Documentation for JIRA 4.0. Documentation for other versions of JIRA is available too.

Please always provide us with both:

  1. atlassian-jira.log
  2. the application server log file, as it can contain useful error information that is not in atlassian-jira.log

In JIRA 4.0 and 4.0.1, the atlassian-jira.log is located in the current working directory (the directory JIRA was started from).
As of 4.1 and later, the logs are located in JIRA's configured home directory.

If you are logged in to JIRA, the current working directory can be found under: Administration> System> System Info> File Paths> Current Working Directory.
The 'File Paths' section in the system information also shows the location of atlassian-jira.log.

Finding the application server log file can be a frustrating process, because its location 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.
    • ..and you are running another application server (JBoss, Websphere, Orion, etc):
      • logs are usually found in a logs directory. We assume you know more than us here - if not please use Standalone, where we can at least help.
  • 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
    • you are running another application server (JBoss, Websphere, Orion, etc):
      • ..if you don't know where your app server logs to, you can often discover this by running 'ps axuwwww' (linux) or 'ps -fax' (solaris). See if it redirects the application server process' stdout to a file, or go to its directory and look for logs there.



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