unable to generate a log file using log4j inspite everything is kept

Question

Unable to create a log file.

web.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_3_1.xsd"
         version="3.1">
    <welcome-file-list>
        <welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
    </welcome-file-list>

    <context-param>
        <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
        <param-value>/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml</param-value>
    </context-param>

    <context-param>
        <param-name>log4j-config-location</param-name>
        <param-value>/WEB-INF/log4j.xml</param-value>
    </context-param>

    <listener>
        <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
    </listener>
    <listener>
        <listener-class>org.springframework.web.util.Log4jConfigListener</listener-class>
    </listener>
    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>dispatcher</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
        <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>
    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>dispatcher</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>*.form</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>   
</web-app>

I have created the log4j.xml in WEB-INF folder.

log4j.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE log4j:configuration SYSTEM "log4j.dtd">
<log4j:configuration debug="true" xmlns:log4j='http://jakarta.apache.org/log4j/'>
    <!-- Appenders -->
    <appender name="console" class="org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender">
        <param name="Target" value="System.out" />
        <param name="Threshold" value="debug" />
        <layout class="org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout">
            <param name="ConversionPattern" value="%d %-5p %c{1}:%L %m %n" />
        </layout>
    </appender>

    <appender name="fileAppender" class="org.apache.log4j.RollingFileAppender">
        <param name="Threshold" value="INFO" />
        <param name="Threshold" value="debug" />
        <param name="maxFileSize" value="20MB" />
        <param name="maxBackupIndex" value="10" />
        <param name="file" value="${catalina.home}/logs/myLog.log"/>
        <param name="append" value="true" />
        <layout class="org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout">
            <param name="ConversionPattern" value="%d{yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss} %-5p %c{1}:%L %m %n" />
        </layout>
    </appender>

    <!--  3rdparty Loggers -->
    <logger name="org.springframework.core">
        <level value="info" />
    </logger>

    <logger name="org.springframework.beans">
        <level value="info" />
    </logger>

    <logger name="org.springframework.context">
        <level value="info" />
    </logger>

    <logger name="org.springframework.web">
        <level value="info" />
    </logger>

    <!-- Root Logger -->
    <root>
        <priority value="info"></priority>
        <appender-ref ref="fileAppender" />
    </root>

</log4j:configuration>

Below is the folder project structure:

MyProject
    src
    web
      WEB-INF
           lib
           web.xml,applicationContext.xml,log4j.xml,spring-config.xml...

Any suggestions would be helpful. I have a file inside WEB-INF folder and i have given the mapping in web.xml as shown above, but still when the tomcat server is started the myLog.log file is not creating. Do i need to add something? And one thing i noticed is the Log4jConfigListenner is depreciated class. I have log4j-1.2.17.jar file in the classpath. I don't want to keep the log file in src folder, i want it to be in WEB-INF folder.

--edit-- I have modified the order of declaration of listeners in web.xml, but still the log file is not generating.

<listener>
           <listener-class>org.springframework.web.util.Log4jConfigListener</listener-class>
        </listener>
<listener>
            <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
        </listener>

Answer 1

Check the order of listeners in web.xml on Log4jConfigListener javadoc is specified:

This listener should be registered before ContextLoaderListener in web.xml when using custom log4j initialization.

Answer 2

Have you tried calling logger from a class and running that one? Can you try using JAVA logger Utils class like::

public class LoggerUtils {

    private static final Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(Logger.GLOBAL_LOGGER_NAME);
    private static LoggerUtils LOGGER = null;
    private static final int MAX_LOGFILE_SIZE_BYTES = 1024 * 1024 * 5;  // 5MB

    public static Logger getInstance() {
        if(LOGGER == null) {
            try {
                initialize();
                LOGGER = new LoggerUtils();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
        return logger;
    }

    private static void initialize() throws IOException {
        // Suppress the logging output to the console
        Logger rootLogger = Logger.getLogger("");
        Handler[] handlers = rootLogger.getHandlers();
        if (handlers.length > 0 && handlers[0] instanceof ConsoleHandler) {
            rootLogger.removeHandler(handlers[0]);
        }
        logger.setLevel(Level.ALL);

        // Get the .log file path
        String path = Platform.getLogFileLocation().toOSString();
        FileHandler fileTxt = new FileHandler(path, MAX_LOGFILE_SIZE_BYTES, 1);
        FileHandler fileHTML = new FileHandler(path + ".html");

        // create a text format
        SimpleFormatter formatterTxt = new SimpleFormatter();
        fileTxt.setFormatter(formatterTxt);
        logger.addHandler(fileTxt);

        // create an HTML format
        LoggerHtmlFormatter formatterHTML = new LoggerHtmlFormatter();
        fileHTML.setFormatter(formatterHTML);
        logger.addHandler(fileHTML);
    }
}

class LoggerHtmlFormatter extends Formatter {
    public String format(LogRecord rec) {
        StringBuffer buf = new StringBuffer(1000);
        buf.append("<tr>\n");

        if (rec.getLevel().intValue() >= Level.WARNING.intValue()) {
            buf.append("\t<td style=\"color:red\">");
            buf.append("<b>");
            buf.append(rec.getLevel());
            buf.append("</b>");
        } else {
            buf.append("\t<td>");
            buf.append(rec.getLevel());
        }

        buf.append("</td>\n");
        buf.append("\t<td>");
        buf.append(calcDate(rec.getMillis()));
        buf.append("</td>\n");
        buf.append("\t<td>");
        buf.append(formatMessage(rec));
        buf.append("</td>\n");
        buf.append("</tr>\n");

        return buf.toString();
    }

    private String calcDate(long millisecs) {
        SimpleDateFormat date_format = new SimpleDateFormat("MMM dd,yyyy HH:mm");
        Date resultdate = new Date(millisecs);
        return date_format.format(resultdate);
    }

    public String getHead(Handler h) {
        return "<!DOCTYPE html>\n<head>\n<style>\n"
            + "table { width: 100% }\n"
            + "th { font:bold 10pt Tahoma; }\n"
            + "td { font:normal 10pt Tahoma; }\n"
            + "h1 {font:normal 11pt Tahoma;}\n"
            + "</style>\n"
            + "</head>\n"
            + "<body>\n"
            + "<h1>" + (new Date()) + "</h1>\n"
            + "<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"5\" cellspacing=\"3\">\n"
            + "<tr align=\"left\">\n"
            + "\t<th style=\"width:10%\">Loglevel</th>\n"
            + "\t<th style=\"width:15%\">Time</th>\n"
            + "\t<th style=\"width:75%\">Log Message</th>\n"
            + "</tr>\n";
      }

    public String getTail(Handler h) {
        return "</table>\n</body>\n</html>";
    }
}

And do note, you need to call this one from some java class like LoggerUtils.getInstance(level.SEVERE, "ANYTHING"); and run that class. Logger only generated when its been called, or some log is printed, before that it doesnt even create the file.