[aspectj-users] Puzzling problem using AspectJ

[Abhijit Inamdar <Ainamdar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I am trying to use AspectJ for tracing and I have hit the wall trying to figure out this problem.  I have a prototype where my code works but it does not work with the "real" project.  What I am trying to do is to prefix log statements with some additional information(class, line number etc).
Here is the code:
	pointcut logCall() : call(* org.apache.log4j.Logger.*(..)) && !within(*..*Aspect);

	before() : logCall() {
		MDC.put(MDC_KEY,  " (" + thisEnclosingJoinPointStaticPart.getSourceLocation()
				+ ") " + thisEnclosingJoinPointStaticPart.getSignature().toShortString());
	}

	after() : logCall() {
		MDC.remove(MDC_KEY);
	}

In the prototype this works fine giving the following output(for example):
2011-05-27 14:44:04,474 [main]  WARN    -  (CommChannel.java:18) CommChannel.doComm(..) Delivering message by channel

where "Delivering message by channel" is the original logged message and "(CommChannel.java:18) CommChannel.doComm(..)" was prefixed by the aspect code shown above.

However when I move this to my "real" project this does nothing.

Compiler output seems to indicate that it is finding the right join points.  For example:

[INFO] Join point 'method-call(org.apache.log4j.Logger org.apache.log4j.Logger.getLogger(java.lang.Class))' in Type 'com.mycompany.myapp.plugins.MyClass' (MyClass.java:55) advised by after advice from ''com.mycompany.myapp.aspects.tracing.MyAspect' (myaspects-2.0-SNAPSHOT.jar!MyAspect.class:65(from MyAspect.aj)) [with runtime test]

However the original log statement is logged without my aspect prefix.  Attaching a debugger to the process shows that it never enters the before or after advice.  This means if I remove the MDC code and simply enter log statements into the before & after advice they are still never hit(i.e. the issue is NOT with MDC). 

I am running:
Ubuntu 10.4 (Kernel Linux 2.6.32-31-generic)
Tomcat 6.0.32
Maven 2.2.1 with AspectJ dependencies
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
			<artifactId>aspectjweaver</artifactId>
			<version>1.6.10</version>
			<scope>compile</scope>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
			<artifactId>aspectjrt</artifactId>
			<version>1.6.10</version>
		</dependency>

<plugin> ...
				<artifactId>aspectj-maven-plugin</artifactId>
				<version>1.3.1</version> ... etc



PLEASE NOTE:  I am able to get tracing to work in the "real" app.  It just doesn't work with the above log4j pointcut.

Sorry about the very long post but I am really out of ideas, so any pointers for further investigation will the great.