Java Platform, Standard Edition Deployment Guide
Contents Previous Next
22 Java Console, Tracing, and Logging
This topic describes the Java Console, a debugging aid that redirects any System.out and System.err to the console window. The console is available for applets running with Java Plug-in and applications running with Java Web Start.
This topic includes the following sections:
22.1 Debugging Options in the Java Console
Figure 22-1 shows the options that are available in the Java Console for debugging applets and Java Web Start applications.
An option is selected by typing its letter or number when the Java Console window has focus. The options are described in Table 22-1.
Table 22-1 Java Console Debugging Options
Key | Description |
---|---|
c: |
Clears the Java Console window. |
f: |
Triggers finalization on the objects in the finalization queue and then displays memory information. Memory refers to the current heap size used by the JRE. Free is the available memory that is free in the heap. The percent (xx%) is the free memory as a percent of the total heap size. |
g: |
Triggers garbage collection and displays memory information as described above. |
h: |
Displays help message, which is being described here. |
l: |
Displays a list of the cached |
m: |
Displays heap memory usage as described above. |
o: |
Triggers logging, which directs output from the Java Plug-in Console to a log file. |
p: |
Reloads the proxy configuration. |
q: |
Causes the Java Console to disapper from the main screen. |
r: |
Reloads the policy configuration. |
s: |
Prints out the system properties. This is mostly for debugging. |
t: |
Prints out all the existing thread groups. The first group shown is |
x: |
This removes (destroys) all Modified jar files will be downloaded from the server when a page with an applet is refreshed or revisited if you first do this: type "x" in the Java Console to clear the Classloader cache. |
0-5: |
This sets the trace-level options as described in Section 22.2, "Tracing and Logging"Section 22.2, "Tracing and Logging.". |
22.2 Tracing and Logging
Tracing is a facility to redirect any output in the Java Console to a trace file. Similar to tracing, logging is a facility to redirect any output in the Java Console to a log file using the Java Logging API.
22.2.1 Tracing
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 while running, you can set trace-level options (0-5) in the Java Console, 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
See Section 22.1, "Debugging Options in the Java Console" for information.
Another way to set fine-grained tracing is through the Java Control Panel. For example, to enable tracing for everything (option 5 above), enter the following options in the "Java Run Time Parameters" textfield:
-Ddeployment.trace=true -Ddeployment.trace.level=all
See Section 20.3.2, "Java Runtime Parameters" for more information.
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.
22.2.2 Logging
To enable logging perform the following actions:
Open Java Control Panel
Click Advanced tab.
Select Enable Logging under the Debugging option
22.2.3 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.
22.2.4 File Locations
The default location (directory) of the trace and log files is:
<user.home>/.java/deployment/log
on Solaris and Linux~/Library/Application Support/Oracle/Java/Deployment/log
on 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 Solaris and Linux<user plugin home>/Library/Application Support/Oracle/Java/Deployment/log
on OS X<user plugin home>\Sun\Java\Deployment\log
on Windows