spring logging ignores log4j2 configuration file passed as jvm argument - spring

Question

I am trying to pass a log4j2 xml configuration as a jvm parameter to the spring boot plugin but for some reason spring ignores it and uses its default log4j2 config file. I could confirm the environment variable is present at runtime. Below is my setup.
pom.xml:
<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>com.falcon</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-sample</artifactId>
<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
<packaging>jar</packaging>
<name>spring-boot-sample</name>
<url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
<properties>
<project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
<java.version>1.8</java.version>
</properties>
<parent>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
<version>1.5.8.RELEASE</version>
</parent>
<dependencies>
<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>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<jvmArguments>-Dlog4j.configurationFile="/Users/anedumar/Work/STS/spring-boot-sample/src/test/resources/log4j2-test.xml"</jvmArguments>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</project>
and my log4j2-test.xml is:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration>
<Appenders>
<Console name="Console" target="SYSTEM_OUT">
<PatternLayout pattern="-------->%d{HH:mm:ss.SSS} [%t] %-5level %logger{36} - %msg%n"/>
</Console>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="debug">
<AppenderRef ref="Console"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>
When I debug the application, I am seeing that spring uses its own xml packaged within as below.
How do I pass the config location as environment variable and get it to work?

Answer 1

In spring boot the property for the external logging file location is logging.config as described in the manual here:
The various logging systems can be activated by including the
appropriate libraries on the classpath, and further customized by
providing a suitable configuration file in the root of the classpath,
or in a location specified by the Spring Environment property
logging.config.