Java Logging - where is my log file?

Question

I'm having trouble finding my log files.

I'm using Java Logging - java.util.logging - in Eclipse 3.7.1 on Windows XP. The relevant lines of my logging.properties file are:

handlers= java.util.logging.FileHandler, java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler
.level=INFO
java.util.logging.FileHandler.pattern = %h/java%u.log
java.util.logging.FileHandler.limit = 50000
java.util.logging.FileHandler.count = 1
java.util.logging.FileHandler.formatter = java.util.logging.XMLFormatter

As far as I can figure out, after I execute these two lines:

Logger logger = Logger.getLogger("test"); 
logger.logp(Level.INFO, "myClass", "myMethod", "Alcatraz"); 

my log file should be in C:\Documents and Settings\[My Windows ID]\javaX.log where X is an integer.

I have 5 different java.log files in that directory, java0.log through java4.log, but none of them contain my log record or even a record with today's date on it. I did some googling and found Tracing and Logging which implies that my logs should be at a different location, c:\Documents and Settings\[My Windows ID]\Application Data\Sun\Java\Deployment\log. There is one file there, named plugin5581819941091650582.log, but it is essentially empty:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="windows-1252" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE log SYSTEM "logger.dtd">
<log>
</log>

Its creation date is last week. (I'm not sure what process created it; I certainly didn't create it explicitly.)

So where is my log file then? I can't think of anywhere else to look.

Also, does anyone know when changes to logging.properties take effect? If I changed the log level or the FileHandler.pattern, what would have to happen before my program saw the changes? Simply saving the changes in logging.properties is clearly not enough. Will I need to restart Eclipse? Or reboot the computer? Just curious. That's not nearly as big a deal to me as finding out where my log file actually is.

Answer 1

Where is your logging.properties file located? It should be available in the root of the classpath. As a sanity check, what does the following code print?

System.out.println(getClass().getClassLoader().getResource("logging.properties"));

If the code is in a static context, use

System.out.println(ClassName.class.getClassLoader().getResource("logging.properties"));