How to specify file location for logback on Android

Question

I want to write logback output to a log file which can then be sent back to me by the user. My logback.xml is below. My problem is that my logging will only work if the location that I specify is "/storage/emulated/0"...(which is device-specific). If I simply specify "/data/data/mypackage/files/log/debug.log" then nothing gets written.

What is the best way of specifying the path for my file in a way which will be compatible with all Android 4.x devices?

<configuration debug="true">
    <!-- Create a file appender for a log in the application's data directory -->
    <appender name="FILE" class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.RollingFileAppender">
        <file>/storage/emulated/0/data/data/mypackage/files/log/debug.log</file>
        <rollingPolicy class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.FixedWindowRollingPolicy">
            <fileNamePattern>debug.%i.log.zip</fileNamePattern>
            <minIndex>1</minIndex>
            <maxIndex>3</maxIndex>
        </rollingPolicy>
        <triggeringPolicy class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy">
            <maxFileSize>5MB</maxFileSize>
        </triggeringPolicy>
        <encoder>
            <pattern>%d{HH:mm:ss.SSS} [%thread] %-5level %logger{36} - %msg%n</pattern>
        </encoder>
    </appender>

    <!-- Write INFO (and higher-level) messages to the log file -->
    <root level="INFO">
        <appender-ref ref="FILE" />
    </root>
</configuration>

Jing-Wei Wu · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-01 15:36:03Z

0

You can specify file path in code in stead of in logback.xml. Use getFilesDir() to get the absolute path to the filesystem directory where your internal files are saved.

LoggerContext loggerContext = (LoggerContext) LoggerFactory.getILoggerFactory();
RollingFileAppender rfAppender = new RollingFileAppender();
rfAppender.setContext(loggerContext);

final File folder = getFilesDir();
final File logFile = new File(folder, "testFile.log");
rfAppender.setFile(logFile.getPath());

answered May 1, 2015 at 15:36

Jing-Wei Wu

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1 Comment

Ian M Over a year ago

Thanks for the reply. Where is the optimum place in an Android app to place this sort of code? Presumably it shouldn't be necessary to set the file path before writing each entry to the log, but is there a class/method where this can be placed so that it will always be set correctly whenever it is needed?

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