Question

I have a class which initializes my log4j. This code will never print or exit, I dont understand why.

public class MyLog
{

   private static Logger log;

   static
   {
      log = Logger.getRootLogger();
      try
      {
            PropertyConfigurator.configure("somefileNameWhichDoesNotExist");
      }
      catch(Exception t)
      {
            System.out.println("oops logging cant be set, lets exit");
            System.exit(0);
      }

Answer 1

Why do you assume that an exception will be thrown when the file doesn’t exist? I just had a quick look at the API docs, and they don’t say anything about the handling of missing files – so it’s just as likely that the condition would just be ignored.

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EDIT: just read your additional comments, so that’s not the case.

Make sure that the static block is actually executing.

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EDIT: PropertyConfigurator is catching the exception, and handling it internally. That’s why you don’t see the exception. See the source – lines 370-380.