Very simple log4j2 XML configuration file using Console and File appender

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="INFO">
    <Appenders>
        <Console name="Console" target="SYSTEM_OUT">
            <PatternLayout pattern="%d{HH:mm:ss.SSS} [%t] %-5level %logger{36} - %msg%n" />
        </Console>
        <File name="MyFile" fileName="all.log" immediateFlush="false" append="false">
            <PatternLayout pattern="%d{yyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS} [%t] %-5level %logger{36} - %msg%n"/>
        </File>
    </Appenders>
    <Loggers>
        <Root level="debug">
            <AppenderRef ref="Console" />
            <AppenderRef ref="MyFile"/>
        </Root>
    </Loggers>
</Configuration>

Notes:

• Put the following content in your configuration file.
• Name the configuration file log4j2.xml
• Put the log4j2.xml in a folder which is in the class-path (i.e. your source folder "src")
• Use Logger logger = LogManager.getLogger(); to initialize your logger
• I did set the immediateFlush="false" since this is better for SSD lifetime. If you need the log right away in your log-file remove the parameter or set it to true

There are excellent answers, but if you want to color your console logs you can use the pattern :

<PatternLayout pattern="%style{%date{DEFAULT}}{yellow}
            [%t] %highlight{%-5level}{FATAL=bg_red, ERROR=red, WARN=yellow, INFO=green} %logger{36} - %message\n"/>

The full log4j2 file is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="WARN">
    <Properties>
        <Property name="APP_LOG_ROOT">/opt/test/log</Property>
    </Properties>
    <Appenders>
        <Console name="ConsoleAppender" target="SYSTEM_OUT">
            <PatternLayout pattern="%style{%date{DEFAULT}}{yellow}
                [%t] %highlight{%-5level}{FATAL=bg_red, ERROR=red, WARN=yellow, INFO=green} %logger{36} - %message\n"/>
        </Console>
        <RollingFile name="XML_ROLLING_FILE_APPENDER"
                     fileName="${APP_LOG_ROOT}/appName.log"
                     filePattern="${APP_LOG_ROOT}/appName-%d{yyyy-MM-dd}-%i.log.gz">
            <PatternLayout pattern="%d{DEFAULT} [%t] %-5level %logger{36} - %msg%n"/>
            <Policies>
                <SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy size="19500KB"/>
            </Policies>
        </RollingFile>
    </Appenders>
    <Loggers>
        <Root level="error">
            <AppenderRef ref="ConsoleAppender"/>
        </Root>
        <Logger name="com.compName.projectName" level="debug">
            <AppenderRef ref="XML_ROLLING_FILE_APPENDER"/>
        </Logger>
    </Loggers>
</Configuration>

And the logs will look like this:

log4j2 has a very flexible configuration system (which IMHO is more a distraction than a help), you can even use JSON. See https://logging.apache.org/log4j/2.x/manual/configuration.html for a reference.

Personally, I just recently started using log4j2, but I'm tending toward the "strict XML" configuration (that is, using attributes instead of element names), which can be schema-validated.

Here is my simple example using autoconfiguration and strict mode, using a "Property" for setting the filename:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration monitorinterval="30" status="info" strict="true">
    <Properties>
        <Property name="filename">log/CelsiusConverter.log</Property>
    </Properties>
    <Appenders>
        <Appender type="Console" name="Console">
            <Layout type="PatternLayout" pattern="%d %p [%t] %m%n" />
        </Appender>
        <Appender type="Console" name="FLOW">
            <Layout type="PatternLayout" pattern="%C{1}.%M %m %ex%n" />
        </Appender>
        <Appender type="File" name="File" fileName="${filename}">
            <Layout type="PatternLayout" pattern="%d %p %C{1.} [%t] %m%n" />
        </Appender>
    </Appenders>
    <Loggers>
        <Root level="debug">
            <AppenderRef ref="File" />
            <AppenderRef ref="Console" />
            <!-- Use FLOW to trace down exact method sending the msg -->
            <!-- <AppenderRef ref="FLOW" /> -->
        </Root>
    </Loggers>
</Configuration>

Here is my simplistic log4j2.xml that prints to console and writes to a daily rolling file:

// java
private static final Logger LOGGER = LogManager.getLogger(MyClass.class);


// log4j2.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="WARN">
    <Properties>
        <Property name="logPath">target/cucumber-logs</Property>
        <Property name="rollingFileName">cucumber</Property>
    </Properties>
    <Appenders>
        <Console name="console" target="SYSTEM_OUT">
            <PatternLayout pattern="[%highlight{%-5level}] %d{DEFAULT} %c{1}.%M() - %msg%n%throwable{short.lineNumber}" />
        </Console>
        <RollingFile name="rollingFile" fileName="${logPath}/${rollingFileName}.log" filePattern="${logPath}/${rollingFileName}_%d{yyyy-MM-dd}.log">
            <PatternLayout pattern="[%highlight{%-5level}] %d{DEFAULT} %c{1}.%M() - %msg%n%throwable{short.lineNumber}" />
            <Policies>
                <!-- Causes a rollover if the log file is older than the current JVM's start time -->
                <OnStartupTriggeringPolicy />
                <!-- Causes a rollover once the date/time pattern no longer applies to the active file -->
                <TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy interval="1" modulate="true" />
            </Policies>
        </RollingFile>
    </Appenders>
    <Loggers>
        <Root level="DEBUG" additivity="false">
            <AppenderRef ref="console" />
            <AppenderRef ref="rollingFile" />
        </Root>
    </Loggers>
</Configuration>

TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy

interval (integer) - How often a rollover should occur based on the most specific time unit in the date pattern. For example, with a date pattern with hours as the most specific item and and increment of 4 rollovers would occur every 4 hours. The default value is 1.

modulate (boolean) - Indicates whether the interval should be adjusted to cause the next rollover to occur on the interval boundary. For example, if the item is hours, the current hour is 3 am and the interval is 4 then the first rollover will occur at 4 am and then next ones will occur at 8 am, noon, 4pm, etc.

Source: https://logging.apache.org/log4j/2.x/manual/appenders.html

Output:

[INFO ] 2018-07-21 12:03:47,412 ScenarioHook.beforeScenario() - Browser=CHROME32_NOHEAD
[INFO ] 2018-07-21 12:03:48,623 ScenarioHook.beforeScenario() - Screen Resolution (WxH)=1366x768
[DEBUG] 2018-07-21 12:03:52,125 HomePageNavigationSteps.I_Am_At_The_Home_Page() - Base URL=http://simplydo.com/projector/
[DEBUG] 2018-07-21 12:03:52,700 NetIncomeProjectorSteps.I_Enter_My_Start_Balance() - Start Balance=348000

A new log file will be created daily with previous day automatically renamed to:

cucumber_yyyy-MM-dd.log

In a Maven project, you would put the log4j2.xml in src/main/resources or src/test/resources.