CATALINA_HOME and Maven + LOG4J - maven

Question

I have this line in log4j:
log4j.appender.FILE.File=${catalina.home}/logs/debug.log
Works perfectly when I run the project from IntelliJ.
But when I try to run a TestNG test (from maven) it fails:
log4j:ERROR setFile(null,true) call failed.
java.io.FileNotFoundException: /logs/debug.log (No such file or directory)
I could hardcode the path and all will be good. But I don't want that solution since I can deploy on various systems where ${catalina.home} is in different place.
I develop on a mac and deploy on freebsd and centos. Tomcat is in different places all the time. I could use /var/log/myapp.log but ...
Is any way to define a common variable (available in IntelliJ and when I run the maven test) with the log file path?

Answer 1

Please try to use the Maven Profile which will be activated when the ${env.catalina.home} is not existed, together with the Maven Surefire Plugin:Using System Properties.
<profile>
<id>mock-catalina-home</id>
<activation>
<property>
<name>!env.catalina.home</name>
</property>
</activation>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.14</version>
<configuration>
<encoding>UTF-8</encoding>
<systemProperties>
<property>
<name>catalina.home</name>
<value>PATH_TO_CATALINA_HOME</value>
</property>
</systemProperties>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</profile>
Please note that the PATH_TO_CATALINA_HOME can be referred by the Maven Properties as well. e.g.
<systemProperties>
<property>
<name>PATH_TO_CATALINA_HOME</name>
<value>${my.dev.catalina.home}</value>
</property>
</systemProperties>
This will help us to define the ${my.dev.catalina.home} to be various values.
I hope this may help.

Answer 2

In order for the log4j properties file get the correct value for ${catalina.home} when running the tests from maven, it needs to be in a file that is filtered by maven (src/main/resources is a directory for files like that). Also, the variable 'catalina.home' needs to be setup in maven. You can create a variable AKA maven property that uses an environment variable so you can define the different location for the tomcat install on each machine:
<properties>
<catalina.home>${env.catalina.home}</catalina.home>
<properties>

Answer 3

You can also specify the location of the log files in relation to the home directory for your user account.
In log4j this would use the following format: ${user.home}/weblogs/log4j1.log
In log4j 2, this would use the following format: ${sys:user.home}/weblogs/log4j2Rolling.log
log4j 2 can use the Java system properties, environmental variables, or Maven properties