How can I get the log path of Tomcat, using PowerShell?

Question

I have a number of Windows servers running various versions of Tomcat 8, And I need to be able to acquire the Tomcat log path in a PowerShell script in order to perform administrative functions with this script.

Tomcat allegedly provides a logging API containing this information, but I haven't had any success accessing it with PowerShell (and suspect this is far from the easiest way to get what I want in any event). However, I've noticed that, at least for my Tomcat servers, the log path is a subfolder of the application's install path, such as:

C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 8.0\logs

So, how can I programmatically get this log path from my PowerShell script?

HopelessN00b · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-02T20:33:01.883

While unsuccessfully searching for a config file or registry setting that might contain the log directory path, I stumbled upon a registry key that contains the installation path of the Tomcat app itself, and combined with the knowledge that the log folder I'm after is in a subfolder of that, named logs, I have enough information for my script to create the logging path.

This registry key is going to be in a predictable location in the registry, and the "InstallPath" name/property is unique within that location, so I can simply do a recursive search and match "InstallPath" to extract the installation folder for Tomcat, and append \logs to get my logging folder.

After adding a basic error handling check, that looks like:

$FoundRegKey = $null
$ApacheRegKeyExists = (Test-Path "HKLM:\Software\Apache Software Foundation")

If ($ApacheRegKeyExists)
{
    Get-ChildItem "HKLM:\Software\Apache Software Foundation" -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | 
    ForEach-Object
    {
        If ($_.Property -match "InstallPath") 
        {$FoundRegKey = Get-ItemProperty $_.pspath | Select InstallPath}
    }
}
Else
{
    Write-Host "Can't find Tomcat software keys in registry, exiting."
    Exit
}

If ($FoundRegKey)
    {
    $logfolder=($FoundRegKey.InstallPath+"\logs")
    }
Else
    {
    Write-Host "Can't find Tomcat install path in registry, exiting."
    Exit
    }

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 03 '17 at 09:08

1

Apologies for not directly answering your question.

I'd recommend using a seperate CATALINA_BASE as you would for multi-instance. You can choose that path freely and the log dir is logs below that path.

See https://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc/RUNNING.txt for further information.

Plus, it should make updating tomcat easier.

answered Jun 03 '17 at 09:08

fuero

9,591
1
35
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It's the right way to do it, sure, but sadly, my instances were not installed with a script that set the CATALINA_BASE variable, so that doesn't work for my use-case. – HopelessN00b Jun 05 '17 at 02:01

How can I get the log path of Tomcat, using PowerShell?

2 Answers2