maven compilation - error log4j

Change the scope of the log4j dependency to compile or remove it.

Delete this in your POM:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
    <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
    <version>${org.slf4j-version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
    <artifactId>jcl-over-slf4j</artifactId>
    <version>${org.slf4j-version}</version>
    <scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
    <artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>
    <version>${org.slf4j-version}</version>
    <scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>log4j</groupId>
    <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
    <version>1.2.15</version>
    <exclusions>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>javax.mail</groupId>
            <artifactId>mail</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>javax.jms</groupId>
            <artifactId>jms</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>com.sun.jdmk</groupId>
            <artifactId>jmxtools</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>com.sun.jmx</groupId>
            <artifactId>jmxri</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
    </exclusions>
    <scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>

replace it with:

<dependency>
    <groupId>log4j</groupId>
    <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
    <version>1.2.15</version>
    <exclusions>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>javax.mail</groupId>
            <artifactId>mail</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>javax.jms</groupId>
            <artifactId>jms</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>com.sun.jdmk</groupId>
            <artifactId>jmxtools</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>com.sun.jmx</groupId>
            <artifactId>jmxri</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
    </exclusions>
  
</dependency>

I encountered this error while migrating from log4j 1.x to log4j 2.x and realized I still had some code that only worked with 1.x. Instead of refactoring code I added this dependency to my pom.xml in order to maintain compatibility.

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.logging.log4j</groupId>
    <artifactId>log4j-1.2-api</artifactId>
    <version>2.17.1</version>
</dependency>

I ran into exactly the same problem:

pom.xml:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.logging.log4j</groupId>
    <artifactId>log4j-core</artifactId>
    <version>2.3</version>
</dependency>

Build error: package org.apache.log4j does not exist

Root cause: I needed to build my project against an older JRE (JRE 1.5.x); the current libraries are apparently incompatible.

Solution: back-rev to an older version of log4j.jar:

<dependency>
  <groupId>log4j</groupId>
  <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
  <version>1.2.17</version>
</dependency>

<= Compiles successfully!