diff --git a/lib/debug.js b/lib/debug.js
deleted file mode 100644
index e3e6581..0000000
--- a/lib/debug.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,15 +0,0 @@
-"use strict";
-
-module.exports = function(label) {
-  var debug;
-
-  if (process.env.NODE_DEBUG && /\blog4js\b/.test(process.env.NODE_DEBUG)) {
-    debug = function(message) { 
-      console.error('LOG4JS: (%s) %s', label, message); 
-    };
-  } else {
-    debug = function() { };
-  }
-
-  return debug;
-};
diff --git a/lib/log4js.js b/lib/log4js.js
index b7525c7..511a54c 100644
--- a/lib/log4js.js
+++ b/lib/log4js.js
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@
  * @static
  * Website: http://log4js.berlios.de
  */
-var debug = require('./debug')('core')
+var debug = require('debug')('log4js:core')
 , fs = require('fs')
 , cluster = require('cluster')
 , util = require('util')
@@ -90,10 +90,10 @@ function deserialise(serialised) {
 //in a multi-process node environment, worker loggers will use
 //process.send
 cluster.on('fork', function(worker) {
-  debug('listening to worker: ' + worker);
+  debug('listening to worker: ', worker);
   worker.on('message', function(message) {
     if (message.type && message.type === '::log4js-message') {
-      debug("received message: " + message.event);
+      debug("received message: ", message.event);
       dispatch(deserialise(message.event));
     }
   });
@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ cluster.on('fork', function(worker) {
  * @static
  */
 function getLogger (category) {
-  debug("getLogger(" + category + ")");
+  debug("getLogger(", category, ")");
 
   return new Logger(
     cluster.isMaster ? dispatch : workerDispatch, 
@@ -123,9 +123,9 @@ function workerDispatch(event) {
  * This would be a good place to implement category hierarchies/wildcards, etc
  */
 function dispatch(event) {
-  debug("event is " + util.inspect(event));
+  debug("event is ", event);
   var category = categories[event.category] || categories.default;
-  debug("category.level[" + category.level + "] <= " + event.level + " ? " + category.level.isLessThanOrEqualTo(event.level));
+  debug("category.level[", category.level, "] <= ", event.level, " ? ", category.level.isLessThanOrEqualTo(event.level));
 
   if (category.level.isLessThanOrEqualTo(event.level)) {
     category.appenders.forEach(function(appender) {
@@ -135,17 +135,24 @@ function dispatch(event) {
 }
 
 function load(file) {
+  debug("loading ", file);
   return JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(file, "utf-8"));
 }
 
 function configure(configurationFileOrObject) {
-  var filename, config = configurationFileOrObject || process.env.LOG4JS_CONFIG;
-  
+  debug("configure(", configurationFileOrObject, ")");
+  debug("process.env.LOG4JS_CONFIG = ", process.env.LOG4JS_CONFIG);
+
+  var filename, config = process.env.LOG4JS_CONFIG || configurationFileOrObject;
+
+  debug("config ", config);
+
   if (!config || !(typeof config === 'string' || typeof config === 'object')) {
     throw new Error("You must specify configuration as an object or a filename.");
   }
 
   if (typeof config === 'string') {
+    debug("config is string");
     filename = config;
     config = load(filename);
   }
diff --git a/lib/logger.js b/lib/logger.js
index 06db584..6c138d8 100644
--- a/lib/logger.js
+++ b/lib/logger.js
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 "use strict";
-var debug = require('./debug')('logger')
-, levels = require('./levels')
-, util = require('util');
+var debug = require('debug')('log4js:logger')
+, levels = require('./levels');
 
 module.exports = function Logger(dispatch, category) {
   if (typeof dispatch !== 'function') {
@@ -16,7 +15,7 @@ module.exports = function Logger(dispatch, category) {
     var args = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments)
     , logLevel = args.shift()
     , loggingEvent = new LoggingEvent(category, logLevel, args);
-    debug("Logging event " + loggingEvent + " to dispatch = " + util.inspect(dispatch));
+    debug("Logging event ", loggingEvent, " to dispatch = ", dispatch);
     dispatch(loggingEvent);
   }
 
diff --git a/lib/streams/BaseRollingFileStream.js b/lib/streams/BaseRollingFileStream.js
index 5f03615..a9e4f14 100644
--- a/lib/streams/BaseRollingFileStream.js
+++ b/lib/streams/BaseRollingFileStream.js
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 "use strict";
 var fs = require('fs')
 , stream
-, debug = require('../debug')('BaseRollingFileStream')
+, debug = require('debug')('log4js:BaseRollingFileStream')
 , util = require('util')
 , semver = require('semver');
 
diff --git a/lib/streams/DateRollingFileStream.js b/lib/streams/DateRollingFileStream.js
index 9da029a..fc6dd93 100644
--- a/lib/streams/DateRollingFileStream.js
+++ b/lib/streams/DateRollingFileStream.js
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 "use strict";
 var BaseRollingFileStream = require('./BaseRollingFileStream')
-, debug = require('../debug')('DateRollingFileStream')
+, debug = require('debug')('log4js:DateRollingFileStream')
 , format = require('../date_format')
 , async = require('async')
 , fs = require('fs')
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ var BaseRollingFileStream = require('./BaseRollingFileStream')
 module.exports = DateRollingFileStream;
 
 function DateRollingFileStream(filename, pattern, options, now) {
-  debug("Now is " + now);
+  debug("Now is ", now);
   if (pattern && typeof(pattern) === 'object') {
     now = options;
     options = pattern;
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ function DateRollingFileStream(filename, pattern, options, now) {
       options = null; 
     }
   }
-  debug("this.now is " + this.now + ", now is " + now);
+  debug("this.now is ", this.now, ", now is ", now);
   
   DateRollingFileStream.super_.call(this, filename, options);
 }
@@ -41,8 +41,8 @@ DateRollingFileStream.prototype.shouldRoll = function() {
   var lastTime = this.lastTimeWeWroteSomething,
   thisTime = format.asString(this.pattern, new Date(this.now()));
   
-  debug("DateRollingFileStream.shouldRoll with now = " + 
-        this.now() + ", thisTime = " + thisTime + ", lastTime = " + lastTime);
+  debug("DateRollingFileStream.shouldRoll with now = ", 
+        this.now(), ", thisTime = ", thisTime, ", lastTime = ", lastTime);
   
   this.lastTimeWeWroteSomething = thisTime;
   this.previousTime = lastTime;
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ DateRollingFileStream.prototype.roll = function(filename, callback) {
   }
 
   function renameTheCurrentFile(cb) {
-    debug("Renaming the " + filename + " -> " + newFilename);
+    debug("Renaming the ", filename, " -> ", newFilename);
     fs.rename(filename, newFilename, cb);
   }
 
diff --git a/lib/streams/RollingFileStream.js b/lib/streams/RollingFileStream.js
index 64a0725..26d2bb1 100644
--- a/lib/streams/RollingFileStream.js
+++ b/lib/streams/RollingFileStream.js
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 "use strict";
 var BaseRollingFileStream = require('./BaseRollingFileStream')
-, debug = require('../debug')('RollingFileStream')
+, debug = require('debug')('log4js:RollingFileStream')
 , util = require('util')
 , path = require('path')
 , fs = require('fs')
@@ -53,13 +53,13 @@ RollingFileStream.prototype.roll = function(filename, callback) {
 
   function increaseFileIndex (fileToRename, cb) {
     var idx = index(fileToRename);
-    debug('Index of ' + fileToRename + ' is ' + idx);
+    debug('Index of ', fileToRename, ' is ', idx);
     if (idx < that.backups) {
       //on windows, you can get a EEXIST error if you rename a file to an existing file
       //so, we'll try to delete the file we're renaming to first
       fs.unlink(filename + '.' + (idx+1), function (err) {
         //ignore err: if we could not delete, it's most likely that it doesn't exist
-        debug('Renaming ' + fileToRename + ' -> ' + filename + '.' + (idx+1));
+        debug('Renaming ', fileToRename, ' -> ', filename, '.', (idx+1));
         fs.rename(path.join(path.dirname(filename), fileToRename), filename + '.' + (idx + 1), cb);
       });
     } else {
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index e103052..6867d0d 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -30,7 +30,8 @@
   "dependencies": {
     "async": "0.1.15",
     "semver": "~1.1.4",
-    "readable-stream": "~1.0.2"
+    "readable-stream": "~1.0.2",
+    "debug": "~0.7.2"
   },
   "devDependencies": {
     "sandboxed-module": "0.1.3",
diff --git a/test/debug-test.js b/test/debug-test.js
deleted file mode 100644
index 92dd915..0000000
--- a/test/debug-test.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,72 +0,0 @@
-"use strict";
-var vows = require('vows')
-, assert = require('assert')
-, sandbox = require('sandboxed-module')
-, fakeConsole = {
-  error: function(format, label, message) {
-    this.logged = [ format, label, message ];
-  }
-}
-, globals = function(debugValue) {
-  return {
-    process: {
-      env: {
-        'NODE_DEBUG': debugValue
-      }
-    },
-    console: fakeConsole
-  };
-};
-
-vows.describe('../lib/debug').addBatch({
-  'when NODE_DEBUG is set to log4js': {
-    topic: function() {
-      var debug = sandbox.require(
-        '../lib/debug', 
-        { 'globals': globals('log4js') }
-      );
-
-      fakeConsole.logged = [];
-      debug('cheese')('biscuits');
-      return fakeConsole.logged;
-    },
-    'it should log to console.error': function(logged) {
-      assert.equal(logged[0], 'LOG4JS: (%s) %s');
-      assert.equal(logged[1], 'cheese');
-      assert.equal(logged[2], 'biscuits');
-    }
-  },
-
-  'when NODE_DEBUG is set to not log4js': {
-    topic: function() {
-      var debug = sandbox.require(
-        '../lib/debug',
-        { globals: globals('other_module') }
-      );
-
-      fakeConsole.logged = [];
-      debug('cheese')('biscuits');
-      return fakeConsole.logged;
-    },
-    'it should not log to console.error': function(logged) {
-      assert.equal(logged.length, 0);
-    }
-  },
-
-  'when NODE_DEBUG is not set': {
-    topic: function() {
-      var debug = sandbox.require(
-        '../lib/debug',
-        { globals: globals(null) }
-      );
-
-      fakeConsole.logged = [];
-      debug('cheese')('biscuits');
-      return fakeConsole.logged;
-    },
-    'it should not log to console.error': function(logged) {
-      assert.equal(logged.length, 0);
-    }
-  }
-
-}).exportTo(module);
diff --git a/test/log4js-test.js b/test/log4js-test.js
index 6c721e9..fe1658f 100644
--- a/test/log4js-test.js
+++ b/test/log4js-test.js
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ describe('../lib/log4js', function() {
       (function() { log4js.configure(); }).should.throw(
         "ENOENT, no such file or directory 'made-up-file'"
       );
-      process.env.LOG4JS_CONFIG = null;
+      delete process.env.LOG4JS_CONFIG;
     });
 
     it('should complain if the config does not specify any appenders', function() {
@@ -286,7 +286,6 @@ describe('../lib/log4js', function() {
       
     });
 
-    it('should reload configuration if specified');
   });
 
   describe('with no configuration', function() {