How to make Nlog archive a file with the date when the logging took place.

Question

Hi,

We are using Nlog as our logging framework and I cannot find a way to archive files the way I want. I would like to have the date of when the logging took place in the logging file name.
Ex All logging that happend from 2009-10-01 00:00 -> 2009-10-01:23:59 should be placed in Log.2009-10-01.log. But all the logs for this day should be placed in Log.log for tailing and such.

The current NLog.config that I use looks like this.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<nlog xmlns="http://www.nlog-project.org/schemas/NLog.xsd"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" >
  <extensions>
    <add assembly="My.Awesome.LoggingExentions"/>
  </extensions>
    <targets>
        <target name="file1" xsi:type="File"
              fileName="${basedir}/Logs/Log.log"
              layout="${longdate} ${level:uppercase=true:padding=5} ${session} ${storeid} ${msisdn} - ${logger:shortName=true} - ${message} ${exception:format=tostring}"
              archiveEvery="Day"
              archiveFileName="${basedir}/Logs/Log${shortdate}-{#}.log"
              archiveNumbering="Sequence"
              maxArchiveFiles="99999"
              keepFileOpen="true"
            />
    </targets>
  <rules>
      <logger name="*" minlevel="Trace" writeTo="file1" />
  </rules>
</nlog>

This however sets the date in the logfile to the date when the new logfile is created. Which cause frustration when you want to read logs later.

It also seems like I have to have atleast one # in the archiveFileName, which I rather not. So if you got a solution for that also I would be twice as thankful =)

Answer 1

Probably too late to help you, but I believe all you need to do is include the date in the file name using the date layout renderer with the proper date format. By including the date, you don't need to specify the archive features. When the date changes, a new file will be automatically created.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<nlog xmlns="http://www.nlog-project.org/schemas/NLog.xsd"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" >
  <extensions>
    <add assembly="My.Awesome.LoggingExentions"/>
  </extensions>
    <targets>
        <target name="file1" xsi:type="File"
                  fileName="${basedir}/Logs/${date:format=yyyy-MM-dd}.log"
                  layout="${longdate} ${level:uppercase=true:padding=5} ${session} ${storeid} ${msisdn} - ${logger:shortName=true} - ${message} ${exception:format=tostring}"
                  keepFileOpen="true"
                />
    </targets>
  <rules>
      <logger name="*" minlevel="Trace" writeTo="file1" />
  </rules>
</nlog>