[SOLVED] Java "java.util.logging.Logger" does not work when running with nohup

Issue

I created a Java application which is supposed to run as an ubuntu service. I followed this article: rel="nofollow" title="Running a Java program as a daemon in Ubuntu Linux">Running a Java program as a daemon in Ubuntu Linux This is my script in /etc/init.d/ dir:

#!/bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          myservice
# Required-Start:    $local_fs $remote_fs $network $syslog
# Required-Stop:     $local_fs $remote_fs $network $syslog
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# X-Interactive:     true
# Short-Description: Start/stop myservice
### END INIT INFO

case $1 in
    status)
        if [ -f /opt/myservice/pid ]; then
            PID=$(cat /opt/myservice/pid);
            echo "myservice is running. PID="$PID
        else
            echo "myservice is not running."
        fi
    ;;
    start)
        if [ ! -f /opt/myservice/pid ]; then
            nohup java -jar /opt/myservice/billing_consumer.jar /opt/myservice 2>> /dev/null >> /dev/null &
            echo $! > /opt/myservice/pid
            echo "myservice started ..."
        else
            echo "myservice is already running ..."
        fi
    ;;
    stop)
        if [ -f /opt/myservice/pid ]; then
            PID=$(cat /opt/myservice/pid);
            kill $PID;
            echo "myservice stopped ..."
            rm /opt/myservice/pid
        else
            echo "myservice is not running ..."
        fi
    ;;
    restart)
        if [ -f /opt/myservice/pid ]; then
            PID=$(cat /opt/myservice/pid);
            echo "Stopping myservice ...";
            kill $PID;
            echo "myservice stopped ...";
            rm /opt/myservice/pid

            echo "Starting myservice ..."
            nohup java -jar /opt/myservice/billing_consumer.jar /opt/myservice 2>> /dev/null >> /dev/null &
            echo $! > /opt/myservice/pid
            echo "myservice started ..."
        else
            echo "myservice is not running ..."
        fi
    ;;
esac

It seems that this script closes the billing_consumer.jar standard input and redirects output to /dev/null; which, I read somewhere that it's the bitbucket which is used for redirecting console's output to that in this place. Also I don't have anything to be sent to stderr or stdout except some third party components which use those outputs. I myself use java's builting logging API (java.util.logging.Logger) to log information. I use the java.util.logging.FileHandler as the handler for logging outputs. But the problem is that, when I run the program as a service logging does not work. But when I run the program manually, I can see the logs written in the files. This is my logging.properties file used for logging configuration:

handlers = java.util.logging.FileHandler
config  = 

java.util.logging.FileHandler.level     = ALL
java.util.logging.FileHandler.filter    =
java.util.logging.FileHandler.formatter = java.util.logging.SimpleFormatter
java.util.logging.FileHandler.encoding  =
java.util.logging.FileHandler.limit     = 1048576
java.util.logging.FileHandler.count     = 20
java.util.logging.FileHandler.append    = true
java.util.logging.FileHandler.pattern   = logs/billing-log.%u.%g.log

...

I don't think this has anything to do with the /etc/init.d/myservice script, Since I changed that to redirect the output to a file also and I could see that the third party components' outputs are written in the file. Although, I am not writing to terminals' output. Can anyone figure out what is the problem here. Do I have configured logging the wrong way?

Solution

In your logging properties you are using a relative path. When you run this as a service the current/working directory is probably different from when you run this manually. The FileHandler will fail to create a new log file if the directory path doesn't exist. Set the working directory or change the path to an absolute path.

The 'config =' line looks wrong since there is no value.

If that doesn't work you should modify the script to pipe the out/err streams to a file to debug what is going on.

Answered By - jmehrens

Answer Checked By - Pedro (WPSolving Volunteer)