Adds subcategories to the appenders and loggers. Adds property "level" at the file appender to limit the levels that a file appender accepts.

Creates a MARK category that always write to the log. That's useful to write things like '---- STARTED ----'.

lib/log4js.js

@@ -92,6 +92,22 @@ function getBufferedLogger(categoryName) {
     return logger;
 }
 
+function normalizeCategory (category) {
+  return  category + '.';
+}
+
+function doesLevelEntryContainsLogger (levelCategory, loggerCategory) {  
+  var normalizedLevelCategory = normalizeCategory(levelCategory);
+  var normalizedLoggerCategory = normalizeCategory(loggerCategory);
+  return normalizedLoggerCategory.substring(0, normalizedLevelCategory.length) == normalizedLevelCategory;
+}
+
+function doesAppenderContainsLogger (appenderCategory, loggerCategory) {
+  var normalizedAppenderCategory = normalizeCategory(appenderCategory);
+  var normalizedLoggerCategory = normalizeCategory(loggerCategory);
+  return normalizedLoggerCategory.substring(0, normalizedAppenderCategory.length) == normalizedAppenderCategory;
+}
+
 
 /**
  * Get a logger instance. Instance is cached on categoryName level.
@@ -99,32 +115,51 @@ function getBufferedLogger(categoryName) {
  * @return {Logger} instance of logger for the category
  * @static
  */
-function getLogger (categoryName) {
+function getLogger (loggerCategoryName) {
 
   // Use default logger if categoryName is not specified or invalid
-  if (typeof categoryName !== "string") {
-    categoryName = Logger.DEFAULT_CATEGORY;
+  if (typeof loggerCategoryName !== "string") {
+    loggerCategoryName = Logger.DEFAULT_CATEGORY;
   }
 
-  var appenderList;
-  if (!hasLogger(categoryName)) {
+  if (!hasLogger(loggerCategoryName)) {
+
+    var level = undefined;
+
+    // If there's a "levels" entry in the configuration
+    if (levels.config) {
+      // Goes through the categories in the levels configuration entry, starting by the "higher" ones.
+      var keys = Object.keys(levels.config).sort();
+      for (var idx = 0; idx < keys.length; idx++) {
+        var levelCategory = keys[idx];
+        if (doesLevelEntryContainsLogger(levelCategory, loggerCategoryName)) {
+          // level for the logger
+          level = levels.config[levelCategory];
+        }
+      }
+    }
+  
     // Create the logger for this name if it doesn't already exist
-    loggers[categoryName] = new Logger(categoryName);
-    if (appenders[categoryName]) {
-      appenderList = appenders[categoryName];
-      appenderList.forEach(function(appender) {
-        loggers[categoryName].addListener("log", appender);
-      });
+    loggers[loggerCategoryName] = new Logger(loggerCategoryName, level);
+
+    var appenderList;
+    for(var appenderCategory in appenders) {
+      if (doesAppenderContainsLogger(appenderCategory, loggerCategoryName)) {
+        appenderList = appenders[appenderCategory];
+        appenderList.forEach(function(appender) {
+          loggers[loggerCategoryName].addListener("log", appender);
+        });
+      }
     }
     if (appenders[ALL_CATEGORIES]) {
       appenderList = appenders[ALL_CATEGORIES];
       appenderList.forEach(function(appender) {
-        loggers[categoryName].addListener("log", appender);
+        loggers[loggerCategoryName].addListener("log", appender);
       });
     }
   }
   
-  return loggers[categoryName];
+  return loggers[loggerCategoryName];
 }
 
 /**
@@ -141,13 +176,19 @@ function addAppender () {
     args = args[0];
   }
   
-  args.forEach(function(category) {
-    addAppenderToCategory(appender, category);
+  args.forEach(function(appenderCategory) {
+    addAppenderToCategory(appender, appenderCategory);
     
-    if (category === ALL_CATEGORIES) {
+    if (appenderCategory === ALL_CATEGORIES) {
       addAppenderToAllLoggers(appender);
-    } else if (hasLogger(category)) {
-      loggers[category].addListener("log", appender);
+    } else {
+
+      for(var loggerCategory in loggers) {
+        if (doesAppenderContainsLogger(appenderCategory,loggerCategory)) {
+          loggers[loggerCategory].addListener("log", appender);
+        }
+      }
+      
     }
   });
 }
@@ -193,14 +234,19 @@ function configureAppenders(appenderList, options) {
   }
 }
 
-function configureLevels(levels) {
-  if (levels) {
-    for (var category in levels) {
-      if (levels.hasOwnProperty(category)) {
+function configureLevels(_levels) {
+  levels.config = _levels; // Keep it so we can create loggers later using this cfg
+  if (_levels) {
+    var keys = Object.keys(levels.config).sort();
+    for (var idx in keys) {
+      var category = keys[idx];
+      for(var loggerCategory in loggers) {
+        if (doesLevelEntryContainsLogger(category, loggerCategory)) {
+          loggers[loggerCategory].setLevel(_levels[category]);
+        }
         if(category === ALL_CATEGORIES) {
           setGlobalLogLevel(levels[category]);
-        }
-        getLogger(category).setLevel(levels[category]);
+        }        
       }
     }
   }
@@ -231,8 +277,8 @@ function loadConfigurationFile(filename) {
 function configureOnceOff(config, options) {
   if (config) {
     try {
-      configureAppenders(config.appenders, options);
       configureLevels(config.levels);
+      configureAppenders(config.appenders, options);
       
       if (config.replaceConsole) {
         replaceConsole();