Logging in Nexus Repository 2

You can configure the level of logging for the repository manager and all plugins as well as inspect the current log using the user interface. Access the Logging panel by clicking on the Logging menu item in the Administration submenu in the main menu. Clicking on this link will display the panel shown in Figure 6.22, “The Logging Panel with the Loggers Configuration”.

Figure 6.22. The Logging Panel with the Loggers Configuration

The Loggers tab in the panel allows you to configure the preconfigured loggers as well as add and remove loggers. You can modify the log level for a configured logger by clicking on the Level value e.g., INFO. It will change into a drop-down of the valid levels including OFF, DEFAULT, INFO and others.

If you select a row in the list of loggers, you can delete the highlighted logger by pressing the Remove button above the list. The Add button beside it can be used to create new loggers in a dialog. You will need to know the logger you want to configure. Depending on your needs you can inspect the source of Nexus Repository Manager OSS and the plugins as well as the source of your own plugins to determine the related loggers or contact Sonatype support for detailed help. In addition, it is important to keep in mind that some loggers will change between repository manager and plugin versions used.

The Reset button allows you to remove all your custom loggers and get back to the setup shipped with the repository manager.

The loggers configured in the user interface are persisted into sonatype-work/nexus/conf/logback-overrides.xml and override any logging levels configured in the main log file logback-nexus.xml as well as the other logback-* files. If you need to edit a logging level in those files, we suggest to edit the overrides file. This will give you access to edit the configuration in the user interface at a later stage and also ensure that the values you configure take precedence.

The ROOT logger level controls how verbose the logging is in general. If set to DEBUG, logging will be very verbose printing all log messages including debugging statements. If set to ERROR, logging will be far less verbose, only printing out a log statement if the system encounters an error. INFO represents an intermediate amount of logging.

In Nexus Repository Manager releases prior to 2.7, logging configuration needed to be done by editing the logback-nexus.xml file found in sonatype-work/nexus/conf.

Once logging is configured as desired, you can inspect the impact of your configuration on the Log tab. It allows you to copy the log from the server to your machine by pressing the Download button. The Mark button allows you to add a custom text string into the log, so that you can create a reference point in the log file for an analysis of the file. It will insert the text you entered surrounded by * symbols as visible in Figure 6.23, “Viewing the Log with a Mark”.

Figure 6.23. Viewing the Log with a Mark

The Refresh button on the left triggers an immediate update of the log. The refresh drop-down on the right can be used to trigger updates of the log in regular time intervals or manually. The size drop-down beside it allows you to control the size of the log snippet displayed in the user interface.