- Configuring Logging (Log4j)

NOTE:  The following only applies to WOW versions up to 7.6.   In WOW 7.8 and above, log4j has been replaced with log4j2 because of security issues with the older log4j.  

Configuring Logging (Log4j)

As WOW runs, it logs events that are important. Some events are more important that others, so we made this logging configurable by modifying a property file in the wow folder. You may want to change the level of logging to a more verbose mode to see detailed or debugging information. In most cases, you will just want to log exceptions or events that cause WOW to error. By default, only events of levels WARN, ERROR, and FATAL are logged.

Log4J Configurations

Currently events can be logged at the following levels (listed in order of increasing severity): 

    DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR, and FATAL. 

You can also control where you want the log messages outputted to. You can direct them to Standard Out (stout), or a file (output.log) or both. By default we direct output to both stdout and output.log.

The master configuration file is called log4j.cnfg. You can find this file in the following directory: 

    <TOMCAT INSTALL ROOT>\webapps\wow\dataengine\logging\

For more verbose logging, try renaming the Verbose Stdout out.log log4j.cnfg file to log4j.cnfg. Likewise, if you would like a less verbose logging level, rename one of the Light Stdout… files to log4j.cnfg. Make sure you keep the original log4j.cnfg file so you can always change it back.

NOTE: You will have to restart the Web server for the changes to take effect.

For more advanced logging techniques, click here. 

WOW Log File (output.log)

If your log4j.cnfg is directing output to a log file, you can find that log file by searching for the file name set in the config file. By default, the file is named output.log and it can be viewed by looking in the Start Button shortcut where you click Start Tomcat. For example: 

    Start Button => Programs => Apache Tomcat 4.1 =>output.log.