Best Practice to load log4j in servlet app

[Em Aiy]

I have very little application which consists of 2 servlets. I have placed the log4j.properties file in classes folder. I need to know what would be the best practice and how should configure the log4j logger for my application.

Currently i am using this approach

public void init() throws ServletException {
	super.init();
	String sep = System.getProperty("file.separator");
	String file =  getServletContext().getRealPath("/")+"WEB-INF"+sep+"classes"+sep;
	Properties props = new Properties();
	try {
		props.load(new FileInputStream(file+"log4j.properties"));
	} catch (IOException e) {
		e.printStackTrace();
	}
}

[Vivek Kr Singh]

I normally write a class which implements ServletContextListener. You can check this example. I load log4j config in contextInitialized.

Also cleaner way of loading log4j config

	Properties props = new Properties();
	try {
		props.load(CurrentClassNameHere.getClass().getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream("log4j.properties"));
	} catch (IOException e) {
		e.printStackTrace();
	}

[Joe Ess]

Log4j should find it if the configuration file is in the root of the classpath (WEB-INF/classes for a web application). Have a look at the Short Introduction to Log4j and scroll down to the section titled "Default Initialization Procedure" and "Default Initialization under Tomcat".

[Em Aiy]

Joe Ess wrote:Log4j should find it if the configuration file is in the root of the classpath (WEB-INF/classes for a web application). Have a look at the Short Introduction to Log4j and scroll down to the section titled "Default Initialization Procedure" and "Default Initialization under Tomcat".

emm .. that's nice one. Thanks