c# Best Method to create a log file

Question

I\'m writing a tool that\'s going to be check the health of workstations across a network, and will fix according to the issues it finds. I want to create a log file as the

Answer 1

Use the Nlog http://nlog-project.org/. It is free and allows to write to file, database, event log and other 20+ targets. The other logging framework is log4net - http://logging.apache.org/log4net/ (ported from java Log4j project). Its also free.

Best practices are to use common logging - http://commons.apache.org/logging/ So you can later change NLog or log4net to other logging framework.

Answer 2

I would not use third party libraries, I would log to an xml file.

This is a code sample that do logging to a xml file from different threads:

private static readonly object Locker = new object();
private static XmlDocument _doc = new XmlDocument();

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    if (File.Exists("logs.txt"))
        _doc.Load("logs.txt");
    else
    {
        var root = _doc.CreateElement("hosts");
        _doc.AppendChild(root);
    }

    for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
    {
        new Thread(new ThreadStart(DoSomeWork)).Start();
    }
}

static void DoSomeWork()
{
    /*
     * Here you will build log messages
     */
    Log("192.168.1.15", "alive");
}

static void Log(string hostname, string state)
{
    lock (Locker)
    {
        var el = (XmlElement)_doc.DocumentElement.AppendChild(_doc.CreateElement("host"));
        el.SetAttribute("Hostname", hostname);
        el.AppendChild(_doc.CreateElement("State")).InnerText = state;
        _doc.Save("logs.txt");
    }
}

Answer 3

Instead of using log4net which is an external library I have created my own simple class, highly customizable and easy to use (edit YOURNAMESPACEHERE with the namespace that you need).

CONSOLE APP

using System;
using System.IO;

namespace YOURNAMESPACEHERE
{
    enum LogEvent
    {
        Info = 0,
        Success = 1,
        Warning = 2,
        Error = 3
    }

    internal static class Log
    {
        private static readonly string LogSession = DateTime.Now.ToLocalTime().ToString("ddMMyyyy_HHmmss");
        private static readonly string LogPath = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory + "logs";

        internal static void Write(LogEvent Level, string Message, bool ShowConsole = true, bool WritelogFile = true)
        {
            string Event = string.Empty;
            ConsoleColor ColorEvent = Console.ForegroundColor;

            switch (Level)
            {
                case LogEvent.Info:
                    Event = "INFO";
                    ColorEvent = ConsoleColor.White;
                    break;
                case LogEvent.Success:
                    Event = "SUCCESS";
                    ColorEvent = ConsoleColor.Green;
                    break;
                case LogEvent.Warning:
                    Event = "WARNING";
                    ColorEvent = ConsoleColor.Yellow;
                    break;
                case LogEvent.Error:
                    Event = "ERROR";
                    ColorEvent = ConsoleColor.Red;
                    break;
            }

            if (ShowConsole)
            {
                Console.ForegroundColor = ColorEvent;
                Console.WriteLine(" [{0}] => {1}", DateTime.Now.ToString("HH:mm:ss"), Message);
                Console.ResetColor();
            }

            if (WritelogFile)
            {
                if (!Directory.Exists(LogPath))
                    Directory.CreateDirectory(LogPath);

                File.AppendAllText(LogPath + @"\" + LogSession + ".log", string.Format("[{0}] => {1}: {2}\n", DateTime.Now.ToString("HH:mm:ss"), Event, Message));
            }
        }
    }
}

NO CONSOLE APP (ONLY LOG)

using System;
using System.IO;

namespace YOURNAMESPACEHERE
{
    enum LogEvent
    {
        Info = 0,
        Success = 1,
        Warning = 2,
        Error = 3
    }

internal static class Log
{
    private static readonly string LogSession = DateTime.Now.ToLocalTime().ToString("ddMMyyyy_HHmmss");
    private static readonly string LogPath = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory + "logs";

    internal static void Write(LogEvent Level, string Message)
    {
        string Event = string.Empty;

        switch (Level)
        {
            case LogEvent.Info:
                Event = "INFO";
                break;
            case LogEvent.Success:
                Event = "SUCCESS";
                break;
            case LogEvent.Warning:
                Event = "WARNING";
                break;
            case LogEvent.Error:
                Event = "ERROR";
                break;
        }

        if (!Directory.Exists(LogPath))
            Directory.CreateDirectory(LogPath);

        File.AppendAllText(LogPath + @"\" + LogSession + ".log", string.Format("[{0}] => {1}: {2}\n", DateTime.Now.ToString("HH:mm:ss"), Event, Message));
    }
}

Usage:

CONSOLE APP

Log.Write(LogEvent.Info, "Test message"); // It will print an info in your console, also will save a copy of this print in a .log file.
Log.Write(LogEvent.Warning, "Test message", false); // It will save the print as warning only in your .log file.
Log.Write(LogEvent.Error, "Test message", true, false); // It will print an error only in your console.

NO CONSOLE APP (ONLY LOG)

Log.Write(LogEvent.Info, "Test message"); // It will print an info in your .log file.

Answer 4

You might want to use the Event Log ! Here's how to access it from C# http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307024/en

But whatever is the method that you will use, I'd recommend to output to a file every time something is appended to the log rather than when your process exits, so you won't lose data in the case of crash or if your process is killed.

Answer 5

You can use http://logging.apache.org/ library and use a database appender to collect all your log info together.

Answer 6

You could use the Apache log4net library:

using System;
using log4net;
using log4net.Config;


public class MyApp
{
    // Define a static logger variable so that it references the
    // Logger instance named "MyApp".
    private static readonly ILog log = LogManager.GetLogger(typeof(MyApp));
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        XmlConfigurator.Configure(new System.IO.FileInfo(@"..\..\resources\log4net.config"));
        log.Info("Entering application.");
        Console.WriteLine("starting.........");
        log.Info("Entering application.");
        log.Error("Exiting application.");
        Console.WriteLine("starting.........");
    }
}