Log4j won't log to file, only to console

Question

I want to use log4j for a bit of logging on my Tomcat webapp. I have a data-access class that should log the activity when eg a user's information is requested etc. I have added a filehandler and a consolehandler to my rootlogger and I'm perfectly able to see the correct log-messages in the console, but unfortunately not in the specified file.

My code is as follows:

imports...

public class UserDao {
    private final Logger logger = Logger.getRootLogger();

    public UserDao() {
        FileAppender fa = new FileAppender();
        fa.setLayout(new PatternLayout("%d{yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSSS} %p %t %c \u2013 %m%n"));
        fa.setName("UserDaoFileAppender");
        fa.setFile("UserDao.log");
        fa.setThreshold(Level.INFO);
        fa.setAppend(true);
        fa.activateOptions();
        logger.addAppender(fa);

        ConsoleAppender ca = new ConsoleAppender();
        ca.setLayout(new PatternLayout("%d{yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSSS} %p %t %c \u2013 %m%n"));
        ca.setThreshold(Level.WARN);
        ca.activateOptions();
        logger.addAppender(ca);

        logger.warn("Test warning");
        logger.error("Test error");
        logger.info("Test info");
        logger.debug("test debug");
    }

    // Rest of the class.

}

I have tried using the properties-file way of setting up the appender-configuration, but I was never able to get it working. I tried both putting it in the WEB-INF/classes folder and the src-root as some people here proposes.

Answer 1

You are using no-argument constructor for FileAppender. Please use constructor with atleast 2 arguments.

FileAppender fa = new FileAppender();
fa.setLayout(new PatternLayout("%d{yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSSS} %p %t %c \u2013 %m%n"));

replace these 2 lines with below:

FileAppender fa = new FileAppender(new PatternLayout("%d{yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSSS} %p %t %c \u2013 %m%n"), "path of the log file");

Answer 2

I have working sample ( if you are fine with properties file). you would need to copy the log4j.properties in to WEB-INF folder

log4j.rootLogger=INFO, stdout, logfile

log4j.appender.stdout=org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender
log4j.appender.stdout.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.stdout.layout.ConversionPattern=%d %p [%c] - %m%n

log4j.appender.logfile=org.apache.log4j.RollingFileAppender
log4j.appender.logfile.File=${billing.root}/WEB-INF/billing.log
log4j.appender.logfile.MaxFileSize=512KB
# Keep three backup files.
log4j.appender.logfile.MaxBackupIndex=3
# Pattern to output: date priority [category] - message
log4j.appender.logfile.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.logfile.layout.ConversionPattern=%d %p [%c] - %m%n