GlassFish 3: how do you change the (default) logging format?

Question

The question originated from here: http://www.java.net/forum/topic/glassfish/glassfish/configuring-glassfish-logging-format - without an answer.

The default GlassFish 3 logging format is very annoying, much too long.

[#|2012-03-02T09:22:03.165+0100|SEVERE|glassfish3.1.2|javax.enterprise.system.std.com.sun.enterprise.server.logging|_ThreadID=113;_ThreadName=AWT-EventQueue-0;| MESSAGE... ]

This is just a horrible default IMO. The docs just explain all the fields, but not how to change the format: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E18930_01/html/821-2416/abluk.html

Note, that I deploy SLF4J along with my webapp which should pick up the format as well.

How do you change the logging format?

FYI:

The links here are outdated: Install log formater in glassfish...

The question here hasn't been answered: How to configure GlassFish logging to show milliseconds in timestamps?...

The posting here resulted in nothing: http://www.java.net/forum/topic/glassfish/glassfish/cant-seem-configure-...

It looks like GlassFish logging configuration is an issue of its own. Can anybody help?

Answer 1

The solution seems to be the first SO posting here: Install log formater in glassfish

I've hacked together a simple log formatter (adjust at will):

import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.io.StringWriter;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.logging.LogRecord;
import java.util.logging.SimpleFormatter;

public class JBossAS7LikeFormatter extends SimpleFormatter
{
    private final String nl = System.getProperty("line.separator");
    private final DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("HH:mm:ss,SSS");

    @Override
    public synchronized String format(LogRecord lr)
    {
        StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();

        // time only
        Date dt = new Date();
        dt.setTime(lr.getMillis());

        sb.append(df.format(dt));
        sb.append(" ");

        // level (longest is "WARNING" = 7 chars, space fill for level output)
        String level = lr.getLevel().getName();

        int numSpaces = 7 - level.length();

        sb.append(level);

        for ( int i = 0 ; i < numSpaces + 1 ; i++ )
        {
            sb.append(" ");
        }

        // package
        sb.append("[");
        sb.append(lr.getSourceClassName());
        sb.append("] ");

        // thread (name?)
        sb.append("(");
        sb.append(lr.getThreadID());
        sb.append(") ");

        // message
        sb.append(formatMessage(lr));
        sb.append(nl);

        // optional stack trace
        if ( lr.getThrown() != null )
        {
            try
            {
                StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
                PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(sw);
                lr.getThrown().printStackTrace(pw);
                pw.close();
                sb.append(sw.toString());
            }
            catch ( Exception e )
            {
            }
        }

        return sb.toString();
    }

}

It even fixes the double newline problem on Windows machines.

---

I got this to work by putting the JAR into domain/lib/ext at first, but for newer tries, whatever the reason is, I only keep getting a ClassNotFoundException now:

Mrz 08, 2012 9:39:14 AM com.sun.enterprise.admin.launcher.GFLauncherLogger info
Information: Successfully launched in 5 msec.
Launching GlassFish on Felix platform
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:601)
    at com.sun.enterprise.glassfish.bootstrap.GlassFishMain.main(GlassFishMain.java:97)
    at com.sun.enterprise.glassfish.bootstrap.ASMain.main(ASMain.java:55)
Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/sun/enterprise/server/logging/UniformLogFormatter
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:791)
    at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:142)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:449)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:71)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:361)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:355)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:354)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:423)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:410)
    at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:308)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:356)
    at java.util.logging.LogManager.getFormatterProperty(LogManager.java:1048)
    at java.util.logging.StreamHandler.configure(StreamHandler.java:76)
    at java.util.logging.StreamHandler.<init>(StreamHandler.java:94)
    at java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler.<init>(ConsoleHandler.java:88)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
    at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:525)
    at java.lang.Class.newInstance0(Class.java:372)
    at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:325)
    at java.util.logging.LogManager$3.run(LogManager.java:419)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.util.logging.LogManager.loadLoggerHandlers(LogManager.java:405)
    at java.util.logging.LogManager.initializeGlobalHandlers(LogManager.java:1076)
    at java.util.logging.LogManager.access$1100(LogManager.java:148)
    at java.util.logging.LogManager$RootLogger.getHandlers(LogManager.java:1157)
    at java.util.logging.Logger.log(Logger.java:521)
    at com.sun.logging.LogDomains$1.log(LogDomains.java:372)
    at java.util.logging.Logger.doLog(Logger.java:543)
    at java.util.logging.Logger.log(Logger.java:587)
    at com.sun.enterprise.server.logging.LogManagerService.postConstruct(LogManagerService.java:354)
    at com.sun.hk2.component.AbstractCreatorImpl.inject(AbstractCreatorImpl.java:131)
    at com.sun.hk2.component.ConstructorCreator.initialize(ConstructorCreator.java:91)
    at com.sun.hk2.component.AbstractCreatorImpl.get(AbstractCreatorImpl.java:82)
    at com.sun.hk2.component.SingletonInhabitant.get(SingletonInhabitant.java:67)
    at com.sun.hk2.component.EventPublishingInhabitant.get(EventPublishingInhabitant.java:139)
    at com.sun.hk2.component.AbstractInhabitantImpl.get(AbstractInhabitantImpl.java:78)
    at com.sun.enterprise.v3.server.AppServerStartup.run(AppServerStartup.java:229)
    at com.sun.enterprise.v3.server.AppServerStartup.doStart(AppServerStartup.java:145)
    at com.sun.enterprise.v3.server.AppServerStartup.start(AppServerStartup.java:136)
    at com.sun.enterprise.glassfish.bootstrap.GlassFishImpl.start(GlassFishImpl.java:79)
    at com.sun.enterprise.glassfish.bootstrap.GlassFishDecorator.start(GlassFishDecorator.java:63)
    at com.sun.enterprise.glassfish.bootstrap.osgi.OSGiGlassFishImpl.start(OSGiGlassFishImpl.java:69)
    at com.sun.enterprise.glassfish.bootstrap.GlassFishMain$Launcher.launch(GlassFishMain.java:117)
    ... 6 more
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.sun.enterprise.server.logging.UniformLogFormatter
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:366)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:355)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:354)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:423)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:356)
    ... 53 more
Completed shutdown of GlassFish runtime
Command start-domain failed.
The DAS was stopped.

I saw the new format for a few tries, but the it stopped to work - strange.

I've attached the JAR as is in my original GlassFish forum post. I've basically just used my ZIP tool and renamed it to JAR, but this shouldn't be a problem (?). If anybody gets it to work (again) please let me know.

Note: I'm using the GlassFish plugin to start/stop the server, don't know if this could be an issue.

Please continue any discussions in the GlassFish forum here: http://www.java.net/forum/topic/glassfish/glassfish/configuring-glassfish-logging-format

PS: sorry I needed to post the stack trace here as the GF forum is somewhat broken.

UPDATE:

Extending java.util.logging.SimpleFormatter did the trick. GlassFish now produces log entries like:

12:13:02,400 INFO    [com.sun.enterprise.web.WebContainer] (1) WEB0172: Virtual server [server] loaded default web module []
12:13:07,700 INFO    [org.hibernate.validator.util.Version] (1) Hibernate Validator 4.2.0.Final
12:13:08,919 WARNING [null] (1) Multiple [2] JMX MBeanServer instances exist, we will use the server at index [0] : [com.sun.enterprise.v3.admin.DynamicInterceptor@1a53cab6].
12:13:08,920 WARNING [null] (1) JMX MBeanServer in use: [com.sun.enterprise.v3.admin.DynamicInterceptor@1a53cab6] from index [0] 
12:13:08,920 WARNING [null] (1) JMX MBeanServer in use: [com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.JmxMBeanServer@2f740f7e] from index [1] 

Again, on Windows: no double newlines.

Answer 2

The default logging format can be changed as per the post above. The NoClassDefFoundError reported above can be avoided by extending java.util.logging.Formatter rather than the com.sun.enterprise.server.logging.UniformLogFormatter.

To summarize:

1. Implement a custom formatter which extends java.util.logging.Formatter
2. Copy the jar containing custom formatter to domain/lib/ext

3. Specify the log formatter in logging.properties, eg.

   com.sun.enterprise.server.logging.GFFileHandler.formatter=com.myformatter.CustomFormatter