I modified the code a bit more to get more insight. Things are getting even stranger:
private static long logCount; private static Logger log; static { log = Logger.getLogger(TimerServiceImpl.class); threadGroup = new ThreadGroup("VincentTimer"); logCount++; System.out.println("log = "+log); } run(){ int duration = (int)(executionEnd-executionStart); if (log==null) System.out.println("LOG IS NULL!!! ("+logCount+")"); else{ logCount++; if (logCount==1) System.out.println("FIRST LOG ATTEMPT"); if (logCount/10*10==logCount) System.out.println(""+logCount+" log attempt"); } if (/*log!=null && */log.isDebugEnabled()) log.debug("Timer execution lasted: "+duration); } output: .... Apr 26, 2006 5:08:51 PM org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader validateJarFile INFO: validateJarFile(/opt/web/webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF/lib/servlet-api.jar) - jar not loaded. See Servlet Spec 2.3, section 9.7.2. Offending class: javax/servlet/Servlet.class log = [EMAIL PROTECTED] 10 log attempt 20 log attempt 30 log attempt 40 log attempt 50 log attempt 60 log attempt 70 log attempt [ No configuration properties found for configuration jacorb ] [ No configuration properties found for configuration jacorb ] Initializing Log4jInit-Servlet. 80 log attempt [ No configuration properties found for configuration jacorb ] 90 log attempt Apr 26, 2006 5:09:05 PM org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11BaseProtocol start INFO: Starting Coyote HTTP/1.1 on http-8000 Apr 26, 2006 5:09:06 PM org.apache.jk.common.ChannelSocket init INFO: JK: ajp13 listening on /0.0.0.0:8009 Apr 26, 2006 5:09:06 PM org.apache.jk.server.JkMain start INFO: Jk running ID=0 time=0/83 config=null Apr 26, 2006 5:09:06 PM org.apache.catalina.storeconfig.StoreLoader load INFO: Find registry server-registry.xml at classpath resource 100 log attempt Apr 26, 2006 5:09:06 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina start INFO: Server startup in 16939 ms [ No configuration properties found for configuration jacorb ] 110 log attempt [ No configuration properties found for configuration jacorb ] [ No configuration properties found for configuration jacorb ] [ No configuration properties found for configuration jacorb ] 120 log attempt 130 log attempt 140 log attempt 150 log attempt 160 log attempt 170 log attempt 180 log attempt 190 log attempt 200 log attempt 210 log attempt 220 log attempt 230 log attempt 240 log attempt 250 log attempt <--- shutdown LOG IS NULL!!! (259) Exception in thread "Thread-1" java.lang.NullPointerException at de.friendscout.generic.services.timer.TimerServiceImpl.run(TimerServiceImpl.java:241) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595) Obviously the content of the log variable is getting null. Strange enough it doesn't happen under tomcat 5.0 with the same jvm, so it's probably not a java bug. There is also no log=null in the code. The only thing I can think of is change of the classloader, so old instances become invalid, is there a chance log4j is loaded via another classloader (both log4j and my code are in jars in WEB-INF/lib) ? More ideas ? :-) regards Leon --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]