Add support for customizing log file directory (logsDir) in Multi-App…

[codevisionary-omer]

Description

When using Multi-App Run (dapr run -f), app and daprd log files are always written to <appDirPath>/.dapr/logs, with no way to change the location. This causes two problems:

1. File watchers in dev workflows. Dev servers that recursively watch the project tree (e.g. uvicorn --reload, which uses watchfiles) receive constant filesystem events from log writes inside appDirPath, causing churn and a performance penalty. Watcher exclusion filters don't help, because the OS-level recursive watch still delivers the events — the fix is for logs to live outside the watched tree.
2. No centralized logging. Logs cannot be collected into a single directory across apps.

Setting appLogDestination/daprdLogDestination: console avoids the file writes but loses persisted logs, so it is a workaround rather than a solution.

This PR adds an optional logsDir field to the Multi-App Run template, available under common and per app:

version: 1
common:
  logsDir: ./central-logs        # optional
apps:
  - appID: myapp
    appDirPath: ./myapp
    logsDir: /tmp/myapp-logs     # optional per-app override

Behavior:

• Precedence: apps[i].logsDir > common.logsDir > default (<appDirPath>/.dapr/logs).
• Relative per-app paths resolve against appDirPath; relative common paths resolve against the run file's directory (consistent with other paths in the template). ~ is expanded.
• The directory is created on first use; it is not required to exist when the run file is parsed.
• Fully backward compatible: when logsDir is not set, behavior is unchanged.

Changes:

• pkg/runfileconfig/run_file_config.go — added LogsDir field on App and Common; GetLogsDir() honors it.
• pkg/runfileconfig/run_file_config_parser.go — resolves logsDir to absolute paths (new resolvePathToAbs helper that does not require the path to exist) and applies precedence.
• pkg/runfileconfig/run_file_config_parser_test.go — tests for precedence, relative/absolute resolution, directory creation, and unchanged default behavior.
• pkg/runfileconfig/testdata/test_run_config_logs_dir.yaml — test fixture.

Issue reference

We strive to have all PR being opened based on an issue, where the problem or feature have been discussed prior to implementation.

Please reference the issue this PR will close: #1652

Checklist

Please make sure you've completed the relevant tasks for this PR, out of the following list:

• Code compiles correctly
• Created/updated tests
• Extended the documentation

[codevisionary-omer]

bump

[acroca]

Hey @codevisionary-omer Can you fix git in this branch? There're lots of commits that don't seem right. I'd expect only 2995f1c in this PR.

[codevisionary-omer]

@acroca Sorry about that fixed

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Adds configurable logsDir support to the Multi-App Run (dapr run -f) template so app/daprd log files can be written outside <appDirPath> (helping dev file watchers and enabling centralized log collection), while preserving the current default behavior when unset.

Changes:

• Introduces logsDir fields in common and per-app config, with precedence app.logsDir > common.logsDir > default (<appDirPath>/.dapr/logs).
• Resolves logsDir values to absolute paths (including ~ expansion) without requiring the directory to exist at parse time.
• Adds tests and a runfile fixture covering precedence and path resolution behavior.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

File	Description
pkg/runfileconfig/testdata/test_run_config_logs_dir.yaml	Adds a runfile fixture exercising common/app override behavior for logsDir.
pkg/runfileconfig/run_file_config.go	Adds LogsDir fields and updates GetLogsDir() to honor configured log directories.
pkg/runfileconfig/run_file_config_parser.go	Resolves logsDir to absolute paths and applies common→app inheritance during validation.
pkg/runfileconfig/run_file_config_parser_test.go	Adds tests for logsDir precedence, resolution, and creation behavior.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

pkg/runfileconfig/run_file_config_parser_test.go:450

• t.Cleanup removes a hard-coded absolute path ("/tmp/dapr-abs-logs"). If that directory already exists on a developer/CI machine, this test will delete unrelated files. Cleanup should only remove directories created under the test’s control.

	t.Cleanup(func() {
		os.RemoveAll(expectedCommonLogsDir)
		os.RemoveAll(expectedApp2LogsDir)
		os.RemoveAll("/tmp/dapr-abs-logs")
	})

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[acroca]

This is legit, but the suggested fix doesn't fully solve it: the hard-coded /tmp/... path isn't absolute on Windows (filepath.IsAbs is false without a volume), so the parser joins it onto appDirPath and the LogsDir assertion fails at parse time even without calling GetLogsDir(). Since CI runs unit tests on windows-latest, this would fail there.

I'd generate the run file in the test with an absolute path from t.TempDir() instead and cleanup comes for free.