# Log4j input with empty members
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/log4j-input-with-empty-members/37221
**Category:** Logstash
**Created:** [December 15, 2015, 9:22am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/log4j-input-with-empty-members/37221 "2015-12-15T09:22:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@David\_Pocivalnik](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/David_Pocivalnik)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2015, 9:22am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/log4j-input-with-empty-members/37221/1 "2015-12-15T09:22:21Z")
I'm trying to use Logstash to index my log files created by log4j. I'm using the following versions:
- Logstash: 2.1.1
- ES: 2.1.0
- log4j: 1.2.17
I followed the recommendation found at [http://stackoverflow.com/a/26227002](http://stackoverflow.com/a/26227002) and use the SocketAppender in log4j configuration (and there are many more questions/articles on the net recommending the log4j input in Logstash and the SocketAppender in log4j)
The SocketAppender is defined as following:
```
```
I tried with the PatternLayout as described here [https://www.elastic.co/blog/logging-elasticsearch-events-with-logstash-and-elasticsearch](https://www.elastic.co/blog/logging-elasticsearch-events-with-logstash-and-elasticsearch) (although the pattern will be ignored according to [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11270504/how-to-use-pattern-layout-with-socketappender](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11270504/how-to-use-pattern-layout-with-socketappender) )
My pipe is defined as following:
```
input {
log4j {
mode => server
host => "0.0.0.0"
port => "4560"
type => "ex"
}
}
output {
stdout { codec => rubydebug }
elasticsearch { index => exlogs }
}
```
The events are indexed, and the output on stdout looks like the following:
```
{
"message" => "dummy error",
"@version" => "1",
"@timestamp" => "2015-12-15T09:00:43.978Z",
"timestamp" => 1450170043978,
"path" => "com.ex.monitoring.jmxclient.JmxReader",
"priority" => "ERROR",
"logger_name" => "com.ex.monitoring.jmxclient.JmxReader",
"thread" => "hugo",
"class" => "?",
"file" => "?:?",
"method" => "?",
"host" => "127.0.0.1:51808",
"type" => "ex"
}
```
I'm wondering why "class", "file", "method" are empty all the time? Am I doing anything wrong?
---
### Author:  [@wiibaa](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/wiibaa)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2015, 8:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/log4j-input-with-empty-members/37221/2 "2015-12-15T20:52:54Z")
These information are to be considered debug information because they are costly to produce,
and are only written to the appender when it is configured to do so with
``
On the other hand I think the input should not write "garbage" that correspond to "not available", I have raise an issue about this in [https://github.com/logstash-plugins/logstash-input-log4j/issues/25](https://github.com/logstash-plugins/logstash-input-log4j/issues/25)
---
### Author:  [@David\_Pocivalnik](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/David_Pocivalnik)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2015, 8:07am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/log4j-input-with-empty-members/37221/3 "2015-12-16T08:07:25Z")
Thanks for the reply.
I have this parameter configured in the appender (see the log4j configuration in my initial post). Any idea what I might be missing?
---
### Author:  [@wiibaa](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/wiibaa)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2015, 8:17pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/log4j-input-with-empty-members/37221/4 "2015-12-16T20:17:53Z")
Oups, sorry to have overlooked that.
I used your appender config in a quick test, and the correct info is sent to Logstash. So i'm rather clueless.
Do you have any additional custom configuration for Log4j such as a custom implementation of Logger ? that could be a reason...
Or is there another socket appender configured without the LocationInfo enabled ??
---
### Author:  [@David\_Pocivalnik](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/David_Pocivalnik)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2015, 9:07am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/log4j-input-with-empty-members/37221/5 "2015-12-17T09:07:16Z")
Oh, it's b/c I use an async appender and this one is sending to the socket, now I directly send to socket w/o the async appender and I'm getting it.
Thanks for your support.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2017, 5:18am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/log4j-input-with-empty-members/37221/6 "2017-07-06T05:18:05Z")