Eclipse Logging with Logback

When using Eclipse with M2E a global logback config file can be used to provide tuneable logging configuration for all workspaces.

Configuring a global logback config

• edit the eclipse.ini file in the Eclipse installation directory

• add the system property -Dlogback.configurationFile= and set the value to a shared configuration file e.g. -Dlogback.configurationFile=file:/home/me/bin/eclipse.logback.xml

• set the initial contents of this file to something like:

  <configuration scan="true">
    <appender name="STDOUT" class="ch.qos.logback.core.ConsoleAppender">
      <encoder class="ch.qos.logback.classic.encoder.PatternLayoutEncoder">
        <pattern>%date [%thread] %-5level %logger{35} - %msg%n</pattern>
      </encoder>
    </appender>
    <appender name="FILE" class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.RollingFileAppender">
      <File>${osgi.logfile}-0-back.log</File>
      <rollingPolicy class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.FixedWindowRollingPolicy">
        <FileNamePattern>${osgi.logfile}-%i-back.log</FileNamePattern>
        <MinIndex>1</MinIndex>
        <MaxIndex>10</MaxIndex>
      </rollingPolicy>
      <triggeringPolicy class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy">
        <MaxFileSize>100MB</MaxFileSize>
      </triggeringPolicy>
      <encoder class="ch.qos.logback.classic.encoder.PatternLayoutEncoder">
        <pattern>%date [%thread] %-5level %logger{35} - %msg%n</pattern>
      </encoder>
    </appender>
    <!--<logger name="bndtools.m2e.MavenWorkspaceRepository" level="DEBUG" />-->
    <root level="ERROR">
      <appender-ref ref="FILE" />
      <appender-ref ref="STDOUT" />
    </root>
  </configuration>

• notice the FILE appender FileNamePattern references an existing system property which is unique for each workspace. This means a generated log file will be contained in each workspace (as configured it will be at ${workspace_loc}/.metadata/.log-%i-back.log)

A few points

• the configuration file is scanned every 30 seconds by logback engine and so Eclipse restart is not required
• add logger to adjust any specific logging categories as needed