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<document>

 <properties>
  <title>Overview</title>
  <author email="dev@commons.apache.org">Commons Documentation Team</author>
 </properties>

 <body>

<section name="The Logging Component">

<p>When writing a library it is very useful to log information. However there
are many logging implementations out there, and a library cannot impose the use
of a particular one on the overall application that the library is a part of.</p>

<p>The Logging package is an ultra-thin bridge between different logging
implementations.  A library that uses the commons-logging API can be used with
any logging implementation at runtime. Commons-logging comes with support for a
number of popular logging implementations, and writing adapters for others is a
reasonably simple task.</p>

<p>Applications (rather than libraries) may also choose to use commons-logging.
While logging-implementation independence is not as important for applications
as it is for libraries, using commons-logging does allow the application to
change to a different logging implementation without recompiling code. 
</p><p>
Note that commons-logging does not attempt to initialise or terminate the underlying
logging implementation that is used at runtime; that is the responsibility of
the application. However many popular logging implementations do automatically
initialise themselves; in this case an application may be able to avoid
containing any code that is specific to the logging implementation used.</p>

</section>


<section name="Documentation">

<p>The <a href="RELEASE-NOTES.txt">
Release Notes</a> document the new features and bug fixes that have been
included in the latest release.</p>

<p>The <a href="http://commons.apache.org/logging/apidocs/index.html">
JavaDoc API documents</a> for the latest release are available online.
In particular, you should read the package overview of the <code>org.apache.commons.logging</code>
package. In addition, there is a (short)
<a href="guide.html">User Guide</a>.</p>

<p>The <a href="http://wiki.apache.org/commons/Logging">Wiki site</a> has
the latest updates, an FAQ and much other useful information.</p>
<p>
Users needing to become experts or wanting to help develop JCL should
(in addition) consult the <a href='tech.html'>Tech Guide</a>.
This gives short introductions to topics such as advanced class loading.
</p>
</section>


<section name="Releases">
    <p>
Binary and source distributions are available
       <a href="http://commons.apache.org/logging/download_logging.cgi">here</a>.
    </p>
    <subsection name='1.2 Release - July 2014'>
      <p>The main purpose of the 1.2 release is to drop support for Java 1.1.</p>
      <p>For a full list of changes since the 1.1.3 release, please refer to the
      <a href="changes-report.html">change-report</a>.</p> 
    </subsection>
    <subsection name='1.1.3 Release - May 2013'>
      <p>The 1.1.3 release only updates the Bundle-SymbolicName in the manifest
      to "org.apache.commons.logging".</p>
      <p>For a full list of changes since the 1.1.1 release, please refer to the
      <a href="changes-report.html">change-report</a>.</p> 
    </subsection>
    <subsection name='1.1.2 Release - March 2013'>
      <p>The 1.1.2 release is a packaging of bug fixes since release 1.1.1.</p>
      <p>For the full details, see the release notes for this version.</p> 
    </subsection>
    <subsection name='1.1.1 Release - November 2007'>
      <p>
       This release is a minor update to the 1.1 release that fixes a number of bugs, and 
       resolves packaging issues for maven 1.x and maven 2.x users.
      </p>
      <p>For the full details, see the release notes for this version.</p> 
    </subsection>
    <subsection name='1.1 Release - 10 May 2006'>
      <p>This release makes several changes that are intended to resolve issues that
      have been encountered when using commons-logging in servlet containers or j2ee
      containers where complex classpaths are present and multiple copies of
      commons-logging libraries are present at different levels.</p>
      <p>This release also adds support for the TRACE level added to log4j in the
      1.2.12 release. In former commons-logging versions, the log.trace method
      caused log4j to output the message at the DEBUG level (the lowest level
      supported by log4j at that time).</p>
      <p>For the full details, see the release notes for this version.</p> 
    </subsection>
    <subsection name='1.0.5 Release (Alpha)'>
      <p>
        <strong>Note:</strong> the 1.0.5 release was abandoned at alpha status.
      </p>
      <p>
    The next JCL release will be designated 1.1 since we feel this more 
    accurately reflects the improvements made to the codebase.</p>
    </subsection>
    <subsection name='1.0.4 Release - 16 Jun 2004'>
      <p>The 1.0.4 release of commons-logging is a service release containing support
      for both the 1.2.x and 1.3.x series of Log4J releases.</p>
    </subsection>
    <subsection name='1.0.3 Release - 7 Apr 2003'>
      <p>The 1.0.3 release is primarily a maintenance and code cleanup release with minimal new features.</p>
    </subsection>
    <subsection name='1.0.2 Release - 27 September 2002'>
      <p>The 1.0.2 release is a packaging of bug fixes since release 1.0.1.</p>
    </subsection>
    <subsection name='1.0.1 Release - 13 August 2002'>
      <p>The 1.0.1 release is a packaging of bug fixes and minor enhancements since release 1.0.</p>
    </subsection>
</section>
<section name="Development Builds">
  <p>Regular builds of the current SVN HEAD code are made available. See the 
  <a href="http://wiki.apache.org/commons/Logging">wiki</a> for details.</p>
</section>
</body>
</document>
