Disable Logging Messages for HttpClient

Question

I am using Selenium to automate TestCases using TestNG Framework. It invokes WebDriver which internally uses HTTPClient lib. In my classpath there are multiple logging jars namely - slf4j & log4j.

I have tried almost everything written here - Disable HttpClient logging like creating a log4j.properties file , commons-logging.properties file and then adding to classpath- src/java/main

So I have 2 Questions -

1. How to force HttpClient to use a particular logging jar ( as I have not added any logging Dependency regarding logging Jars. They are automatically downloaded as some of the other dependencies might be internally using that.)

2. How to Disable Unwanted Debug Messages of HttpClient.

   SLF4J: Class path contains multiple SLF4J bindings. SLF4J: Found binding in [jar:file:/C:/Users/~/.m2/repository/ch/qos/logback/logback-classic/1.0.7/logback-classic-1.0.7.jar!/org/slf4j/impl/StaticLoggerBinder.class] SLF4J: Found binding in [jar:file:/C:/Users/~/.m2/repository/org/slf4j/slf4j-log4j12/1.6.1/slf4j-log4j12-1.6.1.jar!/org/slf4j/impl/StaticLoggerBinder.class] SLF4J: Found binding in [jar:file:/C:/Users/~/.m2/repository/org/apache/activemq/activemq-all/5.6.0/activemq-all-5.6.0.jar!/org/slf4j/impl/StaticLoggerBinder.class] SLF4J: See http://www.slf4j.org/codes.html#multiple_bindings for an explanation. SLF4J: Actual binding is of type [ch.qos.logback.classic.util.ContextSelectorStaticBinder] Starting ChromeDriver (v2.9.248315) on port 3052

   18:27:00.726 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG o.a.h.c.protocol.RequestAddCookies - CookieSpec selected: best-match
   18:27:00.727 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG o.a.h.c.protocol.RequestAuthCache - Auth cache not set in the context
   18:27:00.727 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG o.a.h.i.c.PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager - Connection request: [route: {}->http://localhost:3052][total kept alive: 0; route allocated: 0 of 2000; total allocated: 0 of 2000]
   18:27:00.758 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG o.a.h.i.c.PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager - Connection leased: [id: 0][route: {}->http://localhost:3052][total kept alive: 0; route allocated: 1 of 2000; total allocated: 1 of 2000]
   18:27:00.774 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG o.a.h.impl.execchain.MainClientExec - Opening connection {}->http://localhost:3052
   18:27:00.774 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG o.a.h.i.c.HttpClientConnectionOperator - Connecting to localhost/127.0.0.1:3052
   18:27:00.774 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG o.a.h.i.c.HttpClientConnectionOperator - Connection established 127.0.0.1:50744<->127.0.0.1:3052
   18:27:00.774 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG o.a.h.impl.execchain.MainClientExec - Executing request POST /session HTTP/1.1
   18:27:00.774 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG o.a.h.impl.execchain.MainClientExec - Target auth state: UNCHALLENGED
   18:27:00.774 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG o.a.h.impl.execchain.MainClientExec - Proxy auth state: UNCHALLENGED
   18:27:00.774 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG org.apache.http.headers - http-outgoing-0 >> POST /session HTTP/1.1
   18:27:00.774 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG org.apache.http.headers - http-outgoing-0 >> Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
   18:27:00.774 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG org.apache.http.headers - http-outgoing-0 >> Content-Length: 169
   18:27:00.774 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG org.apache.http.headers - http-outgoing-0 >> Host: localhost:3052
   18:27:00.774 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG org.apache.http.headers - http-outgoing-0 >> Connection: Keep-Alive
   18:27:00.774 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG org.apache.http.headers - http-outgoing-0 >> User-Agent: Apache-HttpClient/4.3.4 (java 1.5)
   18:27:00.774 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG org.apache.http.headers - http-outgoing-0 >> Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate
   18:27:00.774 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG org.apache.http.wire - http-outgoing-0 >> "POST /session HTTP/1.1[\r][\n]"
   18:27:00.774 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG org.apache.http.wire - http-outgoing-0 >> "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8[\r][\n]"
   18:27:00.774 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG org.apache.http.wire - http-outgoing-0 >> "Content-Length: 169[\r][\n]"
   18:27:00.774 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG org.apache.http.wire - http-outgoing-0 >> "Host: localhost:3052[\r][\n]"
   18:27:00.774 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG org.apache.http.wire - http-outgoing-0 >> "Connection: Keep-Alive[\r][\n]"
   18:27:00.774 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG org.apache.http.wire - http-outgoing-0 >> "User-Agent: Apache-HttpClient/4.3.4 (java 1.5)[\r][\n]"
   18:27:00.774 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG org.apache.http.wire - http-outgoing-0 >> "Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate[\r][\n]"
   18:27:00.774 [Forwarding newSession on session null to remote] DEBUG org.apache.http.wire - http-outgoing-0 >> "[\r][\n]"
   

Answer 1

I added a file src/test/resources/logback.xml with the following content:

<configuration>
<appender name="STDOUT" class="ch.qos.logback.core.ConsoleAppender">
    <encoder>
        <Pattern>%d{dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss.SSS} [%thread] %-5level %logger{36} - %msg%n</Pattern>
    </encoder>
</appender>
<logger name="org.apache.http" level="INFO"/>
<root level="INFO">
    <appender-ref ref="STDOUT"/>
</root>

Works like a charm

The key is that the file logback.xml is under test/resources.

Answer 2

I had the same problem, wanted to hide this logs:

13:00:17.577 [main] DEBUG org.apache.http.client.protocol.RequestAddCookies - CookieSpec selected: default
13:00:17.594 [main] DEBUG org.apache.http.client.protocol.RequestAuthCache - Auth cache not set in the context

Took me some good time to find a solution and I will try to make it more general. httpclient can also use custom logging frameworks. I'm using httpclient in a spring rest api project.

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
    <artifactId>httpclient</artifactId>
    <version>4.5.2</version>
</dependency>

1. First know what wrapper httpclient is using for logging.

   1.1 The method that give me success was adding slf4j-nop as a dependency for my project. By adding the dependency SLF4J thrown an exception because of multiple_bindings.

   SLF4J: Class path contains multiple SLF4J bindings.
   SLF4J: Found binding in [jar:file:/Users/francisc/.m2/repository/ch/qos/logback/logback-classic/1.1.8/logback-classic-1.1.8.jar!/org/slf4j/impl/StaticLoggerBinder.class]
   SLF4J: Found binding in [jar:file:/Users/francisc/.m2/repository/org/slf4j/slf4j-nop/1.7.22/slf4j-nop-1.7.22.jar!/org/slf4j/impl/StaticLoggerBinder.class]
   SLF4J: See http://www.slf4j.org/codes.html#multiple_bindings for an explanation.
   

   1.2 The first bind is the one that we are looking for. The jar name in my case logback-classic-1.1.8.jar, is the wrapper that we need to find configurations to hide debug messages.

2. Now we know, we are using slf4j with Logback logger

   2.1 Add logback.xml to your project (src/main/resources/logback.xml).

   2.2 Sample for configuration to get things started and configure it later as you want.

   <configuration>
     <appender name="STDOUT" class="ch.qos.logback.core.ConsoleAppender">
       <encoder>
         <pattern>%d{HH:mm:ss.SSS} [%thread] %-5level %logger{36} - %msg%n</pattern>
       </encoder>
     </appender>
   
     <logger name="deng" level="DEBUG"/>
   
     <root level="INFO">
       <appender-ref ref="STDOUT" />
     </root>
   </configuration>
   

Comment if something is not clear.

Answer 3

The Solution to this problem I could find-out was to First Check where the logging jar is coming from. For that you can make Maven Dependency Tree, by running following command on cmd -

mvn dependency:tree  > test.txt

now Open this text.txt file and check which Logger.jar is getting downloaded. After Identifying it you can exclude this jar using exclusions tag in pom.xml

    <exclusions>
            <exclusion>
                <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
                <artifactId>log4j-over-slf4j</artifactId>
            </exclusion>
        </exclusions>