Apache Log4j 2.7 is now out on a href="https://search.maven.org/#search%7Cga%7C1%7Cg%3A%22org.apache.logging.log4j%22">Maven Central. Here’s are the highlights.

What's new since 2.6.2

The RoutingAppender can be configured with scripts.
A new Appender, the ScriptAppenderSelector can create another Appender as specified by a Script.
Users can now inject context data from other sources than ThreadContext. Values can be any Object, not just Strings.
The SocketAppender now supports IO buffering.
Added the ability to generate Log4j 2 XML configuration file from a ConfigurationBuilder.
Hello Scala! We've added Logging APIs for Scala 2.10 and 2.11.
Added options to exclude stack trace from JSON, XML and YAML layouts.
Added Core API Configurator.shutdown(LoggerContext, long, TimeUnit).
FileAppender and RollingFileAppender can create files on-demand.
PatternLayout added a color ANSI option to %message and %xThrowable.
org.apache.logging.log4j.core.LoggerContext now implements Closeable.
Add ThreadContextMap2 interface supporting method putAll(Map).
Add JUnit Rule implementations to manage the thread context.
The Core AbstractConfiguration and AbstractManager now track its LoggerContext; add Configuration.getLoggerContext().

Continuing the Asynchronous Epic

We've added support for java.util.concurrent.LinkedTransferQueue to the AsyncAppender.
Added optional support for the Conversant DisruptorBlockingQueue in AsyncAppender.
Added optional support for JCTools MPSC bounded lock-free queue in AsyncAppender.

Continuing the GC-free Epic

Continuing the GC-free epic, we've added support for garbage-free ThreadContext map. This is disabled by default, and users need to enable this explicitly.
Also in GC-free-land, we changed LogEvent's internal data structure for context data to be garbage-free. We added the method LogEvent#getContextData() and deprecated getContextMap().

Continuing the Builder Epic

Added Builders for the ConsoleAppender, FileAppender, RoutingAppender, SocketAppender, and ServletAppender (and deprecated factory methods).
Builders can be generic.
A Builder can subclass another Builder.

And bug fixes as well, for which you can just see the Log4j site.

Happy Log4j Logging!
Gary Gregory