my %paths = ();
my $init_done = 0;
my $base_path = "/my/base/path/"; 
INIT: while ( !$init_done ) {
	$init_done = eval { Log::Log4perl->init($LOGGER_CONF_FILE); 1; };
	if ($@) {
		warn "Logger error was: $@";
		# if we get a missing directory error, try some (sane) recovery
		if ( $@ =~ m{Can't\sopen\s$base_path(.+)/[^/]+\s\(No such file or directory\)} ) {
			my $path = $1;
			$path = $base_path . $path;    
			warn "log directory $path does not exist, attempting to create it";
			if ( $paths{$path}++ ) {       
				warn "alredy tried to create this path";
				last INIT;
			}
			eval { mkpath($path) };
			warn "unable to create path $path" if ( !-d $path );

		}

		# for other config file errors, throw our hands up in disgust and move on
		else {
			last INIT;
		}
	}
}

# if we couldn't get the config file to initlize, load a blank one and move on without logging
if ( ! $init_done ) {
	warn "Couldn't initilize logger, defaulting to blank config file";
	Log::Log4perl::init(\''); # this will throw a warning, but that's not really a bad thing 
}