Is there a way to continuously mirror the result of Console.Write to a collection (array,list,etc)?

Question

I have a console program, I'd like to continuously mirror the result of Console.Write to a collection, which I can look at the tail of in real time. The collection could be an array, a list, etc.

I assume I'd have to use some sort of event handler?

I don't mind being pointed in the direction of a 3rd party library, e.g. NLog.

Update

I need to maintain a collection in memory, which mirrors the current console state (I can then send to a remote WinForms app using sockets). Details aside, I think I can do this with a few lines of C# - I don't want to add a huge logging library without a good need for it.

Answer 1

The Console class allows you to replace the output and error streams. Just what you need here, you can replace them with a TextWriter that also logs what is written. A sample implementation:

    class ConsoleLogger : System.IO.TextWriter {
        private System.IO.TextWriter oldOut;
        private Queue<string> log = new Queue<string>();
        private StringBuilder line = new StringBuilder();
        private object locker = new object();
        private int newline;
        private int logmax;

        public ConsoleLogger(int history) {
            logmax = history;
            oldOut = Console.Out;
            Console.SetOut(this);
        }
        public override Encoding Encoding {
            get { return oldOut.Encoding; }
        }
        public override void Write(char value) {
            oldOut.Write(value);
            lock (locker) {
                if (value == '\r') newline++;
                else if (value == '\n') {
                    log.Enqueue(line.ToString());
                    if (log.Count > logmax) log.Dequeue();
                    line.Length = newline = 0;
                }
                else {
                    for (; newline > 0; newline--) line.Append('\r');
                    line.Append(value);
                }
            }
        }
    }

Usage:

    static void Main(string[] args) {
        var outLogger = new ConsoleLogger(100);
        // etc...
    }