log4j:WARN No appenders could be found for logger (running jar file, not web app)

There are many possible options for specifying your log4j configuration. One is for the file to be named exactly "log4j.properties" and be in your classpath. Another is to name it however you want and add a System property to the command line when you start Java, like this:

-Dlog4j.configuration=file:///path/to/your/log4j.properties

All of them are outlined here http://logging.apache.org/log4j/1.2/manual.html#defaultInit

Solution

1. Download log4j.jar file
2. Add the log4j.jar file to build path

3. Call logger by:

   private static org.apache.log4j.Logger log 
       = Logger.getLogger(<class-where-this-is-used>.class);
   

4. if log4j properties does not exist, create new file log4j.properties file new file in bin directory:

   /workspace/projectdirectory/bin/
   

Sample log4j.properties file

log4j.rootLogger=debug, stdout
log4j.appender.stdout=org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender
log4j.appender.stdout.Target=System.out
log4j.appender.stdout.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.stdout.layout.ConversionPattern=%t %-5p %c{2} - %m%n 

I had moved my log4j.properties into the resources folder and it worked fine for me !