NLog not writing debug messages

Question

In my code I have some info messages like logger.Log("dwewe") and logger.Debug("ddddf").

The problem is that the Debug messages are not being written even when I debug in VS.

<?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"
      throwExceptions="true"
      internalLogLevel="Trace"
      internalLogFile="c:\nlog-app.log"
      autoReload="false"
      internalLogToConsole="true">
  <!--
  See http://nlog-project.org/wiki/Configuration_file
  for information on customizing logging rules and outputs.
   -->
  <targets>
    <!-- file targets -->
    <target name="asyncFile" xsi:type="AsyncWrapper">
      <target xsi:type="File" name="f" fileName="${basedir}/Logs/${shortdate}.log"
            layout="${longdate} ${uppercase:${level}} ${message} ${event-context:item=error-source} ${event-context:item=error-class} ${event-context:item=error-method} ${event-context:item=error-message} ${event-context:item=inner-error-message} ${event-context:item=stack-trace}"/>
    </target>

    <!-- database targets -->
    <target name="database" xsi:type="Database" keepConnection="true" useTransactions="true"
             dbProvider="System.Data.SqlClient"
             connectionString="data source=XXXXXX.database.windows.net;initial catalog=NLog;integrated security=false;persist security info=True;User ID=XXXXr;Password=BXXXX3"
              commandText="INSERT INTO Logs(EventDateTime, EventLevel, UserName, MachineName, EventMessage, ErrorSource, ErrorClass, ErrorMethod, ErrorMessage, InnerErrorMessage, StackTrace) VALUES (@EventDateTime, @EventLevel, @UserName, @MachineName, @EventMessage, @ErrorSource, @ErrorClass, @ErrorMethod, @ErrorMessage, @InnerErrorMessage, @StackTrace)">
      <!-- parameters for the command -->
      <parameter name="@EventDateTime" layout="${date:s}" />
      <parameter name="@EventLevel" layout="${level}" />
      <parameter name="@UserName" layout="${windows-identity}" />
      <parameter name="@MachineName" layout="${machinename}" />
      <parameter name="@EventMessage" layout="${message}" />
      <parameter name="@ErrorSource" layout="${event-context:item=error-source}" />
      <parameter name="@ErrorClass" layout="${event-context:item=error-class}" />
      <parameter name="@ErrorMethod" layout="${event-context:item=error-method}" />
      <parameter name="@ErrorMessage" layout="${event-context:item=error-message}" />
      <parameter name="@InnerErrorMessage" layout="${event-context:item=inner-error-message}" />
      <parameter name="@StackTrace" layout="${event-context:item=stack-trace}" />

    </target>

    <target name="console" xsi:type="Console" />

  </targets>
  <rules>
    <!-- add your logging rules here -->
    <logger name="*" minlevel="Info" writeTo="database" />
    <logger name="*" minlevel="Error" writeTo="asyncFile" />
    <logger name="*" minlevel="Trace" writeTo="console" />
  </rules>
</

Answer 1

The reason that you are not able to get Debug is that debug is the lowest level log level just add following tag in rules tag in nlog.config file.

 <logger name="*" minlevel="Debug" writeTo="console" />

Answer 2

I found the problem to be related to the default appsettings.json that Visual Studio automatically adds to the project. It looks like this.

{
  "Logging": {
    "LogLevel": {
      "Default": "Information",
      "Microsoft": "Warning",
      "Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime": "Information"
    }
  }
}

The solution was to remove or rename this section.

{
  "Logging-DISABLE": {
    "LogLevel": {
      "Default": "Information",
      "Microsoft": "Warning",
      "Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime": "Information"
    }
  }
}

This allowed nlog.config to be utilized.

Answer 3

You are using 3 different log targets.

Database target is set to Info level, so debug messages are not going there. File target accepts only Error messages (and higher) so there will not be any debug either.

The last target Console is the one where debug mesages should be looged to. But as I see it you didn't set layout of the message. Try to look at this documentation. It says that layout is a required field.

Also I would suggest you temporarily set additional File target and set it to accept debug messages.

Answer 4

For anyone else who has this issue, an answer at a similar question just saved me: https://stackoverflow.com/a/8881521/3959735

If you are using a separate NLog.config file, make sure it's set to "copy always" via its file properties. Alternatively, you can include the NLog configuration section in your main App.config.

I think I might have caused this issue for myself either by trying to copy an NLog configuration file from another project manually; or because when adding NLog to my project I got a permissions error (of which I cannot remember any specific details) – just passing on this information in case it helps anyone diagnose their own issue.

Answer 5

Add nlog.config file to your project

Example of my config file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <nlog xmlns="http://www.nlog-project.org/schemas/NLog.xsd"
      xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">

    <targets>
      <target name="logfile" xsi:type="File" fileName="${basedir}/Logs/${date:format=yyyy-MM-dd}_log.txt" />
      <target name="logconsole" xsi:type="Console" />
    </targets>

    <rules>
      <logger name="*" minlevel="Info" writeTo="logconsole" />
      <logger name="*" minlevel="Debug" writeTo="logfile" />
    </rules>
  </nlog>
</configuration>