Documentation for JIRA 4.3. Documentation for other versions of JIRA is available too.

Please always provide us with both:

  1. atlassian-jira.log (see Logging and Profiling)
  2. the application server log file, as it can contain useful error information that is not in atlassian-jira.log

JIRA Log Location

The logs are written to your JIRA Home Directory (or the current working directory, if the JIRA home directory is not configured). You can view the location of the atlassian-jira.log (and the current working directory) in the 'File Paths' section of the System Information page.

Application Server Logs

Finding the application server log file is application server-specific and in some cases operating system-specific. Here is a decision tree:

  • If you are on Windows
    • ..using Tomcat (JIRA Standalone or JIRA EAR/WAR running in Tomcat)
      • ..installed as a Windows Service:
        • ..then the logs are in the logs\stdout_*.log file under your JIRA Standalone directory and c:\WINDOWS\system32\atlassian-jira.log (WINDOWS may be replaced by WINNT), or for JIRA EAR/WAR, under your Tomcat directory
      • ..started via startup.bat:
        • ..then some logs are effectively being lost (to the popup DOS window, where it cannot be recaptured). Some logs do go to the atlassian-jira.log file in the current directory (wherever you ran startup.bat from) but this might not work if your current directory isn't writeable (eg. c:\WINNT\system32, the default). Even if you see an atlassian-jira.log it may be an old one, created from a previous startup. If you value your sanity (and ours) please install JIRA as a service, even if only to get all of the right logs appearing in a consistent place.
  • If you are on Unix (Linux, Solaris, etc)
    • and you are using Tomcat (JIRA Standalone or JIRA EAR/WAR running in Tomcat)
      • ..then the logs are in logs/catalina.out under your JIRA Standalone directory, or for JIRA EAR/WAR, under your Tomcat directory