Dear Folks,
Log4j is a logging framework, i.e. it provides the code to log messages while Commons-logging is an abstraction layer for logging frameworks, it doesn't log anything itself. For example if I write code using commons logging and deploy it on JBoss, the logging is done by log4j, but if I deploy it on WebSphere logging is done by WebSphere's own logging implementation. If I run the same code as a stand alone application it Java's own logging that is used.
Hope this help you in understanding the difference between two.
Log4j is a logging framework, i.e. it provides the code to log messages while Commons-logging is an abstraction layer for logging frameworks, it doesn't log anything itself. For example if I write code using commons logging and deploy it on JBoss, the logging is done by log4j, but if I deploy it on WebSphere logging is done by WebSphere's own logging implementation. If I run the same code as a stand alone application it Java's own logging that is used.
Hope this help you in understanding the difference between two.