SpringBoot SpringBoot with LogBack creating LOG_PATH_IS_UNDEFINED folder

I am using SpringBoot with LogBack and using the below configuration in my yml file:

logging:
    path: C:/var/log/pincode

The logging.path Spring Environment Variable is transferred to the LOG_PATH Environment variable and the log file is placed at the correct place, but there is also a directory called LOG_PATH_IS_UNDEFINED created in the root directory of my project.

This seems to be caused by the different phase used by SpringBoot to configure LogBack with its Environment variables.

17:29:21,325 |-INFO in ch.qos.logback.core.joran.action.NestedComplexPropertyIA - Assuming default type [ch.qos.logback.classic.encoder.PatternLayoutEncoder] for [encoder] property
17:29:21,337 |-INFO in c.q.l.core.rolling.TimeBasedRollingPolicy - Will use the pattern LOG_PATH_IS_UNDEFINED/catalina.out.%d{yyyy-MM-dd} for the active file
17:29:21,340 |-INFO in c.q.l.core.rolling.DefaultTimeBasedFileNamingAndTriggeringPolicy - The date pattern is 'yyyy-MM-dd' from file name pattern 'LOG_PATH_IS_UNDEFINED/catalina.out.%d{yyyy-MM-dd}'.
17:29:21,340 |-INFO in c.q.l.core.rolling.DefaultTimeBasedFileNamingAndTriggeringPolicy - Roll-over at midnight.
17:29:21,343 |-INFO in c.q.l.core.rolling.DefaultTimeBasedFileNamingAndTriggeringPolicy - Setting initial period to Mon Aug 11 17:24:07 BRT 2014
17:29:21,346 |-INFO in ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.RollingFileAppender[serverConsole] - Active log file name: LOG_PATH_IS_UNDEFINED/catalina.out
17:29:21,346 |-INFO in ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.RollingFileAppender[serverConsole] - File property is set to [LOG_PATH_IS_UNDEFINED/catalina.out]
...
17:29:21,358 |-INFO in ch.qos.logback.classic.joran.action.ConfigurationAction - End of configuration.

And then after that it start configuring logback again but this time using the path i set:

17:29:21,672 |-INFO in ch.qos.logback.core.joran.action.NestedComplexPropertyIA - Assuming default type [ch.qos.logback.classic.encoder.PatternLayoutEncoder] for [encoder] property
17:29:21,673 |-INFO in c.q.l.core.rolling.TimeBasedRollingPolicy - No compression will be used
17:29:21,673 |-INFO in c.q.l.core.rolling.TimeBasedRollingPolicy - Will use the pattern C:/var/log/pincode//catalina.out.%d{yyyy-MM-dd} for the active file
17:29:21,674 |-INFO in c.q.l.core.rolling.DefaultTimeBasedFileNamingAndTriggeringPolicy - The date pattern is 'yyyy-MM-dd' from file name pattern 'C:/var/log/pincode//catalina.out.%d{yyyy-MM-dd}'.
17:29:21,674 |-INFO in c.q.l.core.rolling.DefaultTimeBasedFileNamingAndTriggeringPolicy - Roll-over at midnight.
17:29:21,674 |-INFO in c.q.l.core.rolling.DefaultTimeBasedFileNamingAndTriggeringPolicy - Setting initial period to Mon Aug 11 17:29:21 BRT 2014
17:29:21,674 |-INFO in ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.RollingFileAppender[serverConsole] - Active log file name: C:/var/log/pincode//catalina.out
17:29:21,674 |-INFO in ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.RollingFileAppender[serverConsole] - File property is set to [C:/var/log/pincode//catalina.out]
...
17:29:21,685 |-INFO in ch.qos.logback.classic.joran.action.ConfigurationAction - End of configuration.

My logback.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration debug="true">
<include resource="org/springframework/boot/logging/logback/basic.xml" />
<property name="FILE_LOG_PATTERN"
    value="%d{yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS} %5p ${PID:- } [%t] --- %-40.40logger{39} : %m%n%wex" />

<appender name="serverConsole"
          class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.RollingFileAppender">
    <Append>true</Append>
    <File>${LOG_PATH}/catalina.out</File>
    <encoder>
        <pattern>${FILE_LOG_PATTERN}</pattern>
    </encoder>
    <rollingPolicy class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.TimeBasedRollingPolicy">
        <fileNamePattern>${LOG_PATH}/catalina.out.%d{yyyy-MM-dd}
        </fileNamePattern>
        <maxHistory>15</maxHistory>
    </rollingPolicy>
</appender>

<!-- Plain Text Rolling Appender -->
<appender name="server"
    class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.RollingFileAppender">
    <Append>true</Append>
    <File>${LOG_PATH}/pincode.log</File>
    <filter class="ch.qos.logback.classic.filter.LevelFilter">
        <level>INFO</level>
        <onMatch>ACCEPT</onMatch>
        <onMismatch>DENY</onMismatch>
    </filter>
    <encoder>
        <pattern>${FILE_LOG_PATTERN}</pattern>
    </encoder>
    <rollingPolicy class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.TimeBasedRollingPolicy">
        <fileNamePattern>${LOG_PATH}/pincode.log.%d{yyyy-MM-dd}
        </fileNamePattern>
        <maxHistory>15</maxHistory>
    </rollingPolicy>
</appender>

<!-- Plain Text Rolling Appender -->
<appender name="server-error"
    class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.RollingFileAppender">
    <Append>true</Append>
    <File>${LOG_PATH}/pincode-error.log</File>
    <filter class="ch.qos.logback.classic.filter.LevelFilter">
        <level>ERROR</level>
        <onMatch>ACCEPT</onMatch>
        <onMismatch>DENY</onMismatch>
    </filter>
    <encoder>
        <pattern>${FILE_LOG_PATTERN}</pattern>
    </encoder>
    <rollingPolicy class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.TimeBasedRollingPolicy">
        <fileNamePattern>${LOG_PATH}/pincode-error.log.%d{yyyy-MM-dd}
        </fileNamePattern>
        <maxHistory>15</maxHistory>
    </rollingPolicy>
</appender>

<logger name="com.app" level="INFO">
    <appender-ref ref="server" />
    <appender-ref ref="server-error" />
</logger>

<root level="INFO">
    <appender-ref ref="serverConsole" />
</root> 

If I remove my logback.xml file from the project it doesn't create the folder, so somewhere Spring is loading the xml before parsing the yml?

How can I avoid Logback to create this LOG_PATH_IS_UNDEFINED directory?

Comment From: isnotnull

I'm having this problem too. Put this befor your appender may solve it.

<property name="LOG_PATH" value="${LOG_PATH:-${LOG_TEMP:-${java.io.tmpdir:-/tmp}}}" />

Comment From: isnotnull

It's working for me. Tested on Mac OS X 10.9 and CentOS 6.5. But I'm using the 'base.xml' file.

<include resource="org/springframework/boot/logging/logback/base.xml"/>
<property name="LOG_PATH" value="${LOG_PATH:-${LOG_TEMP:-${java.io.tmpdir:-/tmp}}}" />

Comment From: davicdsalves

It works, but it still creates a temp logfile on my temp folder, even thought it has no content.

Will use the pattern C:/Users/DAVI~1.ALV/AppData/Local/Temp//pincode.log.%d{yyyy-MM-dd} for the active file

Comment From: savinov

Spring-boot 1.2.2 still creates this empty directory, please reopen the issue

Comment From: wilkinsona

If you're using a File Appender, Logback needs to be able to write somewhere before it's fully configured based on what you've specified in application.properties or application.yaml. The empty directory is only created if you try to use LOG_PATH and you haven't configured it as suggested above.

Comment From: savinov

This suggestion is a workaround with creation temporary files/directories, isn't it?

Comment From: davicdsalves

It works because it will use the java temp directory on your computer. If you go there you'll see a blank log file.

Comment From: savinov

But this magic variables seems so ugly. Well, this is not spring-boot responibility for file/directory creation, it's a logback issue.

Comment From: wilkinsona

It's Logback that's creating the file/directory. As I said, if you're using a FileAppender, Logback needs to write a file somewhere before Boot's had a chance to configure LOG_PATH based on what's in application.properties.

We do hope to improve this two-stage initialisation of Logback. See #2558 for details.

Comment From: KlausGitHub

i have meat this problem too; and i have solved it; you can rename the logback.xml file to an other one like log-back.xml ; and binggo,done.

Comment From: HopscotchSen

my configuration as follow application.yml： logging: config: classpath:logback-spring.xml path: D:/logs/matrix-platform-gateway

logback-spring.xml：

<!-- Appender to log to console -->
<appender name="STDOUT" class="ch.qos.logback.core.ConsoleAppender">
    <!--<filter class="ch.qos.logback.classic.filter.ThresholdFilter">
         Minimum logging level to be presented in the console logs
        <level>DEBUG</level>
    </filter>-->
    <encoder>
        <pattern>${CONSOLE_LOG_PATTERN}</pattern>
        <charset>utf8</charset>
    </encoder>
</appender>

<appender name="INFO_FILE" class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.RollingFileAppender">
    <File>${LOG_PATH}/info.log</File>
    <rollingPolicy class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.TimeBasedRollingPolicy">
        <fileNamePattern>${LOG_PATH}/%d{yyyy-MM-dd}/info-log-%i.log</fileNamePattern>
        <timeBasedFileNamingAndTriggeringPolicy class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.SizeAndTimeBasedFNATP">
            <maxFileSize>10MB</maxFileSize>
        </timeBasedFileNamingAndTriggeringPolicy>
        <maxHistory>30</maxHistory>
    </rollingPolicy>
    <layout class="ch.qos.logback.classic.PatternLayout">
        <Pattern>%d{yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS} [%thread] %-5level %logger{36} -%msg%n</Pattern>
    </layout>
</appender>

but there is also a directory called LOG_PATH_IS_UNDEFINED created in the root directory of my project. How can I avoid Logback to create this LOG_PATH_IS_UNDEFINED directory?

Comment From: snicoll

@HopscotchSen this issue is closed and we don't use the tracker for questions. Please ask on StackOverflow.

Comment From: GavinSheng

I'm having this problem too.

Comment From: cyraid

What would be nice, is to have a 'delayed' file creation for the fileappender's.. So that it only creates the files / folders when you do a first log. Perhaps a <delayed>true</delayed> option? This would solve the chicken and egg loading problem where it loads logback-spring.xml first then application.yml, etc. (when using <springProperty>).

Comment From: nadirvishun

there is the reason: stackoverflow

somewhere Spring is loading the xml before parsing the yml

so just rename logback.xml to your-logback.xml and add logging.config=classpath:your-logback.xml in your application.properties