New to logging

I need to implement some type of logging scheme for things like database transactions, method calls, etc., and possibly things like stack traces if an error occurs. Multiple RMI server apps on a single machine would be logging to a single file on the same machine.
I've never done logging. To me, the simplest form would be to simply just write to a file hahaha. But I've come across things like log4j and the logging package in jdk 1.4. Does anyone have some input if either of those 2 might be of use or should I stick to the simple idea of writing to a file?

I use log4j. That works pretty good. Easy to implement and great for debugging. In fact that is what I use it for is debugging. I have one instance per class implemented for debugging purposes. FYI .. works good
Dale

I was looking into the jdk 1.4 java.util.logging feature but came across this interesting page java.util.logging vs log4j and decided to give a read on the documentation for log4j.
So far so good, except that it's so involved I have to look at all the different ways to implement it for what I need it for.