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 the generated log file will also be within 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