[c#] How to use log4net in Asp.net core 2.0

I configure log4net in my asp.net core 2.0 application as mentioned in this article LINK

program.cs

public static void Main(string[] args)
{
    var logRepository = LogManager.GetRepository(Assembly.GetEntryAssembly());
    XmlConfigurator.Configure(logRepository, new FileInfo("log4net.config"));

    BuildWebHost(args).Run();
}

HomeController

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    private static readonly log4net.ILog log = log4net.LogManager.GetLogger(typeof(HomeController));

    public IActionResult Error()
    {
        log.Info("Hello logging world!");
        return View(new ErrorViewModel { RequestId = Activity.Current?.Id ?? HttpContext.TraceIdentifier });
    }
}

log4net.config

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
  <log4net>
    <root>
      <level value="ALL" />
      <appender-ref ref="RollingFile" />
    </root>
    <appender name="RollingFile" type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender">
      <file value="?C:\Temp\app.log" /> 
      <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
        <conversionPattern value="%-5p %d{hh:mm:ss} %message%newline" />
      </layout>
    </appender>
  </log4net>
</configuration>

Unlucky!, I didn't see any file generated in ?C:\Temp\app.log directory. What would be the mistake? how to configure log4net for asp.net core 2.0?

There is a third-party log4net adapter for the ASP.NET Core logging interface.

Only thing you need to do is pass the ILoggerFactory to your Startup class, then call

loggerFactory.AddLog4Net();

and have a config in place. So you don't have to write any boiler-plate code.

More info here

You need to install the Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Log4Net.AspNetCore NuGet package and add a log4net.config-file to your application. Then this should work:

public class Program
{
    private readonly ILogger<Program> logger;

    public Program()
    {
        var services = new ServiceCollection()
            .AddLogging(logBuilder => logBuilder.SetMinimumLevel(LogLevel.Debug))
            .BuildServiceProvider();


        logger = services.GetService<ILoggerFactory>()
            .AddLog4Net()
            .CreateLogger<Program>();
    }

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Program program = new Program();

        program.Run();

        Console.WriteLine("\n\nPress any key to continue...");
        Console.ReadKey();
    }

    private void Run()
    {
        logger.LogInformation("Logging is working");
    }
}

I was able to respond with the following methods:

1-Install-Package log4net

2-Install-Package MicroKnights.Log4NetAdoNetAppender

3-Install-Package System.Data.SqlClient

First,I Create Database and Table with this Code:

CREATE DATABSE Log4netDb
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Log] (
    [Id] [int] IDENTITY (1, 1) NOT NULL,
    [Date] [datetime] NOT NULL,
    [Thread] [varchar] (255) NOT NULL,
    [Level] [varchar] (50) NOT NULL,
    [Logger] [varchar] (255) NOT NULL,
    [Message] [varchar] (4000) NOT NULL,
    [Exception] [varchar] (2000) NULL
)

Second, I Create log4net.config File in program . This is a simple configuration with no customization on the log message:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<log4net debug="true">
  <!-- definition of the RollingLogFileAppender goes here -->
  <appender name="RollingLogFileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender">
    <file value="Logs/WebApp.log" />
    <appendToFile value="true" />
    <rollingStyle value="Size" />
    <maxSizeRollBackups value="10" />
    <maximumFileSize value="10MB" />
    <staticLogFileName value="true" />
    <lockingModel type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender+MinimalLock" />
    <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
      <!-- Format is [date/time] [log level] [thread] message-->
      <conversionPattern value="[%date] [%level] [%thread] %m%n" />
    </layout>
  </appender>
  <appender name="AdoNetAppender" type="MicroKnights.Logging.AdoNetAppender, MicroKnights.Log4NetAdoNetAppender">
    <bufferSize value="1" />
    <connectionType value="System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection, System.Data" />
    <connectionStringName value="log4net" />
    <connectionStringFile value="appsettings.json" />
    <commandText value="INSERT INTO Log ([Date],[Thread],[Level],[Logger],[Message]) VALUES (@log_date, @thread, @log_level, @logger, @message)" />
    <parameter>
      <parameterName value="@log_date" />
      <dbType value="DateTime" />
      <layout type="log4net.Layout.RawTimeStampLayout" />
    </parameter>
    <parameter>
      <parameterName value="@thread" />
      <dbType value="String" />
      <size value="255" />
      <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
        <conversionPattern value="%thread" />
      </layout>
    </parameter>
    <parameter>
      <parameterName value="@log_level" />
      <dbType value="String" />
      <size value="50" />
      <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
        <conversionPattern value="%level" />
      </layout>
    </parameter>
    <parameter>
      <parameterName value="@logger" />
      <dbType value="String" />
      <size value="255" />
      <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
        <conversionPattern value="%logger" />
      </layout>
    </parameter>
    <parameter>
      <parameterName value="@message" />
      <dbType value="String" />
      <size value="4000" />
      <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
        <conversionPattern value="%message" />
      </layout>
    </parameter>
    <parameter>
      <parameterName value="@exception" />
      <dbType value="String" />
      <size value="2000" />
      <layout type="log4net.Layout.ExceptionLayout" />
    </parameter>
  </appender>
  <root>
    <level value="ALL" />
    <appender-ref ref="RollingLogFileAppender" />
    <appender-ref ref="AdoNetAppender" />
  </root>
</log4net>

Third, Replace code below with 'IHostBuilder' :

public static IWebHostBuilder CreateWebHostBuilder(string[] args) =>
    WebHost.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
    .ConfigureLogging(logging =>
    {
        // clear default logging providers
        logging.ClearProviders();
        logging.AddConsole();  
        logging.AddDebug();
        logging.AddEventLog();
        // add more providers here
    })
    .UseStartup<Startup>();

Fourth, in appsettings.json insert this code:

{
  "connectionStrings": {
    "log4net": "Server=MICKO-PC;Database=Log4netDb;Trusted_Connection=True;MultipleActiveResultSets=true"
  }
}

At the end, Use these commands to enjoy logging in

public class ValuesController : Controller
{
    private static readonly ILog log = LogManager.GetLogger(typeof(ValuesController));
    
    [HttpPost]
    public async Task<IActionResult> Login(string userName, string password)
    {
        log.Info("Action start");
        
        // More code here ...
        log.Info("Action end");
    }
    
    // More code here...
} 

Good luck.

I've figured out what the issue is the namespace is ambigious in the loggerFactory.AddLog4Net(). Here is a brief summary of how I added log4Net to my Asp.Net Core project.

1. Add the nugget package Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Log4Net.AspNetCore

2. Add the log4net.config file in your root application folder

3. Open the Startup.cs file and change the Configure method to add log4net support with this line loggerFactory.AddLog4Net

First you have to import the package using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging; using the using statement

Here is the entire method, you have to prefix the ILoggerFactory interface with the namespace

 public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env, NorthwindContext context, Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.ILoggerFactory loggerFactory)
        {
            loggerFactory.AddLog4Net();
            ....
        }

Following on Irfan's answer, I have the following XML configuration on OSX with .NET Core 2.1.300 which correctly logs and appends to a ./log folder and also to the console. Note the log4net.config must exist in the solution root (whereas in my case, my app root is a subfolder).

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<log4net>
  <appender name="ConsoleAppender" type="log4net.Appender.ConsoleAppender" >
      <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
      <conversionPattern value="%date %-5level %logger - %message%newline" />
      </layout>
  </appender>
  <appender name="RollingLogFileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender">
    <lockingModel type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender+MinimalLock"/>
    <file value="logs/" />
    <datePattern value="yyyy-MM-dd.'txt'"/>
    <staticLogFileName value="false"/>
    <appendToFile value="true"/>
    <rollingStyle value="Date"/>
    <maxSizeRollBackups value="100"/>
    <maximumFileSize value="15MB"/>
    <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
      <conversionPattern value="%date [%thread] %-5level App  %newline %message %newline %newline"/>
    </layout>
  </appender>
    <root>
      <level value="ALL"/>
      <appender-ref ref="RollingLogFileAppender"/>
      <appender-ref ref="ConsoleAppender"/>
    </root>
</log4net>

Another note, the traditional way of setting the XML up within app.config did not work:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
    <configSections>
    <section name="log4net" type="log4net.Config.Log4NetConfigurationSectionHandler, log4net" />
  </configSections>
  <log4net> ...

For some reason, the log4net node was not found when accessing the XMLDocument via log4netConfig["log4net"].

Still looking for a solution? I got mine from this link .

All I had to do was add this two lines of code at the top of "public static void Main" method in the "program class".

 var logRepo = LogManager.GetRepository(Assembly.GetEntryAssembly());
 XmlConfigurator.Configure(logRepo, new FileInfo("log4net.config"));

Yes, you have to add:

1. Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Log4Net.AspNetCore using NuGet.
2. A text file with the name of log4net.config and change the property(Copy to Output Directory) of the file to "Copy if Newer" or "Copy always".

You can also configure your asp.net core application in such a way that everything that is logged in the output console will be logged in the appender of your choice. You can also download this example code from github and see how i configured it.

I am porting a .Net Framework console app to .Net Core and found a similar issue with log files not getting created under certain circumstances.

When using "CreateRepository" there appears to be a difference between .net framework and .net standard.

Under .Net Framework this worked to create a unique Log instance with it's own filename using the same property from log4net.config

GlobalContext.Properties["LogName"] = LogName;
var loggerRepository = LogManager.CreateRepository(LogName);
XmlConfigurator.Configure(loggerRepository);

Under .Net Standard this didn't work and if you turn on tracing you see it can't find the configuration file ".config". It wasn't loading the previous known configuration. Once I added the configuration to the configurator it still didn't log, while not complaining about it either.

To get it working under .Net Standard with similar behavior as before, this is what I did.

var loggerRepository = LogManager.CreateRepository(LogName);
XmlConfigurator.Configure(loggerRepository,new FileInfo("log4net.config"));
var hierarchy = (Hierarchy) loggerRepository;
var appender = (RollingFileAppender)hierarchy.Root.GetAppender("RollingLogFileAppender");
appender.File = Path.Combine(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory(), "logs", $"{LogName}.log");

I didn't want to create a configuration file for every repo, so this works. Perhaps there is a better way to get the .Net Framework behavior as before and if there is please let me know below.

Click here to learn how to implement log4net in .NET Core 2.2

The following steps are taken from the above link, and break down how to add log4net to a .NET Core 2.2 project.

First, run the following command in the Package-Manager console:

Install-Package Log4Net_Logging -Version 1.0.0

Then add a log4net.config with the following information (please edit it to match your set up):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <section name="log4net" type="log4net.Config.Log4NetConfigurationSectionHandler, log4net" />
  </configSections>
  <log4net>
    <appender name="FileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender">
      <file value="logfile.log" />
      <appendToFile value="true" />
      <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
        <conversionPattern value="%d [%t] %-5p - %m%n" />
      </layout>
    </appender>
    <root>
      <!--LogLevel: OFF, FATAL, ERROR, WARN, INFO, DEBUG, ALL -->
      <level value="ALL" />
      <appender-ref ref="FileAppender" />
    </root>
  </log4net>
</configuration>

Then, add the following code into a controller (this is an example, please edit it before adding it to your controller):

public ValuesController()
{
    LogFourNet.SetUp(Assembly.GetEntryAssembly(), "log4net.config");
}
// GET api/values
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult<IEnumerable<string>> Get()
{
    LogFourNet.Info(this, "This is Info logging");
    LogFourNet.Debug(this, "This is Debug logging");
    LogFourNet.Error(this, "This is Error logging");    
    return new string[] { "value1", "value2" };
}

Then call the relevant controller action (using the above example, call /Values/Get with an HTTP GET), and you will receive the output matching the following:

2019-06-05 19:58:45,103 [9] INFO-[Log4NetLogging_Project.Controllers.ValuesController.Get:23] - This is Info logging