I'm using Tomee. The logs folder contains files like this
I was looking for an explanation in the documentation but could find anything. It's my understanding that those localhost
files log only the 'host computer' activity. It this right? What is the difference between these file? Do they record different types of messages?
you can find all detail in conf/logging.properties and conf/server.xml for the access log.
In short
Here a commented example to try to help you read logging.propertues:
# log on the host "localhost"
org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].[localhost].xxx
# log on the host "localhost" for the webapp foo
org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].[localhost].[/foo].xxx
More generally the pattern is:
org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[${engine}].[${host}].[${context}]
Side note: ${context} is "/" for the root context.
This syntax applies for ServletContext logging
All is explained https://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-8.5-doc/logging.html