[ANNOUNCEMENT] Apache Log4j 2.8.1 released

[Ralph Goers <rg...@apache.org>]

The Apache Log4j 2 team is pleased to announce the Log4j 2.8.1 release!

Apache Log4j is a well known framework for logging application behavior. 
Log4j 2 is an upgrade to Log4j that provides significant improvements 
over its predecessor, Log4j 1.x, and provides many other modern features 
such as support for Markers, lambda expressions for lazy logging, 
property substitution using Lookups, multiple patterns on a 
PatternLayout and asynchronous Loggers. Another notable Log4j 2 feature 
is the ability to be "garbage-free" (avoid allocating temporary objects) 
while logging. In addition, Log4j 2 will not lose events while 
reconfiguring.

This release primarily contains bugfixes and minor enhancements. More 
details on the new features and fixes are itemized below.

Note that subsequent to the 2.6 release a minor source incompatibility 
was found due to the addition of new methods to the Logger interface. If 
you have code that does:

|logger.error(null, \u201cThis is the log message\u201d, throwable); |

or similar with any log level you will get a compiler error saying the 
reference is ambiguous. To correct this either do:

|logger.error(\u201cThis is the log message\u201d, throwable); |

or

|logger.error((Marker) null, \u201cThis is the log message\u201d, throwable); |

The Log4j 2.8.1 API, as well as many core components, maintains binary 
compatibility with previous releases.


    <https://github.com/apache/logging-log4j2/blob/master/RELEASE-NOTES.md#ga-release-281>GA
    Release 2.8.1

Changes in this version include:


      <https://github.com/apache/logging-log4j2/blob/master/RELEASE-NOTES.md#new-features>New
      Features

  * LOG4J2-1823 <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LOG4J2-1823>:
    Remove deprecation on MessageSupplier lambda functions in Logger API.
  * LOG4J2-1807 <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LOG4J2-1807>:
    [core] Add and implement LogEvent.toImmutable().


      <https://github.com/apache/logging-log4j2/blob/master/RELEASE-NOTES.md#fixed-bugs>Fixed
      Bugs

  * LOG4J2-1804 <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LOG4J2-1804>:
    Allow %i in file pattern to be preceded with characters other than
    just '-'. Thanks to Pierrick Hymbert.
  * LOG4J2-1816 <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LOG4J2-1816>:
    Change minOccur to minOccurs in Log4j-config.xsd. Thanks to
    shubhankar1100.
  * LOG4J2-1803 <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LOG4J2-1803>: Fix
    Maven POM to ensure JMH generated classes in log4j-perf are included
    in benchmarks jar.
  * LOG4J2-1800 <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LOG4J2-1800>:
    Report errors when sending to Kafka when using syncSend=false.
    Thanks to Vincent Tieleman.
  * LOG4J2-1805 <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LOG4J2-1805>:
    Fixed rare race condition in FixedDateFormat, made
    FixedDateFormat::millisSinceMidnight method public.
  * LOG4J2-1799 <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LOG4J2-1799>:
    Fixed bug in PropertiesUtil::getCharsetProperty that caused
    UnsupportedCharsetException for ConsoleAppender. Thanks to Eduard
    Gizatullin.
  * LOG4J2-1806 <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LOG4J2-1806>: Fix
    Javadoc for DefaultRolloverStrategy::purgeAscending Thanks to challarao.
  * LOG4J2-1818 <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LOG4J2-1818>: Fix
    rollover to work when filePattern contains no directory components.
    Thanks to xkr47.


      <https://github.com/apache/logging-log4j2/blob/master/RELEASE-NOTES.md#changes>Changes

  * LOG4J2-1822 <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LOG4J2-1822>:
    Update SLF4J to 1.7.24.
  * LOG4J2-1812 <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LOG4J2-1812>:
    Improved error message when log4j 2 configuration file not found.
  * LOG4J2-1810 <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LOG4J2-1810>:
    Update to use Logback 1.1.10 and then Logback 1.2 for tests.
  * LOG4J2-1819 <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LOG4J2-1819>:
    Update Jackson from 2.8.5 to 2.8.6.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apache Log4j 2.8.1 requires a minimum of Java 7 to build and run. Log4j 
2.3 was the last release that supported Java 6.

Basic compatibility with Log4j 1.x is provided through the log4j-1.2-api 
component, however it does not implement some of the very implementation 
specific classes and methods. The package names and Maven groupId have 
been changed to org.apache.logging.log4j to avoid any conflicts with 
log4j 1.x.

For complete information on Apache Log4j 2, including instructions on 
how to submit bug reports, patches, or suggestions for improvement, see 
the Apache Apache Log4j 2 website:

https://logging.apache.org/log4j/2.x/