Application does not log

7
votes

I have a number of ASP.NET applications that use log4net without issue. I have not been able to get log4net to log anything in any of the services I wrote using the MVC libraries. I have the configuration identical (aside from log file name) in all the services. Each service is running as the same user and use the same application pool.

Here is the configuration I am using:

<log4net>
        <appender name="XMLAppender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender">
            <file value="C:\logs\SERVICENAME.Log.xml"/>
            <appendToFile value="true"/>
            <rollingStyle value="Composite"/>
            <datePattern value="yyyyMM"/>
            <maxSizeRollBackups value="10"/>
            <maximumFileSize value="100MB"/>
            <layout type="log4net.Layout.XmlLayoutSchemaLog4j">
                <locationInfo value="false"/>
            </layout>
    </appender>
        <root>
            <level value="INFO"/>
            <appender-ref ref="XMLAppender"/>
        </root>
    </log4net>

I have the configSection entry in all, as follows:

<configSections>
    <section name="log4net" type="log4net.Config.Log4NetConfigurationSectionHandler, log4net"/>
...
</configSections>

I have also turned on log4net debugging and set system.diagnostics to write the trace to a file. Here is where I see a difference in the output between the MVC and non-MVC applications.

MVC:

log4net: log4net assembly [log4net, Version=1.2.10.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=1b44e1d426115821]. Loaded from [C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files\MVCSERVICENAME\25c1b478\883641ac\assembly\dl3\707a9005\e1887c7f_5040ca01\log4net.DLL]. (.NET Runtime [2.0.50727.3074] on Microsoft Windows NT 6.0.6002 Service Pack 2, v.286)
log4net: DefaultRepositorySelector: defaultRepositoryType [log4net.Repository.Hierarchy.Hierarchy]
log4net: DefaultRepositorySelector: Creating repository for assembly [MVCSERVICENAME, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null]
log4net: DefaultRepositorySelector: Assembly [MVCSERVICENAME, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null] Loaded From [C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files\MVCSERVICENAME\25c1b478\883641ac\assembly\dl3\13a19b30\fdb642f4_937dca01\MVCSERVICENAME.DLL]
log4net: DefaultRepositorySelector: Assembly [MVCSERVICENAME, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null] does not have a RepositoryAttribute specified.
log4net: DefaultRepositorySelector: Assembly [MVCSERVICENAME, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null] using repository [log4net-default-repository] and repository type [log4net.Repository.Hierarchy.Hierarchy]
log4net: DefaultRepositorySelector: Creating repository [log4net-default-repository] using type [log4net.Repository.Hierarchy.Hierarchy]
log4net: Hierarchy: Shutdown called on Hierarchy [log4net-default-repository]

Non-MVC(Working):

log4net log4net assembly [log4net, Version=1.2.10.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=1b44e1d426115821]. Loaded from [C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files\SERVICENAME\33034378\c825df91\assembly\dl3\fe97001a\e1887c7f_5040ca01\log4net.DLL]. (.NET Runtime [2.0.50727.3074] on Microsoft Windows NT 6.0.6002 Service Pack 2, v.286)
log4net DefaultRepositorySelector: defaultRepositoryType [log4net.Repository.Hierarchy.Hierarchy]
log4net DefaultRepositorySelector: Creating repository for assembly [SERVICENAME, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null]
log4net DefaultRepositorySelector: Assembly [SERVICENAME, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null] Loaded From [C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files\SERVICENAME\33034378\c825df91\assembly\dl3\827ed068\1a38e2eb_fc7cca01\SERVICENAME.DLL]
log4net DefaultRepositorySelector: Assembly [SERVICENAME, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null] does not have a RepositoryAttribute specified.
log4net DefaultRepositorySelector: Assembly [SERVICENAME, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null] using repository [log4net-default-repository] and repository type [log4net.Repository.Hierarchy.Hierarchy]
log4net DefaultRepositorySelector: Creating repository [log4net-default-repository] using type [log4net.Repository.Hierarchy.Hierarchy]
log4net XmlConfigurator: configuring repository [log4net-default-repository] using .config file section
log4net XmlConfigurator: Application config file is [C:\content\SERVICENAME\web.config]
log4net XmlConfigurator: Configuring Repository [log4net-default-repository]
log4net XmlHierarchyConfigurator: Configuration update mode [Merge].
log4net XmlHierarchyConfigurator: Logger [root] Level string is [INFO].
log4net XmlHierarchyConfigurator: Logger [root] level set to [name="INFO",value=40000].
log4net XmlHierarchyConfigurator: Loading Appender [XMLAppender] type: [log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender]
log4net XmlHierarchyConfigurator: Setting Property [File] to String value [C:\Windows\Temp\SERVICENAME.Log.xml]
log4net XmlHierarchyConfigurator: Setting Property [AppendToFile] to Boolean value [True]
log4net XmlHierarchyConfigurator: Setting Property [RollingStyle] to RollingMode value [Composite]
log4net XmlHierarchyConfigurator: Setting Property [DatePattern] to String value [yyyyMM]
log4net XmlHierarchyConfigurator: Setting Property [MaxSizeRollBackups] to Int32 value [10]
log4net XmlHierarchyConfigurator: Setting Property [MaximumFileSize] to String value [100MB]
log4net XmlHierarchyConfigurator: Setting Property [LocationInfo] to Boolean value [False]
log4net XmlHierarchyConfigurator: Setting Property [Layout] to object [log4net.Layout.XmlLayoutSchemaLog4j]
log4net RollingFileAppender: Type = [0], r0 = [197001], r1 = [197001]
log4net RollingFileAppender: Type = [1], r0 = [197001], r1 = [197001]
log4net RollingFileAppender: Type = [2], r0 = [197001], r1 = [197001]
log4net RollingFileAppender: Type = [3], r0 = [197001], r1 = [197001]
log4net RollingFileAppender: Type = [4], r0 = [197001], r1 = [197001]
log4net RollingFileAppender: Type = [5], r0 = [197001], r1 = [197002]
log4net RollingFileAppender: Searched for existing files in [C:\Windows\Temp]
log4net RollingFileAppender: curSizeRollBackups starts at [0]
log4net RollingFileAppender: [200912] vs. [200912]
log4net FileAppender: Opening file for writing [C:\Windows\Temp\SERVICENAME.Log.xml] append [True]
log4net XmlHierarchyConfigurator: Created Appender [XMLAppender]
log4net XmlHierarchyConfigurator: Adding appender named [XMLAppender] to logger [root].
log4net XmlHierarchyConfigurator: Hierarchy Threshold []
log4net DefaultRepositorySelector: Creating repository for assembly [SERVICENAME.Core, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null]
log4net DefaultRepositorySelector: Assembly [SERVICENAME.Core, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null] Loaded From [C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files\SERVICENAME\33034378\c825df91\assembly\dl3\d74dc9d5\8aa6a7e8_fc7cca01\SERVICENAME.Core.DLL]
log4net DefaultRepositorySelector: Assembly [SERVICENAME.Core, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null] does not have a RepositoryAttribute specified.
log4net DefaultRepositorySelector: Assembly [SERVICENAME.Core, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null] using repository [log4net-default-repository] and repository type [log4net.Repository.Hierarchy.Hierarchy]
log4net DefaultRepositorySelector: repository [log4net-default-repository] already exists, using repository type [log4net.Repository.Hierarchy.Hierarchy]

In both cases I am creating the ILog object as follows:

private static readonly ILog log = LogManager.GetLogger(typeof(CLASSNAME));

Is there something I am missing or some change I need to make to get this working for MVC? At this point I would also be willing to change to another logging solution if it is known to work correctly with MVC.

Thanks Tim

6
asp.net-mvcmodel-view-controllerloggingweb-configlog4net
does your worker process have write access to c:\logs ? – Mauricio Scheffer
Yes. For what its worth I just tried NLog and it worked perfectly. Should have given up on log4net a while ago. – Tim Reynolds

6 Answers

12
votes

I know this post is quite old but I was getting this issue (default log4net repository) in a WCF project also. I was using the web.config with a log4net section (not a seperate log4net.config file).

To get around the issue I placed the following in my AssemblyInfo.cs:

[assembly: log4net.Config.XmlConfigurator(ConfigFile = "Web.config", Watch = true)]

The same is also true if using an external configuration file though. HTH, Ciaran

4
votes

My web application is an ASP.NET MVC one with a separate log4net.config file in the web root.

After a lot of googling and hair-pulling I resorted to initializing log4net through code in Application_Start (in Global.asax):

protected void Application_Start()
{
    var logConfigFilePath = Server.MapPath("~/log4net.config");

    log4net.Config.XmlConfigurator.ConfigureAndWatch(new System.IO.FileInfo(logConfigFilePath));
}

This solved the problem for me and log4net started logging correctly.

0
votes

Use NLog. Just seems to work. I had to put the NLog.config file in the base directory (along side the web.config) and it worked fine. Was able to write to the correct directory, which to me proves the directory permissions were setup correctly. Took about 5 minutes start to finish to make the changes.

It would be nice to know why log4net refused to play.

0
votes

In my case, it was because the project properties were set to output to bin\debug but the log4net dll required that the log4net.config file exists in the BIN folder. I changed the project properties to output to the bin folder and the log4net.config file was then copied at build time into the right place.

0
votes

Additionally, ensuring "copy local" is set for the log4net config file will prevent many issues as well.