Determine if a java application is in debug mode in Eclipse

You could modify the Debug Configuration. For example add a special VM argument only in the Debug Configuration. You can use System.getProperties() to read the supplied arguments.

Even better, modify the configurations (Run and Debug) to load a different logging configuration file. It isn't good if you need to write code to determine the logging level. This should only be a matter of configuration.

There is not an officially sanctioned way to reliably determine if any given JVM is in debug mode from inside the JVM itself, and relying on artifacts will just break your code some time in the future.

You will therefore need to introduce a methology yourself. Suggestions:

• A system property.
• An environment variable (shell variable like $HOME or %HOME%)
• Ask the JVM about the physical location of a given resource - http://www.exampledepot.com/egs/java.lang/ClassOrigin.html - and based on it, make your decision (does the path contain the word "debug"? is it inside a jar or an unpacked class file? etc).
• JNDI
• The existance or content of a particular resource.

Found the answer on how-to-find-out-if-debug-mode-is-enabled

boolean isDebug = java.lang.management.ManagementFactory.getRuntimeMXBean().
    getInputArguments().toString().indexOf("-agentlib:jdwp") > 0;

This will check if the Java Debug Wire Protocol agent is used.

Have you tried add a vm argument in the eclipse run config?

Pass this as a VM Argument

-Ddebug=true

then you can do Boolean.getBoolean("debug") to check this.