Question

i have a problem with my server date configuration and java running log4j and solr on ubuntu 10.04.

System time is CEST.
date command output:

# date
Di 31. Jul 14:05:02 CEST 2012

but the time in the logs of my application logging with log4j is:

2012-07-31 12:05:02

i use this line in my log4j.properties file:

log4j.appender.rollingFile.layout.ConversionPattern=%d{ISO8601} %p %t %c - %m%n

Now i build a jar to test the time containing basically two lines of code:

Date date = new Date(System.currentTimeMillis());
System.out.println(DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance().format(date));

this gives me the expected wrong output:

# java -jar javaDate.jar
31.07.2012 12:05:02

if i use the virtual machine parameter for timezone it works correctly

java -Duser.timezone=Europe/Berlin -jar javaDate.jar 
31.07.2012 14:05:02

but if i use the same parameter to start the application that is using log4j is still get the wrong timestamps in my log.
why????

Answer 1

If you’re using a recent version of log4j you should be able to use the EnhancedPatternLayout if you add:

log4j.appender.rollingFile.layout=org.apache.log4j.EnhancedPatternLayout

to your config and use

%d{ISO8601}{Europe/Berlin}

in your layout.