log4Net dilemma

Question

I have a C# solution containing multiple C# projects. I am planning to add logging in it. This logging should be available in all the projects and preferably use log4Net with rolling file logs.

With the above said premise, I could think of two ways to do that.

1. Initialize logger in entry point (Program class) of the solution & Get the logger instance & use it as a member variable for every class that needs logging.

2. Add another project, Utilities & define a Logging class with static logging methods. This class should be initialized in entry point (Program class) of the solution.

What could be the best possible solution?

Answer 1

I have a similar situation. What we've done is use 1 app config for all the projects and use links to reference it.

In the app.config for your app you set the log4net config Section

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

And later set the Appender:

<log4net>
<appender name="RollingLogFileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender">
...

And in each class you want to log you put a line similar to this:

private static readonly ILog log = log4net.LogManager.GetLogger(MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);

Then each class grabs the same logger (singleton). Would that work for you?