Tracing and Logging

Java Rich Internet Applications Guide > Java Control Panel > Tracing and Logging

The following topics are covered:

Tracing
Logging
Other Options

Tracing

Tracing is a facility to redirect any output in the Java Console to a trace file.

Tracing for Java Plug-in and Java Web Start can be turned on by setting the property deployment.trace property to true. This property turns on all tracing facilities inside Java Plug-in and Java Web Start. To enable more fine-grained tracing, the deployment.trace.level property can be used. The deployment.trace.level property can have one of the following values:

basic
cache
net
security
ext
liveconnect
drs

To use all of the tracing levels, set deployment.trace.level to all.

To enable tracing on the fly, you can set trace-level options (0-5) in the Java Console, shown in the previous chapter, with the following meanings:

0: off
1: basic
2: network, cache, and basic
3: security, network and basic
4: extension, security, network and basic
5: LiveConnect, extension, security, network, temp, basic, and Deployment Rule Set

Another way to set fine-grained tracing is through the Java Control Panel. For instance, to enable tracing for everthing (option 5 above), enter the following in the "Java Run Time Parameters" textfield:

-Ddeployment.trace=true
-Ddeployment.trace.level=all

Tracing set through the Control Panel takes effect when Java Plug-in or Java Web Start is launched, but changes made through the Control Panel while Java Plug-in or Java Web Start is running has no effect until restarted.

Logging

Similar to tracing, logging is a facility to redirect any output in the Java Console to a log file using the Java Logging API. To enable logging perform the following actions:

Open Java Control Panel
Click Advanced tab.
Select Enable Logging under the Debugging option

Other Options

File Names

plugin<random-number>.trace - Name of the trace file for Java Plug-in.
plugin<random-number>.log - Name of the log file for Java Plug-in.
javaws<random-number>.trace - Name fo the trace file for Java Web Start.
javaws<random-number>.log - Name of the log file for Java Web Start.
jcp.trace - Name of the trace file that is created when the Java Control Panel is run.

<random-number> is a number that is generated when the file is created.

File Locations

The default location (directory) of the trace and log files is:

<user.home>/.java/deployment/log on UNIX, Linux
~/Library/Application Support/Oracle/Java/Deployment/log on Mac OS X
<User Application Data Folder>\Sun\Java\Deployment\log on Windows

If the environment variable USER_JPI_PROFILE is set to <user plugin home> then the trace and log files will be written to:

<user plugin home>/.java/deployment/log on UNIX, Linux
<user plugin home>/Library/Application Support/Oracle/Java/Deployment/log on Mac OS X
<user plugin home>\Sun\Java\Deployment\log on Windows