Is there a easy/lazy way (e.g a shell script etc) to convert a big log4j.xml file to log4j2.xml equivalent?

Or does everyone do this manually ?

Answer

There is currently no tool to automatically convert log4j-1.x configurations to log4j2 configurations.

The log4j2 configuration is simpler however, and much, much better documented. The log4j2 manual provides lots of examples for the available lookups, appenders, layouts and filters.