Spring Boot - Can't exclude default logging

Question

I have a Spring Boot application and I want to use log4j2 instead of the default logging.

So I've added the log4j2 dependency and exclusion:

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
            <exclusions>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-logging</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-log4j2</artifactId>
        </dependency>

But I'm still getting the warning:

SLF4J: Class path contains multiple SLF4J bindings.
SLF4J: Found binding in [jar:file:/C:/Users/foobar/.m2/repository/ch/qos/logback/logback-classic/1.2.3/logback-classic-1.2.3.jar!/org/slf4j/impl/StaticLoggerBinder.class]
SLF4J: Found binding in [jar:file:/C:/Users/foobar/.m2/repository/org/apache/logging/log4j/log4j-slf4j-impl/2.13.3/log4j-slf4j-impl-2.13.3.jar!/org/slf4j/impl/StaticLoggerBinder.class]

Also when I run mvn dependency:tree | grep log mvn dependency:tree | grep log I get the following:

[INFO] |  |  +- org.jboss.logging:jboss-logging:jar:3.4.1.Final:compile
[INFO] |  |  +- org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-logging:jar:2.3.1.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  |  |  +- ch.qos.logback:logback-classic:jar:1.2.3:compile
[INFO] |  |  |  |  \- ch.qos.logback:logback-core:jar:1.2.3:compile
[INFO] |  |  |  \- org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-to-slf4j:jar:2.13.3:compile
[INFO] +- org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-log4j2:jar:2.3.1.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-slf4j-impl:jar:2.13.3:compile
[INFO] |  |  \- org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-api:jar:2.13.3:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core:jar:2.13.3:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-jul:jar:2.13.3:compile

Why is there jboss-logging?

pom.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <parent>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
        <version>2.3.1.RELEASE</version>
        <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
    </parent>
    <groupId>foo</groupId>
    <artifactId>bar</artifactId>
    <version>0.8.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <name>foobar</name>

    <properties>
        <java.version>11</java.version>
    </properties>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-validation</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
            <exclusions>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-logging</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-log4j2</artifactId>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.postgresql</groupId>
            <artifactId>postgresql</artifactId>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.projectlombok</groupId>
            <artifactId>lombok</artifactId>
            <optional>true</optional>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
            <exclusions>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>org.junit.vintage</groupId>
                    <artifactId>junit-vintage-engine</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.modelmapper</groupId>
            <artifactId>modelmapper</artifactId>
            <version>2.3.6</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>junit</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
            <version>4.12</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

</project>

Answer 1

spring-boot-starter-data-jpa also depends on spring-boot-starter-logging , so it is still added to your class path. You can add the exclusion to the spring-boot-starter-data-jpa as well or preferably add spring-boot-starter dependency and exclude it from there.

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter</artifactId>
  <exclusions>
    <exclusion>
      <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
      <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-logging</artifactId>
    </exclusion>
  </exclusions>
</dependency>

The dependency looks like this spring-boot-starter-web -> spring-boot-starter -> spring-boot-starter-logging (and something similar for the other spring-boot-starter-* dependencies). That is why excluding it from the spring-boot-starter will ensure that the it will be excluded from your build path.