BigPicture logs - diverting to a separate file

In this article we’ll show you how to set up a separate log file for BigPicture debug data.

If you are getting a sizable amount of BigPicture debug data sent to atlassian-jira.log but would rather divert it to a dedicated log file, you can do it by manually changing the configuration of Jira’s log4j file. 

Steps

1. Add the following snippet to your log4j.properties* file:

   log4j.appender.bigpicture=com.atlassian.jira.logging.JiraHomeAppender
   log4j.appender.bigpicture.File=bigpicture.log
   log4j.appender.bigpicture.MaxFileSize=20480KB
   log4j.appender.bigpicture.MaxBackupIndex=5
   log4j.appender.bigpicture.layout=com.atlassian.logging.log4j.NewLineIndentingFilteringPatternLayout
   log4j.appender.bigpicture.layout.ConversionPattern=%d %p [%X{jira.mailserver}] %t %X{jira.username} %X{jira.request.id} %X{jira.request.assession.id} %X{jira.request.ipaddr} %X{jira.request.url} %m%n
   
   log4j.logger.com.softwareplant = INFO, console, bigpicture
   log4j.additivity.com.softwareplant = false AN ADDITIONAL BIG

   
   

2. Restart your Jira instance.
   

This will create a separate bigpicture.log file for all logs from our app, or from com.softwareplant package specifically).

Where to find the log4.properties file?

The log4.properties is located in “WEB-INF/classes/log4j.properties.” You can find this path by going to your Jira Administration > System > Logging and profiling, and scrolling down to the “Default Loggers” section.

You can further configure the granularity of the log file by clicking on the “Configure logging level for another file” option, and choosing the desired logging levels.