diff --git a/Gemfile b/Gemfile
index 3db57832b..28d7532de 100644
--- a/Gemfile
+++ b/Gemfile
@@ -169,6 +169,10 @@ gem "mobile-fu",               "1.3.1"
 gem "will_paginate",           "3.0.7"
 gem "rails-timeago",           "2.11.0"
 
+# Logging
+
+gem "logging-rails", "0.5.0", require: "logging/rails"
+
 # Workarounds
 # https://github.com/rubyzip/rubyzip#important-note
 gem "zip-zip"
diff --git a/Gemfile.lock b/Gemfile.lock
index 7a91520df..4d039a756 100644
--- a/Gemfile.lock
+++ b/Gemfile.lock
@@ -390,6 +390,12 @@ GEM
       celluloid (~> 0.16.0)
       rb-fsevent (>= 0.9.3)
       rb-inotify (>= 0.9)
+    little-plugger (1.1.3)
+    logging (2.0.0)
+      little-plugger (~> 1.1)
+      multi_json (~> 1.10)
+    logging-rails (0.5.0)
+      logging (>= 1.8)
     loofah (2.0.2)
       nokogiri (>= 1.5.9)
     lumberjack (1.0.9)
@@ -767,6 +773,7 @@ DEPENDENCIES
   js_image_paths (= 0.0.2)
   jshintrb (= 0.3.0)
   json (= 1.8.2)
+  logging-rails (= 0.5.0)
   markerb (= 1.0.2)
   messagebus_ruby_api (= 1.0.3)
   mini_magick (= 4.2.3)
diff --git a/config/environments/development.rb b/config/environments/development.rb
index 138c8ccd5..4ddeb92ca 100644
--- a/config/environments/development.rb
+++ b/config/environments/development.rb
@@ -31,4 +31,10 @@ Diaspora::Application.configure do
 
   # Expands the lines which load the assets
   config.assets.debug = true
+
+  # Set the logging destination(s)
+  config.log_to = %w[stdout file]
+
+  # Show the logging configuration on STDOUT
+  config.show_log_configuration = true
 end
diff --git a/config/environments/production.rb b/config/environments/production.rb
index 3adcc72d5..a624236ab 100644
--- a/config/environments/production.rb
+++ b/config/environments/production.rb
@@ -37,6 +37,12 @@ Diaspora::Application.configure do
   # Log level
   config.log_level = :info
 
+  # Set the logging destination(s)
+  config.log_to = %w[file]
+
+  # Show the logging configuration on STDOUT
+  config.show_log_configuration = false
+
   # Prepend all log lines with the following tags
   # config.log_tags = [ :subdomain, :uuid ]
 
@@ -66,7 +72,7 @@ Diaspora::Application.configure do
   config.active_support.deprecation = :notify
 
   # For nginx:
-   config.action_dispatch.x_sendfile_header = 'X-Accel-Redirect'
+  config.action_dispatch.x_sendfile_header = "X-Accel-Redirect"
 
   if AppConfig.environment.assets.host.present?
     config.action_controller.asset_host = AppConfig.environment.assets.host.get
diff --git a/config/logging.rb b/config/logging.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b58db314e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/config/logging.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+Logging::Rails.configure do |config|
+  # Configure the Logging framework with the default log levels
+  Logging.init %w(debug info warn error fatal)
+
+  # Objects will be converted to strings using the :inspect method.
+  Logging.format_as :inspect
+
+  # The default layout used by the appenders.
+  layout = Logging.layouts.pattern(pattern: "[%d] %-5l %c : %m\n")
+
+  # Setup a color scheme called 'bright' than can be used to add color codes
+  # to the pattern layout. Color schemes should only be used with appenders
+  # that write to STDOUT or STDERR; inserting terminal color codes into a file
+  # is generally considered bad form.
+  Logging.color_scheme("bright",
+                       levels:  {
+                         info:  :green,
+                         warn:  :yellow,
+                         error: :red,
+                         fatal: %i(white on_red)
+                       },
+                       date:    :blue,
+                       logger:  :cyan,
+                       message: :magenta
+                      )
+
+  # Configure an appender that will write log events to STDOUT. A colorized
+  # pattern layout is used to format the log events into strings before
+  # writing.
+  Logging.appenders.stdout("stdout",
+                           auto_flushing: true,
+                           layout:        Logging.layouts.pattern(
+                             pattern:      "[%d] %-5l %c : %m\n",
+                             color_scheme: "bright"
+                           )
+                          ) if config.log_to.include? "stdout"
+
+  # Configure an appender that will write log events to a file. The file will
+  # be rolled on a daily basis, and the past 7 rolled files will be kept.
+  # Older files will be deleted. The default pattern layout is used when
+  # formatting log events into strings.
+  Logging.appenders.rolling_file("file",
+                                 filename:      config.paths["log"].first,
+                                 keep:          7,
+                                 age:           "daily",
+                                 truncate:      false,
+                                 auto_flushing: true,
+                                 layout:        layout
+                                ) if config.log_to.include? "file"
+
+  # Setup the root logger with the Rails log level and the desired set of
+  # appenders. The list of appenders to use should be set in the environment
+  # specific configuration file.
+  #
+  # For example, in a production application you would not want to log to
+  # STDOUT, but you would want to send an email for "error" and "fatal"
+  # messages:
+  #
+  # => config/environments/production.rb
+  #
+  #     config.log_to = %w[file email]
+  #
+  # In development you would want to log to STDOUT and possibly to a file:
+  #
+  # => config/environments/development.rb
+  #
+  #     config.log_to = %w[stdout file]
+  #
+  Logging.logger.root.level = config.log_level
+  Logging.logger.root.appenders = config.log_to unless config.log_to.empty?
+
+  # Under Phusion Passenger smart spawning, we need to reopen all IO streams
+  # after workers have forked.
+  #
+  # The rolling file appender uses shared file locks to ensure that only one
+  # process will roll the log file. Each process writing to the file must have
+  # its own open file descriptor for `flock` to function properly. Reopening
+  # the file descriptors after forking ensures that each worker has a unique
+  # file descriptor.
+  if defined? PhusionPassenger
+    PhusionPassenger.on_event(:starting_worker_process) do |forked|
+      Logging.reopen if forked
+    end
+  end
+end
diff --git a/config/unicorn.rb b/config/unicorn.rb
index 0dfabe003..f70f54fa8 100644
--- a/config/unicorn.rb
+++ b/config/unicorn.rb
@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@ before_fork do |_server, _worker|
 end
 
 after_fork do |_server, _worker|
+  Logging.reopen # reopen logfiles to obtain a new file descriptor
+
   ActiveRecord::Base.establish_connection # preloading app in master, so reconnect to DB
 
   # We don't generate uuids in the frontend, but let's be on the safe side