Hi Logback team, yes it is already by design that there is No separation of main vs test logback configuration - http://logback.qos.ch/manual/groovy.html#ConditionalConfiguration But unfortunately this is a blocker feature for our team to switch to groovy from xml. XML model with logback-test.xml let developers be crazy with extending logs(appenders, custom loggers, custom ... ) for testing and be absolutely secure that it does not effect production mode. As changes in logback.xml file is kind red flag for detailed code review of code changes. Usage of special system/environment variables is not good too as it is additional argument for simple "mvn test", nobody wants additional complications for command line executions (manual, jenknis, .... ). please share a link where you describe a reason why "logback-test.groovy" is bad design. Can you reconsider your decision for "logback-test.groovy" ? thanks a lot, Roman Ivanov