Changing the folder logs are stored in within Joomla 3.1

There are various times that Joomla 3.0 will attempt to write to a log file to your hosting account. For example, when a user attempts to log into your site and fails, a line similar to the following will be written to a log file named error.php

#Fields: datetime       priority        category        message
2012-08-16T03:35:45+00:00       INFO    joomlafailure   Username and password do not match or you do not have an account yet.

Joomla 3.0 allows you to change the path to where these log files are stored on your server. This setting is referred to as Path to Log Folder, and Joomla gives the following description for this setting:

Path to Log Folder:
For loggin of Joomla. Please specify a folder.

By default, the value for Path to Log Folder is set to /logs. If you installed Joomla 3.0 to /home/username/public_html/joomla, then the log folder will be set to:

/home/username/public_html/joomla/logs

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to change the folder to which log files are stored in Joomla 3.0.

To change your log folder in Joomla 3.0:

  1. Log into your Joomla 3.0 admin control panel
  2. In the left menu, click the link labeled Global Configuration
  3. Within the tabs listed on the top of the page, click the tab labeled System
  4. Under the System Settings header, find the setting labeled Path to Log Folder. Adjust the value as needed, and then click the Save button in the top left of the page.In our testing, we changed the directory from /logs to /logs123. After purposely logging in incorrectly, we found that the logs123 folder was created automatically with a file named error.php in it.

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