-<test-name>.xml only shows the Standard Output System.output or Standard Error System.err

When I use the jdk java.util.logging.Logger all the logging shows in the Standard Error <system-err> tag, but it does not show when I use log4j.

The logging with log4j is working fine through a FileAppender and a ConsoleAppender. It shows in the full console output, but not on the individual test report files.

• Can I configure log4j to redirect its output to System.out so it shows in surefire rerports?
• Can I tell surefire to also show the log4j debug logging?

Answer 1

• Option one:

  For standard logging (System.out/System.err), you can have the following output:

      <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>2.8.1</version>
  
          <configuration>
              <redirectTestOutputToFile>true</redirectTestOutputToFile>
          </configuration>
      </plugin>
  

  This will generate output files for each of the tests.

• Option two:

  For a log4j configuration you can create a custom log4j.xml / log4j.properties and simply place it under src/test/resources.

Answer 2

Update the surefire plugin version.

Using version 2.9 the log4j output appears in <system-out> when using the ConsoleAppender