log4j log file in user home directory

Question

I am working on an application that will run on OSX and windows. I want the logs to be written to the users home directory. For OSX it will be under the /Users//Library/Applicat

Answer 1

Change the ConsoleAppender to a FileAppender. As far as I know the write request will be redirected to appdata on windows OS. Not sure about MacOs.

URL mySource = MyAppMainClass.class.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation();
File rootFolder = new File(mySource.getPath());
System.setProperty("app.root", rootFolder.getAbsolutePath());

and edit log4j config like this

log4j.appender.NotConsole=org.apache.log4j.RollingFileAppender
log4j.appender.NotConsole.fileName=${app.root}/fileName.log

or for user home:

// log4j 1.*
log4j.appender.NotConsole.fileName=${user.home}/fileName.log
// log4j 2.*
log4j.appender.NotConsole.fileName=${sys:user.home}/fileName.log

Note that log4j 2 requires sys: prefix - thanks to @sgrubsmyon