Configure Log4net to write to multiple files

I wanted to log all messages to root logger, and to have a separate log with errors, here is how it can be done:

<log4net>
    <appender name="FileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender">
        <file value="allMessages.log" />
        <appendToFile value="true" />
        <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
            <conversionPattern value="%date  %-5level %logger  - %message%newline" />
        </layout>
    </appender>

    <appender name="ErrorsFileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender">
        <file value="errorsLog.log" />
        <appendToFile value="true" />
        <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
            <conversionPattern value="%date  %-5level %logger  - %message%newline" />
        </layout>
        <filter type="log4net.Filter.LevelRangeFilter">
            <levelMin value="ERROR" />
            <levelMax value="FATAL" />
        </filter>
    </appender>

    <root>
        <level value="ALL" />
        <appender-ref ref="FileAppender" />
        <appender-ref ref="ErrorsFileAppender" />
    </root>
</log4net>

Notice the use of filter element.


Yes, just add multiple FileAppenders to your logger. For example:

<log4net>
    <appender name="File1Appender" type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender">
        <file value="log-file-1.txt" />
        <appendToFile value="true" />
        <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
            <conversionPattern value="%date %message%newline" />
        </layout>
    </appender>
    <appender name="File2Appender" type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender">
        <file value="log-file-2.txt" />
        <appendToFile value="true" />
        <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
            <conversionPattern value="%date %message%newline" />
        </layout>
    </appender>

    <root>
        <level value="DEBUG" />
        <appender-ref ref="File1Appender" />
        <appender-ref ref="File2Appender" />
    </root>
</log4net>

These answers were helpful, but I wanted to share my answer with both the app.config part and the c# code part, so there is less guessing for the next person.

<log4net>
  <appender name="SomeName" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender">
    <file value="c:/Console.txt" />
    <appendToFile value="true" />
    <rollingStyle value="Composite" />
    <datePattern value="yyyyMMdd" />
    <maxSizeRollBackups value="10" />
    <maximumFileSize value="1MB" />
  </appender>
  <appender name="Summary" type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender">
    <file value="SummaryFile.log" />
    <appendToFile value="true" />
  </appender>
  <root>
    <level value="ALL" />
    <appender-ref ref="SomeName" />
  </root>
  <logger additivity="false" name="Summary">
    <level value="DEBUG"/>
    <appender-ref ref="Summary" />
  </logger>
</log4net>

Then in code:

ILog Log = LogManager.GetLogger("SomeName");
ILog SummaryLog = LogManager.GetLogger("Summary");
Log.DebugFormat("Processing");
SummaryLog.DebugFormat("Processing2"));

Here c:/Console.txt will contain "Processing" ... and \SummaryFile.log will contain "Processing2"


Vinay is correct. In answer to your comment in his answer, one way you can do it is as follows:

<root>
    <level value="ALL" />
    <appender-ref ref="File1Appender" />
</root>
<logger name="SomeName">
    <level value="ALL" />
    <appender-ref ref="File1Appender2" />
</logger>

This is how I have done it in the past. Then something like this for the other log:

private static readonly ILog otherLog = LogManager.GetLogger("SomeName");

And you can get your normal logger as follows:

private static readonly ILog log = LogManager.GetLogger(MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);

Read the loggers and appenders section of the documentation to understand how this works.

Tags:

Log4Net