Spring boot slf4j + log4j2 logging blocked by logback dependency - maven

Question

I am going to create my first spring boot application and i'm creating a helloworld like application to test some of the features. One of these is logging through the slf4j facade.
I want to use log4j2 with a log4j2.json config file. Unfortunately slf4j also finds a logback-classic dependency and starts using that. Looking at my dependencies only the spring-boot-starter-parent has a dependency to logback but the maven exclusions syntax does not work on parent pom's.
I used this tutorial to set up log4j2 with slf4j.
This is my entire 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 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>org.helloworld</groupId>
<artifactId>helloworld</artifactId>
<version>0.1.0</version>
<name>helloworld</name>
<parent>
<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.springframework.boot/spring-boot-starter-parent -->
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
<version>2.0.1.RELEASE</version>
</parent>
<dependencies>
<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.springframework.boot/spring-boot-starter-web -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
<version>2.0.1.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<!-- Database -->
<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.springframework.boot/spring-boot-starter-data-jpa -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
<version>2.0.1.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.h2database/h2 -->
<dependency>
<groupId>com.h2database</groupId>
<artifactId>h2</artifactId>
<version>1.4.197</version>
</dependency>
<!-- Logging -->
<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.apache.logging.log4j/log4j-api -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.logging.log4j</groupId>
<artifactId>log4j-api</artifactId>
<version>2.11.0</version>
</dependency>
<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.apache.logging.log4j/log4j-core -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.logging.log4j</groupId>
<artifactId>log4j-core</artifactId>
<version>2.11.0</version>
</dependency>
<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.apache.logging.log4j/log4j-slf4j-impl -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.logging.log4j</groupId>
<artifactId>log4j-slf4j-impl</artifactId>
<version>2.11.0</version>
</dependency>
<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.fasterxml.jackson.core/jackson-annotations -->
<dependency>
<groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
<artifactId>jackson-annotations</artifactId>
<version>2.9.5</version>
</dependency>
<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.fasterxml.jackson.core/jackson-databind -->
<dependency>
<groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
<artifactId>jackson-databind</artifactId>
<version>2.9.5</version>
</dependency>
<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.fasterxml.jackson.core/jackson-core -->
<dependency>
<groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
<artifactId>jackson-core</artifactId>
<version>2.9.5</version>
</dependency>
<!-- TEST -->
<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.springframework.boot/spring-boot-starter-test -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
<version>2.0.1.RELEASE</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
<properties>
<java.version>1.8</java.version>
</properties>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.springframework.boot/spring-boot-maven-plugin -->
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</project>

Answer 1

You will need to exclude the logback dependency. If its coming from one of the spring boot starters, it can be excluded as described in the spring boot docs here. Essentially your maven pom should look like
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
</dependency>
<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>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-log4j2</artifactId>
</dependency>
The exclusion is for excluding logback dependency. The spring-boot-starter-log4j2 will provide the necessary dependencies for log4j2 logging along with the slf4j dependencies. You do not need to explicitly define all the dependencies for log4j2 and slf4j as shown in pom of your question. Starters to the rescue!
Also please do checkout this tutorial which pretty much elaborates on my answer.