3 * Jalview - A Sequence Alignment Editor and Viewer ($$Version-Rel$$)
4 * Copyright (C) $$Year-Rel$$ The Jalview Authors
6 * This file is part of Jalview.
8 * Jalview is free software: you can redistribute it and/or
9 * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
10 * as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3
11 * of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
13 * Jalview is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
14 * WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty
15 * of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
16 * PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
18 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
19 * along with Jalview. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
20 * The Jalview Authors are detailed in the 'AUTHORS' file.
23 <title>The Java Console, Logging and Reporting Bugs</title>
27 <strong>The Java Console, Logging and Reporting Bugs<br /></strong>
29 <p>Like most programs, Jalview produces a series of messages
30 during its operation, often referred to as 'logs'. These logs can be
31 extremely useful for diagnosing and helping the Jalview developers
32 find a workaround for specific problems that you might encounter.</p>
34 The primary place to look for logs is in the <a href="#java_console">Java
35 Console</a> which you can open from within Jalview by going to the <em>Tools</em>
36 menu and checking the box next to <em>Show Java Console</em>. This
37 option is stored in your Jalview preferences file and so is
38 remembered across Jalview sessions.
40 <p>The Java Console will show you information about what the
41 Jalview application is doing (often in the background) whilst it is
43 <p>However, when tracking down problems preventing Jalview from
44 starting up properly, you need to look at the startup logs - which
45 are not shown in the Jalview Console. The location of these depends
46 on how you launched Jalview:</p>
48 <strong>Jalview Desktop Installations</strong><br />If you are using
49 a standard desktop version of Jalview installed from one of our
50 install4j installers, then messages about Jalview's initial launch
52 <pre>JALVIEW_APP_DIR/launcher.log</pre>
54 <em>JALVIEW_APP_DIR</em> is the directory that Jalview's application
56 <br /> For Jalview 2.11.0 onwards:
58 <li>In Windows this is <em>%APPDATA%\Local\Jalview</em> by
61 <li>In macOS this is <em>/Applications/Jalview.app/Contents/Resources/app</em>
64 <li>In Linux and other Unix OSes this is <em>~/opt/jalview</em>
68 <p><strong>Jalview Executable Jar</strong><br/>If you are using the Jalview executable jar file (also
69 used by bioconda and OSX homebrew installations) then the default run class (
70 <em>jalview.bin.Launcher</em> -- a minimised launcher that will set
71 memory and linux dpi settings before re-launching
72 <em>jalview.bin.Jalview</em>), will output logging information to
77 <a name="java_console">Java Console and Log Level</a>
80 The Java Console is opened by selecting <strong>Tools
81 → Show Java Console</strong>. The visibility of the console is stored
82 in your preferences, so if you quit Jalview with the console open,
83 it will be shown the next time you start Jalview. You can close the
84 console by selecting the same menu option again, or just closing the
87 <p>The Java Console's text display always shows information about
88 your system and Jalview installation details. The rest are the most
89 recent messages output during your Jalview session. Some messages
90 are only captured by the console when it is open, so to get a full
91 log for debugging a problem, enable the console and then restart
95 You can temporarily control the detail of what appears as output by
96 selecting a <em>Log level</em> using the drop-down list at the
97 bottom left of the console. There are several levels to choose from:
98 The most verbose is TRACE, followed by DEBUG, INFO, WARN. When the
99 Console is opened, the default level will be chosen (INFO).
102 <strong>Note! If you change the log level in the Java
103 Console, this change will only persist for as long as the console
104 is open. Once you close the console the log level will revert back
105 to what it had been when you opened the console (usually INFO).</strong>
107 <p><strong>Permanently changing Jalview's default log level</strong><br/>
108 You can change the default log level by editing the Jalview
109 preferences file, <em>.jalview_properties</em>, found in your home
110 directory (on Windows: %HOMEPATH%, or the folder above 'My
111 Documents'; on macOS: ~ or /Users/<em>username</em>; on linux/unix:
112 ~ or /home/<em>username</em>), and setting the property <em>logs.Jalview.level</em>
113 to the log level you prefer, e.g.
115 logs.Jalview.level=DEBUG
117 You can also set the property
119 logs.Axis.level=DEBUG
121 <p>to get debug information for Jalview's JPred service. The Axis log
122 level cannot be set from within the Java Console.
125 You can also set the <em>logs.jalview.level</em> property to a log level
126 not usually presented in the Java Console (though restricted to log
127 levels used by Apache Log4j -- see <a
128 href="https://logging.apache.org/log4j/2.x/manual/customloglevels.html">Log4j
129 Custom Log Levels</a> for details of the standard log levels
130 available). Jalview does not currently define any custom log levels.
131 If you do set the property with a log level that is normally not
132 visible in the Java Console this should be respected and visibly
133 selected when you open the console.
136 The <em>Clear</em> button at the bottom of the console will clear
137 all logging messages except for the initial system information which
138 is rewritten to the console.
141 The <em>Copy to clipboard</em> button at the bottom right of the
142 console will copy all of the text in the console to your system
143 clipboard, ready to paste into another application (e.g. email
144 composer or issue tracker).
147 <h3>Reporting Bugs</h3>
150 If you come across a problem in Jalview where something is not
151 working as described, or how you think it should, you should first
152 check the <a href="https://www.jalview.org/faq">Jalview FAQ</a> to
153 see if this is a known problem and if there is a suggested
157 If there is no FAQ answer covering your problem then you can submit
158 a bug report on the <a href="https://issues.jalview.org/">Jalview
159 Issue Tracker</a>. It is good practice to search the issue tracker
160 first to see if the issue has already been reported. If an issue
161 already exists please continue to add your own comments to the issue
162 which may well help narrow down the problem, if not then you can
163 create an account and submit a new bug report:
166 Make sure that you set Project to <em>Jalview (JAL)</em>, and Issue
167 Type to <em>Bug</em> or <em>New Feature</em> or <em>Improvement</em>
168 appropriately.<br /> Give a one line summary of the issue in the <em>Summary</em>.
169 <br /> In the <em>Environment</em> text box you can describe the
170 system you are using. This is usually most easily done by opening
171 the Java Console, clicking the <em>Clear</em> button, and then
172 immediately on the <em>Copy to clipboard</em> button, and then
173 pasting the clipboard into the text box.
176 You can then give more detailed information about how to recreate
177 the problem in the <em>Description</em> text box. If you want to
178 attach any screenshots or example alignment files that demonstrate
179 the problem then you can drag them to the Create Issue dialog in
180 your browser, or use the <em>Attachment</em> browse facility to
181 locate them on your computer.
185 To help the Jalview team with diagnosing a particular issue, it is
186 really helpful if you can also add more detailed logs output whilst
187 re-creating the problem. To do this, open the Java Console, click
188 the <em>Clear</em> button and select TRACE in the <em>Log level</em>
189 drop down list. <br /> Whilst leaving the console open, perform the
190 task in Jalview that re-creates the problem. <br /> Then you can
191 copy the debug information in the Java Console by clicking on the <em>Copy
192 to clipboard</em> button and then paste that into the Description, or a
193 Comment of your issue.
197 For other queries or comments about Jalview, remember you can
198 contact the Jalview team using email via the
199 <a href="https://www.jalview.org/mailman/listinfo/jalview-discuss">Jalview
200 discussion list</a>, on Twitter <a
201 href="https://twitter.com/Jalview/">@Jalview</a>, or for technical
202 discussions, via the Jalview developer's chatroom at
203 <a href="https://gitter.im/jalview/developers">https://gitter.im/jalview/developers</a>.