Hi Everbody,

I’m looking for a way to defer the creation of the log file until the first entry is logged. I want to use log4net for writing protocols for jobs that can be executed in my application. With my current configuration the file is created during startup which makes no sense if the job doesn’t run. 

My current configuration:

      <appender name="…" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender">

        <file value="....." />

        <appendToFile value="false" />

        <rollingStyle value="Date" />

        <datePattern value="yyyy_MM_dd.\tx\t" />

        <staticLogFileName value="false" />

        <threshold value="INFO" />

        <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">

          <conversionPattern value="%date;%level;%m%n" />

        </layout>

      </appender>

One possibility seems to be to generate the appender programmatically, but then I lose a lot of flexibility. Another one is writing my own appender (or subclassing an existing one). Is there another way ?

Any help is appreciated,

Wolfgang

I want to create protocols for jobs that can be executed in our application, preferably one file per job and execution. But I don’t want a file, if the job is not executed. The jobs are only executed once a month for example.

Thx for the quick response !

Wolfgang

For now, I  tried a quick hack and modified FileAppender and it’s now working like I want:

override public void ActivateOptions()

        {

            …

            if ( m_fileName != null )

            {

                //SafeOpenFile( m_fileName, m_appendToFile );

            }

            else

            {

                LogLog.Warn( "FileAppender: File option not set for appender [" + Name + "]." );

                LogLog.Warn( "FileAppender: Are you using FileAppender instead of ConsoleAppender?" );

            }

        }

I would prefer a solution, where I don’t have to use my own appender, but at least I have a workaround.

Regards,
Wolfgang

Hi Ross,

thx for the suggestion. I can’t defer the logger configuration, because I need basic logging from the beginning. I could probably use a separate log file for each job, but that seems a bit awkward. I think I’ll stick to the “write my own appender” approach for the moment.

Thx,

Wolfgang

Karim, no worries. About the DB … in fact I want to use the flexibility of log4net, to decide where the logs should go  (file and/or database), to change the log level on the fly and to separate activities form trace information. So it’s much easier for me, to change the appender (where I simply have to comment one line) than to write the code for writing it to the database and then to a log file.

Thx,

Wolfgang

Hi Ross, all

some more details about my setup:

-          WinForm application

-          Use of Windows Workflow Foundation for customer specific jobs

We use log4net for “normal” application logging. Now I need a solution for generating protocols for the jobs (workflows), meaning, which action were made, errors, and so on. These jobs run maybe once a week, a month or so. Each job should get its own protocol file. My decision for using log4net for that, too, was primarily based on the flexibility log4net offers for defining what gets logged and where. I can activate tracing for these jobs on the fly and I can switch to a different appender and write everything to the database. Currently there is no real process in “analyzing” the protocols. The customers simply want them and sometimes we need them for debugging.

I’m fine with using my “own” appender, I was just looking if I missed some small configuration value or something like that.

Thx to all for the suggestions and quick responses,

Wolfgang

Not really, since we also use NHibernate, we didn’t look at anything else. But I’ll give it a try. Thx for the hint.

Wolfgang