can not choose a file over another using mergeServiceFiles()

[chris-brace]

Sometimes with log4j2 you need to override the file META-INF/services/org.apache.logging.log4j.core.util.ContextDataProvider to specify your own ContextDataProvider ( https://logging.apache.org/log4j/2.x/manual/extending.html#ContextDataProvider ). There does not seem to be a way to specify this in any other way but the meta-inf services file. However, if i do not intervene, shadowJar seems to "choose" the one provided by the log4j2 library, even though i provide my own in my resources/META-INF/services dir. When i do

tasks.withType<ShadowJar> {
    manifest {
        attributes(mapOf("Multi-Release" to "true"))
    }
    mergeServiceFiles {
        include("META-INF/services/io.vertx.core.spi.VerticleFactory")
        include("META-INF/services/org.apache.logging.log4j.core.util.ContextDataProvider")
    }
}

the jar contains the correct file but it has BOTH lines in it (the one from log4j2-core, and the one from the file i created in my own src tree). I really just want to override it with my own but i am not sure how.

[chris-brace]

I have also confirmed that this works with the normal run gradle task: it includes my file instead of the one provided by log4j2-core.

[johnrengelman]

I'm pretty sure it works in your repo due to classpath ordering, which isn't really guaranteed. Have you tried using any exclude configurations to drop the file from log4j?