log4net doesn't watch my app.config

Fabian picture Fabian · Oct 19, 2011 · Viewed 12.4k times · Source

I configured my log4net to watch on changes made to the app.config file.

[assembly: log4net.Config.XmlConfigurator(Watch = true)]

When I run my app and change things in the config file, these changes only take effect when I restart my app. Why could this be?

Is there also a way to tell log4net to watch on changes in the app.config? Like:

<appender name="FileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender" >
    <watch value="true" />
</appender>

------------- EDIT -------------

I tried now to use a separate config-file: log4net.config.
It looks like this:

<log4net>
  <appender name="FileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender">
    <file value="c:\log.txt" />
    <appendToFile value="true" />
    <lockingModel type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender+MinimalLock" />
    <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
      <conversionPattern value="%d [%t] %-5p %c (line %L) -- %m%n" />
    </layout>
  </appender>
  <root>
    <appender-ref ref="FileAppender" />
  </root>
</log4net>

In my assemblyInfo.cs I wrote the following:

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

The class that logs to the file looks like this:

ILog myLogger = LogManager.GetLogger(typeof(Form1));
myLogger.Debug("test");

This works like the old version. logfile entries are made, but when I change my log4net.config during runtime, these changes are not applied.... "Watch=true" should enable that feature, right?

Answer

maxfridbe picture maxfridbe · Oct 19, 2011

HA!, I was just encountering the same problem, running unit tests that require logging.
Adding this line fixed it:

log4net.Config.XmlConfigurator.Configure();

My App.config:

<configSections>
    <section name="log4net" type="log4net.Config.Log4NetConfigurationSectionHandler, log4net" />
</configSections>
<log4net>
    <appender name="RollingFileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender">
        <file value="log.txt" />
        <appendToFile value="true" />
        <rollingStyle value="Size" />
        <maxSizeRollBackups value="10" />
        <maximumFileSize value="100KB" />
        <staticLogFileName value="true" />
        <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
            <conversionPattern value="%date [%thread] %-5level %logger [%property{NDC}] - %message%newline" />
        </layout>
    </appender>
    <root>
        <level value="DEBUG" />
        <appender-ref ref="RollingFileAppender" />
    </root>
</log4net>

I also do have this:

[assembly: log4net.Config.XmlConfigurator(Watch = true)]