JMX and config of log4j in container env.

[co...@covalent.net]

I recently enabled JMX support for jk, and one of the things it's
doing is detect if log4j is available and enable the log4j JMX.

There are few problems - and this is a deeper problem, that affects
the use of log4j as 'main' logger for tomcat.

The first problem is conflicts in the generated names for the 
log4j mbeans. For example, if 2 apps define a 'stdout' appender, both 
will get the same name and things brake. 

There is a second problem - it seems curently only the root category
is visible - if now log categories are defined they are not visible.
( it is possible to use add() and make them visible, but add() is 
broken and doesn't allow to define new logging categories ).

It is obviously cool to be able to change the logging level on
the root category, but that's too coarse - so more granularity is
needed.

The real big problem is in keeping the apps insolated, when log4j
is in the main classpath. It seems there are still problems with 
that. 

Another big issue is finding a way to 'hook' the Context.log()
into log4j.

I think the best solution for most of those problems would be to
allow somehow to use the webapp name ( VHOST:/path ) as a prefix
or namespace for the logging categories and appenders ( and the 
associated JMX names ). We also need a mechansim to merge the 
global log4j config with local log4j properties specified per 
webapp.

( and a way to override and control from the central config
what the webapps are allowed to do - remember the webapp 
is not allways trusted )

Opinions? Sugestions ?

Costin 


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