Configuration of Log4Net through code

While writing a windows service, I created a console version for debugging use. I wanted this console to display all the logging, in real time, so I could see things were working. A bit of a search revealed that ColoredConsoleAppender was the desired class, so I added code to set things up.

var layout
    = new PatternLayout("%level [%thread] %d{HH:mm:ss} - %message%newline");

mConsoleLogger
    = new ColoredConsoleAppender
        {
            Name = "ConsoleAppender",
            Layout = layout,
            Threshold = Level.All
        };

var repository = (Hierarchy)LogManager.GetRepository();
repository.Root.AddAppender(mConsoleLogger);
repository.Root.Level = Level.All;

But, it didn’t work. Not at all. Back to the search engines.

Eventually, I found the (odd) solution.

Before adding the appender into the log4net repository, you need to activate it:

mConsoleLogger.ActivateOptions();

Once this is done, everything started working perfectly.

Not the way I’d write it - requiring odd incantations or other ceremony on the part of a class consumer seems fairly unfriendly.