Maven & Spring boot – I need to force logback 1.5.13 but can't

January 7, 2025

My spring boot 3.4.1 project wants logback 1.5.12 from the spring-boot-starter-web dependency.

I have tried including logback as a top-level dependency and excluding from the spring boot start web (doesn’t work):

<dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
            <exclusions>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>ch.qos.logback</groupId>
                    <artifactId>logback-core</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
        </dependency>

I have tried dependency management:

<dependencyManagement>
        <dependencies>
            <dependency>
                <groupId>ch.qos.logback</groupId>
                <artifactId>logback-core</artifactId>
                <version>1.5.13</version>
            </dependency>
        </dependencies>
    </dependencyManagement>

but then my dependency tree looks like this and still does not work:

[INFO] +- org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-web:jar:3.4.1:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter:jar:3.4.1:compile
[INFO] |  |  +- org.springframework.boot:spring-boot:jar:3.4.1:compile
[INFO] |  |  +- org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-autoconfigure:jar:3.4.1:compile
[INFO] |  |  +- org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-logging:jar:3.4.1:compile
[INFO] |  |  |  +- ch.qos.logback:logback-classic:jar:1.5.12:compile
[INFO] |  |  |  |  \- ch.qos.logback:logback-core:jar:1.5.13:compile

How can I force this newer version?

>Solution :

You seem to have added dependency on logback-core and fixed its version to 1.5.13. The dependency tree shows logback-classic using 1.5.12.

I think you need to add another section with logback-classic and 1.5.12 version. Possibly you can get away with replacing the logback-core entry.

i.e. try

            <dependency>
                <groupId>ch.qos.logback</groupId>
                <artifactId>logback-classic</artifactId>
                <version>1.5.13</version>
            </dependency>