Missing logs - Tomcat 5.5 + Ubuntu 8.04 - Server Fault

Summary

Freshly-installed (via apt-get) Tomcat on a freshly-installed Ubuntu 8.04 LTS 64-bit works, but doesn't (seem to) log anything. See also "What I've Tried" and "Closing In On It" below.

More Detail

Because the package maintainers have done a HUGE amount of the work, getting basic things working has been a fairly straightfoward matter of running apt-get and pointing Tomcat at the right JDK. And it works. But it doesn't appear to log anything.

As far as I can tell, the logging infrastructure is controlled via logging.properties files (since this is Tomcat 5.5, not Tomcat 5.0), including a central one (which you can override per web app) at /etc/tomcat55/logging.properties (/etc/tomcat55 is symlinked as /var/lib/tomcat55/conf). I'm not overriding it, and I can't see why I'm not seeing something. Here's the file:

 1 1 # Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more   2  2 # contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with   3  3 # this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.   4  4 # The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0   5  5 # (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with   6  6 # the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at   7  7 #   8  8 #     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0   9  9 #  10 10 # Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software  11 11 # distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,  12 12 # WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.  13 13 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and  14 14 # limitations under the License.  15 15   16 16 handlers = 1catalina.org.apache.juli.FileHandler, 2localhost.org.apache.juli.FileHandler, 3manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler, 4admin.org.apache.juli.FileHandler, 5host-manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler, java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler  17 17   18 18 .handlers = 1catalina.org.apache.juli.FileHandler, java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler  19 19   20 20 ############################################################  21 21 # Handler specific properties.  22 22 # Describes specific configuration info for Handlers.  23 23 ############################################################  24 24   25 25 1catalina.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.level = FINE  26 26 1catalina.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.directory = ${catalina.base}/logs  27 27 1catalina.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.prefix = catalina.  28 28   29 29 2localhost.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.level = FINE  30 30 2localhost.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.directory = ${catalina.base}/logs  31 31 2localhost.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.prefix = localhost.  32 32   33 33 3manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.level = FINE  34 34 3manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.directory = ${catalina.base}/logs  35 35 3manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.prefix = manager.  36 36   37 37 4admin.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.level = FINE  38 38 4admin.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.directory = ${catalina.base}/logs  39 39 4admin.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.prefix = admin.  40 40   41 41 5host-manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.level = FINE  42 42 5host-manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.directory = ${catalina.base}/logs  43 43 5host-manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.prefix = host-manager.  44 44   45 45 java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler.level = FINE  46 46 java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler.formatter = java.util.logging.SimpleFormatter  47 47   48 48   49 49 ############################################################  50 50 # Facility specific properties.  51 51 # Provides extra control for each logger.  52 52 ############################################################  53 53   54 54 org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].[localhost].level = DEBUG  55 55 org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].[localhost].handlers = 2localhost.org.apache.juli.FileHandler  56 56   57 57 org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].[localhost].[/manager].level = INFO  58 58 org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].[localhost].[/manager].handlers = 3manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler  59 59   60 60 org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].[localhost].[/admin].level = INFO  61 61 org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].[localhost].[/admin].handlers = 4admin.org.apache.juli.FileHandler  62 62   63 63 org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].[localhost].[/host-manager].level = INFO  64 64 org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].[localhost].[/host-manager].handlers = 5host-manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler  65 65   66 66 # For example, set the com.xyz.foo logger to only log SEVERE  67 67 # messages:  68 68 #org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.level = DEBUG  69 69 #org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.level = DEBUG  70 70 #org.apache.catalina.session.ManagerBase.level = DEBUG 

The only change I've made is:

1 1 org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].[localhost].level = DEBUG 

...which was set to INFO like all the others, but I wanted to get it to log something, so I upped it to DEBUG. Naturally I've restarted Tomcat.

I can compile and view a JSP, so again Tomcat is working, but /var/lib/tomcat5.5/logs is stubbornly empty. Even if I force an error by having an invalid JSP or some such, I'm getting nothing.

What I've Tried

• I've been through the steps listed in the Tomcat FAQ for ensuring that the distro hasn't messed things up (they hadn't).
• I've gone looking for a logs directory elsewhere in case it's not /var/lib/tomcat5.5/logs (although that was created by the install).
• Naturally I've restarted Tomcat after making any changes.

One thing I haven't done is to chown everything to be owned by the tomcat55 user that the install created. logs is owned by tomcat55, but a number of the other directories and files are owned by root, though they're world-readable. I haven't done this because (hangs head) I can't quite figure out how to fully back-up the existing tree so I can readily undo the change. The blasted tree has absolute symlinks interweaving /etc/tomcat55, /var/lib/tomcat55, and /usr/share/tomcat55 that I know of. I could tar up each of those, but I don't know for certain I'm not missing something.

EDIT:

Closing In On It

Okay, so I've found that it's writing console-style stuff to /var/log/daemon.log. Whew! At least that gives me a place to start. And it's issuing complaints like:

1 1 jsvc.exec[18819]: Can't load log handler "2localhost.org.apache.juli.FileHandler"  2 2 jsvc.exec[18819]: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: 2localhost.org.apache.juli.FileHandler 

And I'm not surprised, 2localhost.org.apache.juli.FileHandler isn't a valid class name (packages can't start with digits!). So I'm suspecting that the default logging.properties file is...not good. Will report back.

via serverfault.com

Geez.... It's a good thing I found this excellent information on Tomcat 5.5, because I couldn't find out why there were no logs!

Posted via web from alromero's posterous