Suggestion for log4x.xml keywords

[Christoph Wagner <cw...@canto.de>]

Hi,

I'm using log4j since a few months and I thinks it's a great tool. But one
problem still existing is the handling of relative file names in the
log4j.xml file.
If I deploy my application in a structure like the following

/bin
/logs

and my log4.xml laying under /bin references a log file as
"../logs/mylog.log" I have to make sure, that the JVM always uses /bin as
working directory. That is not a problem if I am my own start scripts but it
is a problem if the application is deployed into a 3rd party container.
AFAIK the proposed solution to this problem is to use a system property
like:

<param name="File" value="${APP_HOME}/logs/mylog.log"/>

and set the system property APP_HOME to my installation directory.
But this isn't always a working solution, because you aren't always able
(read: allowed) to set system properties for a container or maybe you don't
want to introduce another variable into the installation process.

Therefore I suggest the introduction of log4j keywords. To solve the problem
described earlier it would be great to be able to use a term like

<param name="File" value="${log4j.config.location}/../logs/mylog.log"/>

Another possible solution would be another attribute for the tag like

<param name="File" value="../logs/mylog.log" relativeToConfigFile="true" />


The implementation of one of these solutions would enable developers to ship
their applications with a ready-to-tun log4j.xml. It would also greatly
simplify the installion / deployment of applications.


It would be great to have such a feature in one of the upcoming releases.

Thanks in advance
Christoph Wagner


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