Logging in Bamboo

Overview

There are two distinct logs generated by Bamboo:

• build logs — The build logs are generated each time a plan is executed. All information specific to the build is stored in these logs. The build logs are located in the xml-data/builds/ sub-directories. The build logs can be downloaded as an artifact from the Viewing a Build's Artifacts page in Bamboo.
• atlassian-bamboo logs
  • Bamboo Server — Bamboo records all server activity in these logs. The location of the atlassian-bamboo.log file can be viewed in Bamboo's System Information (see 8.1 Viewing Bamboo's System Information) under Bamboo Paths. The logs are either in the root <Bamboo-Install> directory or the directory you started Bamboo from. If you are running Bamboo as a service on windows, the logs are generated in the <Bamboo-Install>/log folder.
  • Remote Agents — All agent activity is recorded in atlassian-bamboo.log file stored on the agent machine. Generally these are generated in the running directory of the agent. The running directory can be viewed in the agents system properties (see 2.7.4 Viewing an Agent's System Properties) under Bamboo Paths.

Managing the atlassian-bamboo logs

Controlling the level of logging

Bamboo uses the log4j library for logging during runtime. The logging levels can be changed by editing the <Bamboo-Install>/webapp/WEB-INF/classes/log4j.properties file. There are four logging levels available: 'INFO', 'DEBUG', 'ERROR' and 'FATAL'.

The rootLogger  property controls the verbosity of logs being generated at the top level. By default, the root level logging is set to 'INFO'. To change the root level logging, follow the steps below:

1. Find the following lines in <Bamboo-Install>/webapp/WEB-INF/classes/log4j.properties file:

   #
   # Change the following line to configure the bamboo logging levels (one of INFO, DEBUG, ERROR, FATAL)
   #
   log4j.rootLogger=INFO, console, filelog
   

2. Update the value of log4j.rootLogger to the desired logging level.
3. Save changes to the file.
4. Restart Bamboo.

Selecting where the atlassian-bamboo logs will be stored

By default, the atlassian-bamboo logs can either be found either in the root <Bamboo-Install> directory or the directory you started Bamboo from. In case of a Tomcat webapp deployment, the logs are piped out to catalina.out file.

To change the directory that the atlassian-bamboo logs are generated to, you must set the environment variable for the target location of the logs, as seen below:

log4j.appender.fileLog.file=/my/path/to/atlassian-bamboo.log

See also 7.1 Locating Important Directories and Files.