Log4j 2.3 was the last Log4j 2 release to support Java 6. We have made no patches to it since it was released in 2015. As I recall Java 6 was already EOL on public updates by the time we moved to Java 7. As near as I can tell Oracle’s extended support for Java 6 ended in December 2018. Maven Central indicates about 1.7% of all log4j-api downloads are for release 2.3 and prior, including the alpha and beta releases.
Log4j 2.12.1 was the last Log4j 2 release to support Java 7. Java 7 public updates ended in April 2015, premier support ended in Mar 2019, and extended support ends in July 2022. Maven Central statistics show that Log4j 2 1.12.1 is our 3rd most popular version of log4j-api and about 12% of downloads. Of course, if is far more likely that users of Log4j 2.12.1 are running Java 8 than Java 7 since the latest JRebel report indicates that only 7% of Java users are using Java 7 or older. I suspect that if I tried to do a patch release to 2.3 today it would be difficult. I still have Java 6 present on my computer, but that computer has probably been upgraded twice since 2.3 was released. I am proposing that we publish that we no longer support Java 6 or Java 7. If we want to continue to support Java 7 we should at least indicate when we will drop support. Thoughts? Ralph
