Looking at [the Logback demo page][1] the following works for the 'CyclicBufferAppender': <appender name="CYCLIC" class="ch.qos.logback.core.read.CyclicBufferAppender"> <MaxSize>512</MaxSize> </appender> I have not tried it, but this may also be the same syntax for the RollingFileAppender. ---------- **[UPDATE BELOW]** The following XML is also given on the logback site. This uses the RollingFileAppender suggests that the 'maxFileSize' element needs to be inside a 'triggeringPolicy': <configuration> <appender name="FILE" class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.RollingFileAppender"> <file>test.log</file> <rollingPolicy class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.FixedWindowRollingPolicy"> <fileNamePattern>tests.%i.log.zip</fileNamePattern> <minIndex>1</minIndex> <maxIndex>3</maxIndex> </rollingPolicy> <triggeringPolicy class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy"> <maxFileSize>5MB</maxFileSize> </triggeringPolicy> <encoder> <pattern>%-4relative [%thread] %-5level %logger{35} - %msg%n</pattern> </encoder> </appender> <root level="DEBUG"> <appender-ref ref="FILE" /> </root> </configuration> **The following information is also given [on the site][2] too:** Specified number is not in proper int form, or not expected format. When you specify the MaxFileSize to be used by the SizeBasedRollingPolicy, logback expects a rather precise format: The number has to be an integer You can add 'KB', 'MB' or 'GB' after the number. Here are some correct values: 500KB, 15MB, 2GB. [1]: http://logback.qos.ch/demo.html [2]: http://logback.qos.ch/codes.html