Getting rid of derby.log

Question

I'm using the Apache Derby embedded database for unit testing in a Maven project. Unfortunately whenever I run the test I end up with the derby.log file in the root of the project. The database itself is created in the target directory (jdbc:derby:target/unittest-db;create=true) so that is not a problem. After consulting the reference guide I tried setting the logDevice parameter on the JDBC url (jdbc:derby:target/unittest-db;create=true;logDevice=/mylogs) but that seems to be for a different log, hence derby.log still appears.

Any help is much appreciated.

score 51 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 26 '12 at 21:52

51

Derby lets you specify the name of the file to which the error log messages are written using the Java system property derby.stream.error.file. The default value is 'derby.log'.

To get rid of derby.log during the Maven surefire testing phase, I just add the property definition in the plugin configuration as follows:

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
    <configuration>
        <systemProperties>
            <property>
                <name>derby.stream.error.file</name>
                <value>target/derby.log</value>
            </property>
        </systemProperties>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

edited Apr 26 '12 at 21:52

Christian Conti-Vock

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answered Dec 19 '09 at 16:16

Laurent Fournié

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you shoudl prepend target/ with ${basedir} or else you cannot execute maven from a different dir. – user1050755 Mar 07 '13 at 23:55
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This works perfectly for unit tests but generally will not produce what you want for integration tests. The reason is that the database is usually in the server (e.g., jetty) which does not inherit the environment from surefire/failsafe. – Fabian May 25 '14 at 17:39
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You should consider using the ${project.build.directory} variable instead of hard-coding the target folder. ${project.build.directory}/derby.log – fl0w Oct 31 '16 at 11:01

score 23 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 26 '12 at 21:37

23

You can get rid of derby.log file by creating the following class

public class DerbyUtil {
    public static final OutputStream DEV_NULL = new OutputStream() {
        public void write(int b) {}
    };
}

and setting the JVM system property derby.stream.error.field, for example, using the following JVM command-line argument:

-Dderby.stream.error.field=DerbyUtil.DEV_NULL

Credit to whom it is due.

edited Apr 26 '12 at 21:37

Christian Conti-Vock

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answered Jun 17 '09 at 01:34

stevedbrown

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What if I'm using Derby through Hibernate? Where to I put the line "derby.stream.error.field"? – pek Sep 09 '09 at 16:30
In a webapp it's a pain to set system props. Any way around it? – bmargulies Nov 13 '09 at 14:29
I don't think so, but you can set things up in your web.xml or spring config to run at startup and do it there. – stevedbrown Nov 13 '09 at 17:15
Place the above in derby.properties eg. in the root of your project and remeber to use fully qualified name for the class. – homaxto Oct 31 '11 at 11:01
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@bmargulies: System.setProperty( "derby.stream.error.field", "DerbyUtil.DEV_NULL" ); – Grumblesaurus Apr 04 '15 at 23:25
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@JoshuaD don't forget to catch the SecurityException you will get if the web container has been implemented to prevent webapps setting system properties, which any good web container should be preventing. – Hakanai Aug 23 '17 at 05:36

score 8 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 27 '12 at 19:00

8

Include the following in your derby.properties file:

derby.stream.error.file=/dev/null

( or

derby.stream.error.file=\\Device\\Null

on Windows)

edited Sep 27 '12 at 19:00

athspk

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answered Aug 02 '12 at 14:09

SteveR

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\\Device\\Null threw a FileNotFoundException, however using NUL instead did the trick. Thanks. – Oded Peer May 26 '14 at 12:16

score 3 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:09

For integration tests the situation might be a bit more tricky than the simple surefire property. Specifying the property derby.stream.error.file in the maven-failsafe-plugin will not work as the server environment does not inherit from that plugin (obviously using maven-surefire-plugin makes no differences).

Instead you need to modify the actual server start plugin. The following example is for the maven-jetty-plugin:

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.mortbay.jetty</groupId>
    <artifactId>jetty-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <configuration>
        <systemProperties>
            <!-- Get rid of that missplaced derby.log. -->
            <systemProperty>
                <name>derby.stream.error.file</name>
                <value>${project.build.directory}/derby.log</value>
            </systemProperty>
        </systemProperties>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

Note that for some reason we use systemProperty and not just property as in the surefire solution.

Sorry, this is exactly what I needed, THIS should be the accepted answer :) — Rade_303, Aug 04 '14 at 19:29

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 27 '16 at 12:13

You can also just set derby home to target/derby or targetvia:

System.setProperty("derby.system.home", new File("target/derby").getAbsolutePath());

and then use the JDBC URL jdbc:derby:unittest-db;create=true. Then derby.log appears in the right folder.

score 2 · Answer 6 · edited Sep 03 '15 at 21:53

I have came up with another solution. Try this out; it worked for me. What I am doing here is I have changed the System.stream.error.file path and set it to one of the properties present under my property file. Just adding the below given code to your applicationContext.xml file will work.

<bean id="setDerbyLog" class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.MethodInvokingFactoryBean">
  <property name="targetClass"><value>java.lang.System</value></property>
  <property name="targetMethod"><value>setProperty</value></property>
  <property name="arguments">
    <list>
      <value>derby.stream.error.file</value>
      <value>${derby.stream.error.file}</value>
    </list>
  </property>
</bean>

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 31 '15 at 10:35

2

If you don't have access to the configuration, you can execute this before making the connection:

System.setProperty("derby.stream.error.field", "MyApp.DEV_NULL");

answered Aug 31 '15 at 10:35

tashuhka

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This is also what I did in an annotated test method with the `@BeforeClass` annotation – Stefan Oct 21 '16 at 10:45

score 0 · Answer 8 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:09

This is not a solution to your derby.log file problem, (which numerous people have already shown how to resolve), but rather -- a suggestion. Why not use the derby-maven-plugin for your tests? It places the derby.log file under target/derby, hence not leaving any litter.

As described in my answer here, you can use Derby as your database via the derby-maven-plugin which I wrote and is available on GitHub and via Maven Central.

Getting rid of derby.log

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