LOG_FILE_IS_UNDEFINED log file is being created on application startup

[pksinghus]

Adding a dependency on spring-cloud-context in a spring boot project results in an additional log file being generated with the name "LOG_FILE_IS_UNDEFINED".

Spring boot version is 1.5.2.RELEASE, spring cloud context version is 1.2.0.RELEASE

Remove the following dependency and the unnecessary log file is no longer generated on application startup -

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-cloud-context</artifactId>
    <version>1.2.0.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>

Sample project is attached - app.zip

[spencergibb]

You should use the release train to reference spring-cloud projects. See start.spring.io for examples.

[cooniur]

Having the same issue here. I provided more details in this ticket: https://github.com/spring-cloud/spring-cloud-commons/issues/219

Feel free to close one of them.

[cooniur]

This bug makes Spring Cloud completely unusable to an application which uses custom Logback configs with variables, because our runtime doesn't give Tomcat user permission to write into the directory.

[spencergibb]

@pksinghus if I change your pom to use the bom

    <dependencyManagement>
        <dependencies>
            <dependency>
                <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-cloud-dependencies</artifactId>
                <version>Dalston.SR1</version>
                <type>pom</type>
                <scope>import</scope>
            </dependency>
        </dependencies>
    </dependencyManagement>

and then remove the version and use the starter for spring-cloud-context

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-logging</artifactId>
        </dependency>

and put logging.file=app.log in bootstrap.properties

I don't get LOG_FILE_IS_UNDEFINED anymore.

[cooniur]

@spencergibb Yes, that solves the issue. And an even better thing is that active profiles will be passed to Spring Cloud bootstrap context, which enables profile-specific bootstrap settings.

In my case, logging location needs to be different between cloud and local environments. I just need to create two bootstrap files, one for cloud bootstrap-cloud.yml:

##
# Spring Cloud Bootstrap settings for running in AWS cloud environment
##
logging.file: "/logs/tomcat/springcloud-bootstrap.log"

and the other for local bootstrap-local.yml

##
# Spring Cloud Bootstrap settings for running in local environment
##
logging.file: "/tmp/springcloud-bootstrap.log"

And Spring Cloud bootstrap context will create logging files accordingly.

No LOG_FILE_IS_UNDEFINED anymore!

But I still hope to see this bug can be resolved by loading application.{properties, yml}, and then put bootstrap.{properties, yml} to the first to override settings in application.{properties, yml}.

[spencergibb]

I'm going to close this as the right dependency configuration is important.