Re: [DISCUSS] Retire Log4j Kotlin API

Hi Volkan,

I agree with retiring the project. The situation you've described 
mirrors what we saw with the Scala API, and the outcome there speaks for 
itself.

Retiring the project is the honest and responsible call.

+1 from me.

Jan

On 3/17/26 09:42, Volkan Yazıcı wrote:
> On 2026-01-08, almost two months ago, a Log4j Kotlin API user filed a bug
> report <https://github.com/apache/logging-log4j-kotlin/issues/144> claiming
> that `log4j-api-kotlin` versions `>=1.5.0` (released on 2024-08-03) does
> not work with `log4j-core` version `>=2.24.0` (released on 2024-09-03).
> This suggests the following possibilities:
> 
>     1. The claim is bogus, but no maintainer has time to disprove it.
>     2. The claim is right, but
>        - No tests are in place to catch this.
>        - No Log4j Kotlin API users have upgraded their Log4j Core in the
>        last 2 years!?
>        - There are not really many Log4j Kotlin API users.
>     - The user happens to be the only one determined enough to report this
>        issue.
> 
> To address point #1, we added Raman Gupta to the PMC on 2025-11-21. But we
> still could not produce enough development power to triage Kotlin-related
> issues in time. (I'm not pointing any fingers here. Like every other PMC
> member, I could have also done a better job on Kotlin-specific tasks.)
> 
> All in all, I find this picture concerning. Instead of stating on the
> website, *"Log4j Kotlin API version X does/doesn't work with Log4j Core
> version Y"*, which is the suggested resolution in the ticket
> <https://github.com/apache/logging-log4j-kotlin/issues/144#issuecomment-4042421279>,
> *maybe we should just retire the project. Thoughts?*
> 
> Recall that retiring the Log4j Scala API brought no user complaints,
> approved by the Scala community, and resulted in less noise for [active]
> PMC members.
> 
> FWIW, the reporter is fine with retiring the project
> <https://github.com/apache/logging-log4j-kotlin/issues/144#issuecomment-4068906321>
> .
>