diff --git a/src/helma/util/Logger.java b/src/helma/util/Logger.java
index 6a5e3ac6..9700d5fb 100644
--- a/src/helma/util/Logger.java
+++ b/src/helma/util/Logger.java
@@ -11,11 +11,14 @@ import java.text.*;
  * Utility class for asynchronous logging.
  */
  
-public class Logger implements Runnable {
+public final class Logger {
 
-    private Thread logger;
+    // we use one static thread for all Loggers
+    static Runner runner;
+    // the list of active loggers
+    static ArrayList loggers;
 
-    private Vector entries;
+    private LinkedList entries;
     private String filename;
     private String dirname;
     private File dir;
@@ -27,23 +30,31 @@ public class Logger implements Runnable {
     private long dateLastRendered;
     private String dateCache;
     private PrintStream out = null;
+    boolean closed = false;
 
+    /**
+     * Create a logger for a PrintStream, such as System.out.
+     */
     public Logger (PrintStream out) {
-	dformat = DateFormat.getInstance ();
+	dformat = new SimpleDateFormat ("[yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm] ");
 	this.out = out;
-	entries = new Vector ();
-	logger = new Thread (this);
-	// logger.setPriority (Thread.MIN_PRIORITY+2);
-	logger.start ();
+	entries = new LinkedList ();
+	
+	// register this instance with static logger list
+	start (this);
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Create a file logger. The actual file names do have numbers appended and are
+     * rotated every x bytes.
+     */
     public Logger (String dirname, String filename) throws IOException {
 	if (filename == null || dirname == null)
 	    throw new IOException ("Logger can't use null as file or directory name");
 	this.filename = filename;
 	this.dirname = dirname;
 	nformat = new DecimalFormat ("00000");
-	dformat = DateFormat.getInstance ();
+	dformat = new SimpleDateFormat ("[yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm] ");
 	dir = new File (dirname);
 	if (!dir.exists())
 	    dir.mkdirs ();
@@ -51,17 +62,20 @@ public class Logger implements Runnable {
 	while (currentFile.exists())
 	    currentFile =  new File (dir, filename+nformat.format(++fileindex)+".log");
 	currentWriter = new PrintWriter (new FileWriter (currentFile), false);
-	entries = new Vector ();
-	logger = new Thread (this);
-	// logger.setPriority (Thread.MIN_PRIORITY+2);
-	logger.start ();
+	entries = new LinkedList ();
+	
+	// register this instance with static logger list
+	start (this);
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Append a message with to the log.
+     */
     public void log (String msg) {
 	// it's enough to render the date every 15 seconds
 	if (System.currentTimeMillis () - 15000 > dateLastRendered)
 	    renderDate ();
-	entries.addElement (dateCache + " " + msg);
+	entries.add (dateCache + msg);
     }
 
     private synchronized void renderDate () {
@@ -69,34 +83,42 @@ public class Logger implements Runnable {
 	dateCache = dformat.format (new Date());
     }
 
+    /**
+     * This is called by the runner thread to perform actual IO.
+     */
     public void run () {
-	while (Thread.currentThread () == logger) {
-	    try {
-	        if (currentFile != null && currentFile.length() > 10000000) {
-	            // rotate log files each 10 megs
-	            swapFile ();
-	        }
-	
-	        int l = entries.size();
-	        for (int i=0; i<l; i++) {
-	            Object entry = entries.elementAt (0);
-	            entries.removeElementAt (0);
-	            if (out != null)
-	                out.println (entry.toString());
-	            else
-	                currentWriter.println (entry.toString());
-	        }
-
-                     if (currentWriter != null)
-	            currentWriter.flush ();
-	        logger.sleep (1000l);
-
-	    } catch (InterruptedException ir) {
-	        Thread.currentThread().interrupt ();
+	if (entries.isEmpty ())
+	    return;
+	try {
+	    if (currentFile != null && currentFile.length() > 10000000) {
+	        // rotate log files each 10 megs
+	        swapFile ();
 	    }
+	
+	    int l = entries.size();
+	    if (out != null) {
+	        for (int i=0; i<l; i++) {
+	            String entry = (String) entries.get (0);
+	            entries.remove (0);
+	            out.println (entry);
+	        }
+	    } else {
+	        for (int i=0; i<l; i++) {
+	            String entry = (String) entries.get (0);
+	            entries.remove (0);
+	            currentWriter.println (entry);
+	        }
+	        currentWriter.flush ();
+	    }
+	
+	} catch (Exception x) {
+	    //
 	}
     }
 
+    /**
+     *  Rotata log files, closing the old file and starting a new one.
+     */
     private void swapFile () {
     	try {
     	    currentWriter.close();
@@ -107,4 +129,74 @@ public class Logger implements Runnable {
 	}
     }
 
+    /**
+     * The static start class adds a log to the list of logs and starts the
+     *  runner thread if necessary.
+     */
+    static synchronized void start (Logger log) {
+	if (loggers == null) {
+	    loggers = new ArrayList ();
+	}
+	loggers.add (log);
+	if (runner == null || !runner.isAlive ()) {
+	    runner = new Runner ();
+	    runner.setPriority (Thread.NORM_PRIORITY-1);
+	    runner.start ();
+	}
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Tells a log to close down
+     */
+    public void close () {
+	this.closed = true;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Closes the file writer of a log
+     */
+    void closeFiles () {
+	if (currentWriter != null) try {
+	    currentWriter.close ();
+	} catch (Exception ignore) {}
+    }
+
+    /**
+     *  The static runner class that loops through all loggers.
+     */
+    static class Runner extends Thread {
+
+	public void run () {
+	    while (!isInterrupted ()) {
+	        int l = loggers.size();
+	        for (int i=l-1; i>=0; i--) {
+	            Logger log = (Logger) loggers.get (i);
+	            log.run ();
+	            if (log.closed) {
+	                loggers.remove (log);
+	                log.closeFiles ();
+	            }
+	        }
+	        try {
+	            sleep (700);
+	        } catch (InterruptedException ix) {}	
+	    }
+	}
+	
+    }
+
+
+    /**
+     *  test main method
+     */
+    public static void main (String[] args) throws IOException {
+	Logger log = new Logger (".", "testlog");
+	long start = System.currentTimeMillis ();
+	for (int i=0; i<50000; i++)
+	    log.log ("test log entry aasdfasdfasdfasdf");
+	log.log ("done: "+(System.currentTimeMillis () - start));
+	System.err.println (System.currentTimeMillis () - start);
+	System.exit (0);
+    }
+
 }