JavaTM 2 Platform
Std. Ed. v1.4.1

java.util.logging
Class FileHandler

java.lang.Object
  |
  +--java.util.logging.Handler
        |
        +--java.util.logging.StreamHandler
              |
              +--java.util.logging.FileHandler

public class FileHandler
extends StreamHandler

Simple file logging Handler.

The FileHandler can either write to a specified file, or it can write to a rotating set of files.

For a rotating set of files, as each file reaches a given size limit, it is closed, rotated out, and a new file opened. Successively older files are named by adding "0", "1", "2", etc into the base filename.

By default buffering is enabled in the IO libraries but each log record is flushed out when it is complete.

By default the XMLFormatter class is used for formatting.

Configuration: By default each FileHandler is initialized using the following LogManager configuration properties. If properties are not defined (or have invalid values) then the specified default values are used.

A pattern consists of a string that includes the following special components that will be replaced at runtime:

If no "%g" field has been specified and the file count is greater than one, then the generation number will be added to the end of the generated filename, after a dot.

Thus for example a pattern of "%t/java%g.log" with a count of 2 would typically cause log files to be written on Solaris to /var/tmp/java0.log and /var/tmp/java1.log whereas on Windows 95 they would be typically written to to C:\TEMP\java0.log and C:\TEMP\java1.log

Generation numbers follow the sequence 0, 1, 2, etc.

Normally the "%u" unique field is set to 0. However, if the FileHandler tries to open the filename and finds the file is currently in use by another process it will increment the unique number field and try again. This will be repeated until FileHandler finds a file name that is not currently in use. If there is a conflict and no "%u" field has been specified, it will be added at the end of the filename after a dot. (This will be after any automatically added generation number.)

Thus if three processes were all trying to log to fred%u.%g.txt then they might end up using fred0.0.txt, fred1.0.txt, fred2.0.txt as the first file in their rotating sequences.

Note that the use of unique ids to avoid conflicts is only guaranteed to work reliably when using a local disk file system.

Since:
1.4

Constructor Summary
FileHandler()
          Construct a default FileHandler.
FileHandler(String pattern)
          Initialize a FileHandler to write to the given filename.
FileHandler(String pattern, boolean append)
          Initialize a FileHandler to write to the given filename, with optional append.
FileHandler(String pattern, int limit, int count)
          Initialize a FileHandler to write to a set of files.
FileHandler(String pattern, int limit, int count, boolean append)
          Initialize a FileHandler to write to a set of files with optional append.
 
Method Summary
 void close()
          Close all the files.
 void publish(LogRecord record)
          Format and publish a LogRecord.
 
Methods inherited from class java.util.logging.StreamHandler
flush, isLoggable, setEncoding, setOutputStream
 
Methods inherited from class java.util.logging.Handler
getEncoding, getErrorManager, getFilter, getFormatter, getLevel, reportError, setErrorManager, setFilter, setFormatter, setLevel
 
Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object
clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait
 

Constructor Detail

FileHandler

public FileHandler()
            throws IOException,
                   SecurityException
Construct a default FileHandler. This will be configured entirely from LogManager properties (or their default values).

Throws:
IOException - if there are IO problems opening the files.
SecurityException - if a security manager exists and if the caller does not have LoggingPermission("control")).

FileHandler

public FileHandler(String pattern)
            throws IOException,
                   SecurityException
Initialize a FileHandler to write to the given filename.

The FileHandler is configured based on LogManager properties (or their default values) except that the given pattern argument is used as the filename pattern, the file limit is set to no limit, and the file count is set to one.

There is no limit on the amount of data that may be written, so use this with care.

Parameters:
pattern - the name of the output file
Throws:
IOException - if there are IO problems opening the files.
SecurityException - if a security manager exists and if the caller does not have LoggingPermission("control").

FileHandler

public FileHandler(String pattern,
                   boolean append)
            throws IOException,
                   SecurityException
Initialize a FileHandler to write to the given filename, with optional append.

The FileHandler is configured based on LogManager properties (or their default values) except that the given pattern argument is used as the filename pattern, the file limit is set to no limit, the file count is set to one, and the append mode is set to the given append argument.

There is no limit on the amount of data that may be written, so use this with care.

Parameters:
pattern - the name of the output file
append - specifies append mode
Throws:
IOException - if there are IO problems opening the files.
SecurityException - if a security manager exists and if the caller does not have LoggingPermission("control").

FileHandler

public FileHandler(String pattern,
                   int limit,
                   int count)
            throws IOException,
                   SecurityException
Initialize a FileHandler to write to a set of files. When (approximately) the given limit has been written to one file, another file will be opened. The output will cycle through a set of count files.

The FileHandler is configured based on LogManager properties (or their default values) except that the given pattern argument is used as the filename pattern, the file limit is set to the limit argument, and the file count is set to the given count argument.

The count must be at least 1.

Parameters:
pattern - the pattern for naming the output file
limit - the maximum number of bytes to write to any one file
count - the number of files to use
Throws:
IOException - if there are IO problems opening the files.
SecurityException - if a security manager exists and if the caller does not have LoggingPermission("control").
IllegalArgumentException - if limit < 0, or count < 1.

FileHandler

public FileHandler(String pattern,
                   int limit,
                   int count,
                   boolean append)
            throws IOException,
                   SecurityException
Initialize a FileHandler to write to a set of files with optional append. When (approximately) the given limit has been written to one file, another file will be opened. The output will cycle through a set of count files.

The FileHandler is configured based on LogManager properties (or their default values) except that the given pattern argument is used as the filename pattern, the file limit is set to the limit argument, and the file count is set to the given count argument, and the append mode is set to the given append argument.

The count must be at least 1.

Parameters:
pattern - the pattern for naming the output file
limit - the maximum number of bytes to write to any one file
count - the number of files to use
append - specifies append mode
Throws:
IOException - if there are IO problems opening the files.
SecurityException - if a security manager exists and if the caller does not have LoggingPermission("control").
IllegalArgumentException - if limit < 0, or count < 1.
Method Detail

publish

public void publish(LogRecord record)
Format and publish a LogRecord.

Overrides:
publish in class StreamHandler
Parameters:
record - description of the log event

close

public void close()
           throws SecurityException
Close all the files.

Overrides:
close in class StreamHandler
Throws:
SecurityException - if a security manager exists and if the caller does not have LoggingPermission("control").

JavaTM 2 Platform
Std. Ed. v1.4.1

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For further API reference and developer documentation, see Java 2 SDK SE Developer Documentation. That documentation contains more detailed, developer-targeted descriptions, with conceptual overviews, definitions of terms, workarounds, and working code examples.

Copyright 2002 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Use is subject to license terms.