Maven jetty plugin log4j configuration

log4jmavenmaven-jetty-plugin

i have a java web app with maven.
i'm using jetty to run it during development (by using maven jetty plugin)

i've my log4j.properties file placed under src/main/resources and it is copied under WEB-INF/classes when deployed as expected.

in my log4j.properties file i defined a filter variable and when deployed it is also filtered with the real value.

in log4j.properties under src/main/resources;

log4j.appender.FILE.File = ${config-gui.log-file}

in log4j.properties under WEB-INF/classes (after deployed with filtering);

log4j.appender.FILE.File = /tmp/mylogfile.log

my problem is; i'm getting following error when i run mvn jetty:run

log4j:ERROR setFile(null,true) call failed.<br />
java.io.FileNotFoundException:  (No such file or directory)
at java.io.FileOutputStream.openAppend(Native Method)
at java.io.FileOutputStream.<init>(FileOutputStream.java:177)
at java.io.FileOutputStream.<init>(FileOutputStream.java:102)
at org.apache.log4j.FileAppender.setFile(FileAppender.java:289)
at org.apache.log4j.FileAppender.activateOptions(FileAppender.java:163)
at org.apache.log4j.DailyRollingFileAppender.activateOptions(DailyRollingFileAppender.java:215)
at org.apache.log4j.config.PropertySetter.activate(PropertySetter.java:256)
at org.apache.log4j.config.PropertySetter.setProperties(PropertySetter.java:132)
at org.apache.log4j.config.PropertySetter.setProperties(PropertySetter.java:96)
at org.apache.log4j.PropertyConfigurator.parseAppender(PropertyConfigurator.java:654)
at org.apache.log4j.PropertyConfigurator.parseCategory(PropertyConfigurator.java:612)
at org.apache.log4j.PropertyConfigurator.configureRootCategory(PropertyConfigurator.java:509)
at org.apache.log4j.PropertyConfigurator.doConfigure(PropertyConfigurator.java:415)
at org.apache.log4j.PropertyConfigurator.doConfigure(PropertyConfigurator.java:441)
at org.apache.log4j.helpers.OptionConverter.selectAndConfigure(OptionConverter.java:470)
at org.apache.log4j.LogManager.<clinit>(LogManager.java:122)
at org.slf4j.impl.Log4jLoggerFactory.getLogger(Log4jLoggerFactory.java:73)
at org.slf4j.LoggerFactory.getLogger(LoggerFactory.java:88)
at com.pribas.bucherplayerconfiggui.util.LoggerUtil.getLogger(LoggerUtil.java:10)
at com.pribas.bucherplayerconfiggui.Initialization.<clinit>(Initialization.java:22)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:27)
at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:513)
at java.lang.Class.newInstance0(Class.java:355)
at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:308)
at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebXmlConfiguration.newListenerInstance(WebXmlConfiguration.java:649)
at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebXmlConfiguration.initListener(WebXmlConfiguration.java:630)
at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebXmlConfiguration.initWebXmlElement(WebXmlConfiguration.java:367)
at org.mortbay.jetty.plus.webapp.AbstractConfiguration.initWebXmlElement(AbstractConfiguration.java:190)
at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebXmlConfiguration.initialize(WebXmlConfiguration.java:289)
at org.mortbay.jetty.plus.webapp.AbstractConfiguration.initialize(AbstractConfiguration.java:133)
at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebXmlConfiguration.configure(WebXmlConfiguration.java:222)
at org.mortbay.jetty.plus.webapp.AbstractConfiguration.configure(AbstractConfiguration.java:113)
at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebXmlConfiguration.configureWebApp(WebXmlConfiguration.java:180)
at org.mortbay.jetty.plus.webapp.AbstractConfiguration.configureWebApp(AbstractConfiguration.java:96)
at org.mortbay.jetty.plus.webapp.Configuration.configureWebApp(Configuration.java:124)
at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebAppContext.startContext(WebAppContext.java:1217)
at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.ContextHandler.doStart(ContextHandler.java:510)
at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebAppContext.doStart(WebAppContext.java:448)
at org.mortbay.jetty.plugin.Jetty6PluginWebAppContext.doStart(Jetty6PluginWebAppContext.java:110)
at org.mortbay.component.AbstractLifeCycle.start(AbstractLifeCycle.java:39)
at org.mortbay.jetty.plugin.AbstractJettyRunMojo$1.filesChanged(AbstractJettyRunMojo.java:409)
at org.mortbay.util.Scanner.reportBulkChanges(Scanner.java:493)
at org.mortbay.util.Scanner.reportDifferences(Scanner.java:359)
at org.mortbay.util.Scanner.scan(Scanner.java:286)
at org.mortbay.util.Scanner$1.run(Scanner.java:246)
at java.util.TimerThread.mainLoop(Timer.java:512)
at java.util.TimerThread.run(Timer.java:462)

i think this error is because of it sees log4j.properties file which is under src/main/resources (which has appender's file param is not acceptable) instead of under WEB-INF/classes one.

i want maven jetty plugin to ignore log4j.properties file which is under src/main/resources and sees the one under WEB-INF/classes.
how can i do this?

or if this error is not related the idea i have, how can i solve this?
thx in advance.

Best Answer

I think, you can hardly guarantee which of log4j.properties will be used on in your jar or in WEB-INF/classes. It depends on concrete classloader implementation (in Tomcat or Jetty) which can either see WEB-INF/classes/log4j.properties or WEB-INF/libs/yourlib.jar:/log4j.properties. So you need to filter here or there :)

Using maven profiles you can configure the <excludes> for your resources and use this profile for to build web application for Tomcat deployment.

Maybe better solution will be renaming /src/main/resources/log4j.properties to /src/main/resources/log4j-jetty.properties and then configure Log4j via jetty plugin to use that resource:

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.mortbay.jetty</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-jetty-plugin</artifactId>
    <configuration>
        ...
        <systemProperties>
            <systemProperty>
                <name>log4j.configuration</name>
                <value>log4j-jetty.properties</value>
            </systemProperty>
        </systemProperties>
    </configuration>
</plugin>