How to get log4net to generate log files when running as non-administrator user?

Question

A process running as a non-administrator user does not have rights to write to the program files folder. What is the best way to configure log4net to write to a location that a non-administrator user has rights to?

Ideally there would be:

A single configuration file or configuration from code would work for all versions of MS Windows supported by .NET.
Support for MS Windows services
Support for log4net version 1.2.0.30714 (we have to use this version)

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C# Application can’t read/write to files created by administrator when run in limited user account XP

kgiannakakis · Accepted Answer · 2009-10-06T09:01:14.477

3

Why can't you just configure log4net to write to a file in a folder to which you have proper access rights? You do that with a FileAppender:

<appender name="FileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender">
    <file value="c:/path/log-file.txt" />
    <appendToFile value="true" />
    <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
        <conversionPattern value="%date [%thread] %-5level %logger [%property{NDC}] - %message%newline" />
    </layout>
</appender>

The above is taken from here. From the same page:

<appender name="FileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender">
    <file value="${TMP}\log-file.txt" />
    <appendToFile value="true" />
    <encoding value="unicodeFFFE" />
    <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
        <conversionPattern value="%date [%thread] %-5level %logger [%property{NDC}] - %message%newline" />
    </layout>
</appender>

You can use an environmental variable to set the path of the file.

edited Oct 06 '09 at 09:01

answered Oct 06 '09 at 08:54

kgiannakakis

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The problem is that the hard coded path does not work for all versions of MS Windows. – Thomas Bratt Oct 06 '09 at 08:56
1

You could use an environmental variable. – kgiannakakis Oct 06 '09 at 09:01
Yes the use of the environment variable to determine the location should be taken. %USERPROFILE% should be OK, or %HOMEPATH%. – Preet Sangha Oct 06 '09 at 09:04
That might just do it! I'll check it out. I'm using the RollingFileAppender but hopefully it will work the same as for FileAppender. – Thomas Bratt Oct 06 '09 at 09:16
I could not get environmental variables to work with the version of log4net that I'm using. I'll see if it is possible to use the latest but we have a problem with a third party that requires a specific version of log4net. – Thomas Bratt Oct 06 '09 at 10:36
The problem is with the version of log4net we are using. – Thomas Bratt Oct 06 '09 at 18:49

How to get log4net to generate log files when running as non-administrator user?

1 Answers1