Log4net does not write the log file

Question

I created a simple szenario using Log4net, but it seems that my appenders does not work because the messages are not added to the logfile.

I added the following to the web.config file:

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

<log4net>
    <appender name="LogFileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender">
            <file value="D:\MyData\Desktop\LogFile.txt" />
            <appendToFile value="true" />
            <encoding value="utf-8" />
            <layout type="log4net.Layout.SimpleLayout" />
    </appender>


    <root>
        <level value="INFO" />
        <appender-ref ref="LogFileAppender" />
    </root>
</log4net>

Within the global ASAX file I added:

ILog logger = LogManager.GetLogger(typeof(MvcApplication));

and within the Application_Start()-Method:

logger.Info("Starting the application...");

what did I wrong?

Thanks in Advance Johannes

Answer 1

Make sure the process (account) that the site is running under has privileges to write to the output directory.

In IIS 7 and above this is configured on the application pool and is normally the AppPool Identity, which will not normally have permission to write to all directories.

Check your event logs (application and security) to see if any exceptions were thrown.

Answer 2

Use this FAQ page: Apache log4net Frequently Asked Questions

About 3/4 of the way down it tells you how to enable log4net debugging by using application tracing. This will tell you where your issue is.

Answer 3

Do you call

log4net.Config.XmlConfigurator.Configure();

somewhere to make log4net read your configuration? E.g. in Global.asax:

void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e) 
{
    // Code that runs on application startup

    // Initialize log4net.
    log4net.Config.XmlConfigurator.Configure();
}