title: Java Logging - where is my log file?
body: <p>I'm having trouble finding my log files. </p>
  
  <p>I'm using Java Logging - <code>java.util.logging</code> - in Eclipse 3.7.1 on Windows XP. The relevant lines of my <code>logging.properties</code> file are:</p>
  
  <pre><code>handlers= java.util.logging.FileHandler, java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler
  .level=INFO
  java.util.logging.FileHandler.pattern = %h/java%u.log
  java.util.logging.FileHandler.limit = 50000
  java.util.logging.FileHandler.count = 1
  java.util.logging.FileHandler.formatter = java.util.logging.XMLFormatter
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>As far as I can figure out, after I execute these two lines:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Logger logger = Logger.getLogger("test"); 
  logger.logp(Level.INFO, "myClass", "myMethod", "Alcatraz"); 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>my log file should be in <code>C:\Documents and Settings\[My Windows ID]\javaX.log</code> where <code>X</code> is an integer. </p>
  
  <p>I have 5 different <code>java.log</code> files in that directory, <code>java0.log</code> through <code>java4.log</code>, but none of them contain my log record or even a record with today's date on it. I did some googling and found <a href="http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/guide/deployment/deployment-guide/tracing_logging.html" rel="noreferrer">Tracing and Logging</a> which implies that my logs should be at a different location, <code>c:\Documents and Settings\[My Windows ID]\Application Data\Sun\Java\Deployment\log</code>. There is one file there, named <code>plugin5581819941091650582.log</code>, but it is essentially empty:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="windows-1252" standalone="no"?&gt;
  &lt;!DOCTYPE log SYSTEM "logger.dtd"&gt;
  &lt;log&gt;
  &lt;/log&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Its creation date is last week. (I'm not sure what process created it; I certainly didn't create it explicitly.)</p>
  
  <p>So where is my log file then? I can't think of anywhere else to look. </p>
  
  <p>Also, does anyone know when changes to <code>logging.properties</code> take effect? If I changed the log level or the <code>FileHandler.pattern</code>, what would have to happen before my program saw the changes? Simply saving the changes in <code>logging.properties</code> is clearly not enough. Will I need to restart Eclipse? Or reboot the computer? Just curious. That's not nearly as big a deal to me as finding out where my log file actually is. </p>