log4net delete file at runtime is it possible c#

Question

Is it possible to delete a log at runtime? What I would like to do before the application starts is deleting all logs; if that is not possible I would like to clear all logs at runtime.

Any suggestion/code snippet?

I suppose you could use a rolling file appender and have a separate process which deletes the old files. Logging libraries don't generally *delete* logs, they create them. What are you actually trying to accomplish and why? — David, May 16 '15 at 13:38
I have a tool that perform certain operation and having a clean log whenever I start a process would help to see what's going. I know there is a timestamp etc.. but I would like to have a clean or delete the log if exists — developer9969, May 16 '15 at 14:27
see this http://stackoverflow.com/questions/95286/log4net-set-max-backup-files-on-rollingfileappender-with-rolling-date — Chris McKelt, May 19 '15 at 14:16

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:09

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Yes, is it possible to clear the log files. The log file will be created by starting the program, if it doesn't exist. To clear the files, look here: Clearing content of text file using C#

edited May 23 '17 at 12:09

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answered May 16 '15 at 13:53

Thomas

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Hi thanks for your time and answer but that does not work."The process cannot access the file because is being used by another process" I suppose that when I start the application log4net must lock the file. – developer9969 May 16 '15 at 14:35
do you have write access? – Thomas May 16 '15 at 14:48

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered May 19 '15 at 13:20

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Yet another alternative is to use the processid in the log file name - then everytime you start the app, you get a new log file:

<appender name="LogFileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender, log4net">
  <file type="log4net.Util.PatternString" value="D:\Logs\MyApp.log-[%processid].txt"/>

answered May 19 '15 at 13:20

freedomn-m

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If you're getting %processid as a literal in your file name, be sure to add the **type="log4net.Util.PatternString"** value. – Jazimov Dec 11 '16 at 18:15

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

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It is not supported "out of the box" from log4net. However, you could using the RollingFileAppender and create a manual class/method to clean up/delete the log file. Please refer to this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/2916628/3016125

edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

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answered May 16 '15 at 15:08

Manoj Pedvi

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered May 16 '15 at 16:00

Instead of trying to delete the log file programmatically, I prefer to combine a RollingFlatFileWriter and a scheduled task that executes something like the following recurring daily: forfiles -p "C:\path to logd" -s -m *.log -d -5 -c "cmd /c del @path"

The above delete any file ending in .log that is older than 5 days. This gives more than enough time to make sure there are copies of each day's log available in your backup archive.

log4net delete file at runtime is it possible c#

4 Answers4