log4net versus TraceSource

.net, diagnostics, log4net, logging, trace

Solution

I think that log4net is doing every that you listed for me.

Pluggable listeners sounds like appenders - there are lots of them and in fact I even hacked the rolling log file to always end in .log (for file associations), added a cc field to the email appender, and have finally tuned my favourite values for the colored console appender. If I may be so bold - my colored console happiness:

<appender name="ColoredConsoleAppender" type="log4net.Appender.ColoredConsoleAppender">
<!-- Can Use:
        Blue
        Green
        Red
        White
        Yellow
        Purple
        Cyan
        HighIntensity
        -->
<mapping>
  <level value="FATAL" />
  <foreColor value="Yellow, HighIntensity" />
  <backColor value="Red" />
</mapping>
<mapping>
  <level value="ERROR" />
  <foreColor value="White" />
  <backColor value="Purple, HighIntensity" />
</mapping>
<mapping>
  <level value="WARN" />
  <backColor value="Blue" />
  <foreColor value="White" />
</mapping>
<mapping>
  <level value="INFO" />
  <backColor value="Green" />
  <foreColor value="White" />
</mapping>
<mapping>
  <level value="DEBUG" />
  <foreColor value="White" />
</mapping>
<layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
  <!--<conversionPattern value="%date [%thread] %-5level %logger [%property{NDC}] - %message%newline" />-->
  <!--<conversionPattern value="%-5level %file:%line - %message%newline" />-->
  <conversionPattern value="%level %logger:%line %newline     %message%newline" />
</layout>

Customisable trace switches: Log4net only comes with FATAL ERROR WARN INFO DEBUG in order of increasing verbosity. The only one I actually miss is AUDIT for who-did-what logging.

Customisable configuration: I use a log4net.config file which I load up at runtime (or write a log to c:\ whining that I can't find the config.)

    Try
        ' Get log4net configuration from file
        Dim logConfigFile As FileInfo
        logConfigFile = New FileInfo(".\log4net.config")

        If logConfigFile.Exists Then
            XmlConfigurator.Configure(logConfigFile)
        Else
            CreateEmergenceLogFile(logConfigFile.FullName)
        End If

    Catch ex As Exception
        Console.Out.WriteLine("Could not load the log4net config file")
    End Try

just a big set of TraceListeners: sorry skipping that one - I'll take your word for it.

Correlation of activities/scopes: do you mean like every file (read class) gets it's own named log that can have separate log level thresholds. In fact you can segment logging even in a single class (that in truth may have grown to do too much ...)

In a class file:

    Private Shared _logger As log4net.ILog = _
log4net.LogManager.GetLogger(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType)

Private Shared _loggerAttribute As log4net.ILog = _
log4net.LogManager.GetLogger(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType.FullName & ".Attribute")

Private Shared _loggerCache As log4net.ILog = _
log4net.LogManager.GetLogger(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType.FullName & ".Cache")

The Service Trace Viewer: in the log4net.config:

  <logger name="NipissingU.ADWrapper.EntryTools.Attribute">
    <level value="INFO" />
  </logger>
  <logger name="NipissingU.ADWrapper.EntryTools.Cache">
    <level value="WARN" />
  </logger>

All of it is configurable in app.config/web.config: well maybe that is a good thing in ASP.NET, I don't know, but when making rich client bean counting apps I like a separate config file.

Everything here is just my own little usage tricks.

hth, -Mike

Problem

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