I found conflicting information on the logback website. http://logback.qos.ch/faq.html states "If a file called logback.xml is found in the classpath, then it is used. In case it is not found, a logback-test.xml file is searched, and used if available. If none of these files are available, logback uses its BasicConfigurator class to create a simple default configuration that will only log to the console." http://logback.qos.ch/manual/joran.html states " 1. Logback tries to find a file called logback-test.xml in the classpath. 2. If no such file is found, it checks for the file logback.xml. 3. In case neither file is found, logback configures itself automatically using the BasicConfigurator which will cause logging output to be directed on the console" I think that FAQ (http://logback.qos.ch/faq.html) is correct. If it is true, while running tests using Maven (mvn test) it uses "src/main/resources" (home of logback.xml) and "src/test/resources" (home of logback-test.xml). logback-test.xml will never override logback.xml.