Is there a way to set the maximum number of error messages a log4net memory appender can contain?

Question

I would like to add a memory appender to the root logger so that I can connect to the application and get the last 10 events. I only ever want to keep the last 10. I am worried about this appender consuming all too much memory. The application is designed to run 24/7. Or is there another way?

Answer 1

I guess, you may need to create a custom Appender class that derives from MemoryAppender and overrides the output storage by counting the number of messages currently displayed. You can store messages in a list, and, in the Append method, determine if the list already has maximum number of messages. If so, you delete the oldest message and add the new one to the list.

Answer 2

You would need to create a custom appender to store a limited number of logs. For example the MemoryAppender could be subclassed as follows:

public class LimitedMemoryAppender : MemoryAppender
{
    override protected void Append(LoggingEvent loggingEvent) 
    {
        super.Append(loggingEvent);
        if (m_eventsList.Count > 10)
        {
            m_eventsList.Remove(0);
        }
    } 
}