Best Practice on Configuring Log4j Properties Path

Question

I am using Log4j in my applications. log4j.properties is placed in a Jar which is in classpath. This configuration file is being used and works fine most of the

Answer 1

In my application I am using ${user.home} dir to store log4j.properties and using ant we are reading it. it will be platform independent. also you can pass one with build in classpath but reading from ${user.home} is better approach, You or any non technical person can easily access it.

also you can use

Dynamic Log File Location

Many people complain that Log4j forces you to hard-code the location where your logs will be kept. Actually, it is possible to dynamically choose the log-file location, especially if you use the ${log.dir} property substitution technique above. Here's how:

String dynamicLog = // log directory somehow chosen...
Properties p = new Properties( Config.ETC + "/log4j.properties" );
p.put( "log.dir", dynamicLog ); // overwrite "log.dir"
PropertyConfigurator.configure( p );

Also See

• Effective logging practices ease enterprise development
• Log4j Best practices

Answer 2

When searching for items on the classpath the first instance of file with a matching name is used. So add your .jar to the front.

set CLASSPATH=myfile.jar;%CLASSPATH%