A snippet showing how to programmatically dial a ConsoleHandler's level up so that logging information gets through to the terminal.

ConsoleHandlerActivation.java

    final Logger topLogger = Logger.getLogger("");
    assert topLogger != null;
    Handler consoleHandler = null;
    final Handler[] handlers = topLogger.getHandlers();
    if (handlers != null && handlers.length > 0) {
      for (final Handler handler : topLogger.getHandlers()) {
        if (handler instanceof ConsoleHandler) {
          consoleHandler = handler;
          break;
        }
      }
    }
    if (consoleHandler == null) {
      consoleHandler = new ConsoleHandler();
      topLogger.addHandler(consoleHandler);
    }
    consoleHandler.setLevel(Level.FINEST);