Question

I have a java program which is using the default XML logging as no formatter is defined, I am wondering if there is a way to change this outside of modifying the code or adding a logging.properties file(it has none atm). Is there a way to specify/change the default file handler from XML to SimpleFormatter for Java.util.log? It’s logging configuration is hard coded:

fh = new FileHandler("/path/to/logfile",true);
logger.addHandler(fh);

Rather then having to add fh.setFormatter(new SimpleFormatter()) in the code here, I am wondering if there is anyway via command line that I can specify SimpleFormatter to be used as the default formatter rather then the XML formatter which it defaults to?

Thanks for any thoughts

Answer 1

You can specify how logging should be done in several ways, and they are all described in the javadoc for LogManager.

You can set the system property java.util.logging.config.file and use a file for configuration, or you can set java.util.logging.config.class and use a class to configure the logging.

The logging.properties file in the JRE/lib directory will be used if none of those properties are set (unless the code specifies another logging configuration)