I have this code:
this.fileName = getClass().getResource("logs").toURI().toString();
which fails for null pointer exception because getClass().getResource("logs") returns null
what am I missing?

You're looking for a resource which is relative to the LogUtils class.
You could use getClass().getResource("/logs") or you could use getClass().getClassLoader().getResource("logs").
(In either case, I'm not 100% convinced it'll work when that's a folder rather than an actual resource...)
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