log4jConfigLocation completely ignored in web.xml file for Spring MVC webapp

[Francesco Bellini]

Hello,

I'm experiencing a very strange issue with log4jConfigLocation parameter and log4j configuration loading.

I defined an external configuration directory for my web application, where the log4j.xml file is located as well as for the logs directory.
For example, I have:
c:/myConfigDir/logs
c:/myConfigDir/log4j.xml

I defined a System JVM variable like config.dir="C:/myConfigDir" and this is what I've put in my web.xml:

<context-param>
	<param-name>log4jConfigLocation</param-name>
	<param-value>file:///${config.dir}/log4j.xml</param-value>
</context-param>
<listener>
	<listener-class>org.springframework.web.util.Log4jConfigListener</listener-class>
</listener>

This is the content of log4j.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE log4j:configuration SYSTEM "log4j.dtd">
<log4j:configuration xmlns:log4j="http://jakarta.apache.org/log4j/">
 
	<appender name="myAppender" class="org.apache.log4j.RollingFileAppender">
		<param name="File" value="${config.dir}/logs/mylogfile.log"/>
		<param name="MaxFileSize" value="10000KB"/>
		<param name="MaxBackupIndex" value="4"/>
		<param name="Append" value="true"/>
		<layout class="org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout">
			<param name="ConversionPattern" value="%d [%t] %p - %m%n"/>
		</layout>
	</appender>
	
	<appender name="console" class="org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender">
		<param name="Target" value="System.out"/>
		<layout class="org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout">
			<param name="ConversionPattern" value="%d [%t] %p - %m%n"/>
		</layout>
	</appender>
	
	<root>
		<level value="DEBUG" />
		<!-- <appender-ref ref="console"/> -->
		<appender-ref ref="myAppender"/>
	</root>
 
</log4j:configuration>

It looks like the log4jConfigLocation param value is totally ignored in web.xml and it is reading something else. Indeed, if I put whatever name for the file, this is what I still get in the console, when the application in loading in tomcat 7:

INFO: Initializing log4j from [file://C:/myConfigDir/log4jdd.xml]

Notice the name file is log4jdd.xml which is not existing.

The result is some INFO logging in the console.
I really don't know why this is happening.


By the way: I've also tried to create a very simple Spring MVC test web application, and all I've described above doesn't happen!
Could you please help me to debug this issue?

[Paul Clapham]

I would start by removing the reference to the system variable, and hard-code your config directory in all of those files. See what changes when you do that.

[Francesco Bellini]

Thanks for replying.

Yes, but I've already done it and nothing changes actually. That's the first attempt I've tried. I've also tried to go in debug into spring-web and spring-core source packages through Log4jConfigListener class, but I didn't figure out anything meaningful.

[Francesco Bellini]

No more ideas?

I think the problem is due to the fact that the following part is not loaded before all:

<context-param> <param-name>log4jConfigLocation</param-name> <param-value>file:///${config.dir}/log4j.xml</param-value> </context-param> <listener> <listener-class>org.springframework.web.util.Log4jConfigListener</listener-class> </listener>

Really strange.