The manual states that appenders get dynamically added by SiftingAppender when the relevant MDC key is altered: "Whenever the "userid" MDC key is assigned a new value, a new FileAppender instance will be built from scratch." However, I found that it was only created when I logged my first message using a relevant Logger. (And confirmed this by using an OnConsoleStatusListener in my configuration file.) Is this a bug? A documentation error? This is a problem because I need to programmatically adjust this appender (from the 'base' set up by the configuration file) before I use it. I currently have to log a spurious message first so that the appender is created, and then adjust it. Stuart -- ________________________________ Stuart Rossiter