Logging in .NET Core 3.0 and Beyond - Configuration, Setup, and More

[@mrterrbl8184]

Tim, this channel is an absolute gem. You're a great teacher and I recommend you to everyone asking for C# help.

[@IAmTimCorey]

I appreciate the kind words.

[@alvinbernardo9551]

For all tutorials I have watch, you are the one explain it line by line

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

Tim's goal is to truly educate folks, not just pass along a piece of information. Thanks for watching.

[@amalaljohari9358]

I usually don't watch long videos since they are wasting of time, but your videos are gold, I listen to each word and don't waste any second of your valuable videos, you are great Tim, I hope you always create videos, we learn a lot from you

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad you like them!

[@mahimakapoor1315]

After wasting 2 days, I reached to this video...it's awesome..u simplified everything so smoothly...I can't even imagine to use this Logging without any help of yours.. Thank u Thank u so much

[@IAmTimCorey]

Awesome! I'm glad this video was so helpful.

[@lcee8325]

Thank you for an excellent video @IAmTimCorey! My favorite part: 53:02 "Where do you go from here? Well, ...to start off with, you stop right here." :]

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@akshaynegi4849]

this tutorial is amazing...I read the positive comments before starting the course and I am happy to take this course.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you.

[@gert-janvanderkamp3508]

"I don't like magic, when it breaks down you have to figure it out first before you can fix it" ABSOLUTLEY YES. ASP CORE is brilliant in how it works, but boy does this configuration through extension methods obscure how simple it actually works. Both the services collection and pipeline, the core components of how it works, get obscured. Everyone creating anything serious shoud have a solid grasp of how the 'pipeline' (it's more of a trampoline) and the mvc routing mechanism work and how the classes it news up interact with the DI services. (maybe an idea for a video?) It's probably less work to go down understand that than to stare at the magic show and keeping your fingers crossed. Once you get it it really is so simple and elegant.

[@IAmTimCorey]

I'll definitely be covering the different pieces of .NET Core as we go forward (and I'll have a start to finish course on it as well).

[@TheChodex]

This is so much better then Log4Net in my opinion. Simple things like this are what made me fall in love with .NET Core. Everything I need just comes built-in!

[@IAmTimCorey]

It is very nice.

[@jameshoiby]

Tim, I've been using the basics in Serilog for quite a while and would love to see an in-depth discussion of the advanced features of Serilog. Thanks for the great videos!

[@IAmTimCorey]

I will add your vote to the list. Thanks!

[@utpmahesh444]

yes please. like logging exceptions in structured way

[@torrvic1156]

Thank you so much Mr. Corey! This video was full of very clear and reasonable explanations regarding to how basic logging works.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@wchishti]

Thank you for explaining all the behind-the-scenes logic. It was very helpful.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@dalmirogranas9990]

I keep getting back to this video over and over. Content is solid ❤️

[@IAmTimCorey]

I am glad it is so helpful.

[@0i0l0o]

From now on, I'll just say For the Algorithm. Cause I am tired of writing that you are an outstanding teacher.

[@IAmTimCorey]

lol, thanks.

[@SumanNath25]

This was one the great content I have ever learned. Thanks Tim Corey.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@bhoopendrasharma9474]

Thank you, Tim, for such informative video about .NET core ILogger, videos on Serilog and ApplicationInsights would also be exciting. Thanks again...

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks for the input.

[@LivingTheDream21]

Very well explained, step by step and thorough. Answers all questions I would've had.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Excellent!

[@austinhummel5439]

Thanks Tim, another incredibly useful breakdown!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@viniciussantosaguiar9543]

Master teacher!! No words! The best!! Thanks!!!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@KaKaPir]

Great video ! Looking forward to the Application Insights video

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@harag9]

Great timing Tim, I'm learning Core 2.2 (don't use VS2019 yet) - Looking forward to watching this in a day or two. Thanks!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Excellent!

[@harag9]

@Senor Mike I would say 2nd best as Tim is the best. That aside, I'm also watching that guys core series, but I find the accent very hard to follow personally. I'm not good with peoples accent, nothing personal against the guy.

[@harag9]

@Senor Mike Yes, understand, just takes me a while to tune into the accent - I'm starting to get into his now and carrying on with it, it's quite clear compared to some I've heard and don't get past the first 10 mins. I like Tims videos because I do mostly desktop as (winforms mainly) but he is branching out, and has to learn stuff as well (e.g. Xamarin).

[@imanidioli]

My headache relieved after this video bless you

[@IAmTimCorey]

Excellent!

[@ws8999]

Another great video, Tim!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@sokkpupptz]

i watched the whole thing but didn't what i came for which was how to log to files n=but still worth watching - thanks

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@MrOneWorld123]

49:00 I used that approach previously to use class name + object instance hash as category. That way I could track down zombie instances of classes.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Great.

[@NelsonPRSousa]

Hi Tim Corey, Just want to point out that at 41:45, Console was probably taking into account what you have specified in appsettings.Development.json, not appsettings.json. You guys should expand appsettings.json in Solution Explorer and see your settings for each environment (development, production, etc). Nice video anyway!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Did I have override settings in the development file at that point? I didn't think I did.

[@NelsonPRSousa]

@@IAmTimCorey You didn't, but appsettings.development.json was created by default and was being loaded

[@IAmTimCorey]

But does it have override settings for logging? If not, then this is using the main file. Dev is only used if it has the same option with a different value.

[@franciskhoury4288]

You are helping me stay employed. Thank you very much, Tim!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are very welcome.

[@josbexerr5166]

Gracias mister Tim Corey, emociando con el curso

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@saddlebear]

Great job Tim, thank you for this!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@ivandrofly]

8:20 Totally agree! I also hate leaving thing without understanding them...

[@IAmTimCorey]

Yep.

[@akberaliakber]

great job - you style is amazing

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you so much!

[@marceloleoncaceres6826]

Thanks Tim, great video

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@mohitdahiya3102]

Thank you Tim for this tutorail.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@Fearer2601]

Your channel is really amazing!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad you think so!

[@Fearer2601]

@@IAmTimCorey you are really explaining the basics, many people skip it and you wonder how they achieved their result!

[@chetan_mali]

Perfect video on my perfect timing

[@IAmTimCorey]

Excellent!

[@kapilrbagul]

It’s great video. Loving all your videos Tim

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@harag9]

Great video Tim, much appreciated. Love how it's all built into core from the get go, will be great for short term logging. However for more long term would be good if you did a part 2 of this with something like NLog or Log4Net as an extension to this Demo. I use Log4Net in my winforms application but I hear good things about NLog (though never looked at it). I used v2.2 of core for this video and the only issue I noticed was the settings in the JSON file - it wasn't accepting "Microsoft*" only "Microsoft" but everything else worked for me in v2.2. Until next time!

[@IAmTimCorey]

I will be doing a part 2 for this video to cover the available loggers. Serilog will be a big one because it can capture that structured logging (the variables inside the message) separately from the logs themselves. I'll try to add in NLog and/or log4net.

[@harag9]

@@IAmTimCorey Excellent, Thanks Tim. Never heard of Serialog - so if this is the next best one to use, then I'm happy with going with that.

[@neopro688]

very good, exelent content as usual

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@eaglesofmai]

Really nice explainations!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@hananiahlinde1377]

Excellent content as always... would love to see a video on logging/configuring to Application Insights in Azure

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks for the suggestion. Please add it to the list on the suggestion site so others can vote on it as well: suggestions.iamtimcorey.com/

[@antoniomarcos5664]

Nice explanation, Tim. Thank you.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@thethomasproject]

Great video. Kind of shows the simple, simple of logging within .net core. I will become a Patreon subscriber! And if you like this video, you should too. What is shared is worth way more than $10 per month.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you very much.

[@michalkrzych]

Great video Tim.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@rennjaysoterio2543]

Love the content!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@ivandrofly]

THANK YOU SIR!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@TraxxStudios]

33:46 Also interpolation is avoided for performance reasons. Not every logger call results in something being logged, so we can avoid unnecesary interpolation in such cases.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Good point.

[@laurenzvien]

Hi, Tim! Love this video. This is one of the things I really haven't implemented on the project I am building and this video really helped me to do just that. Also, hope you have a video about best way to implement toast notifications in ASP .Net Core MVC.. 😊

[@IAmTimCorey]

I don't have one like that yet. Check out Toastr: codeseven.github.io/toastr/

[@laurenzvien]

@@IAmTimCorey thanks, Tim!

[@jakob8724]

Is there no "before" source code? This one I got seems to be the final thing, I like to be able to type along.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Nope, sorry. You will have to write your own code to test it out.

[@Gramr98]

In .NET 6.0 you don't have the shown code (Main() and CreateHostBuilder()) in Program.cs here anymore. Instead you now have the code of Startup.cs in there and the previous code is gone and I can't seem to find it. How am I supposed to config the logger there?

[@IAmTimCorey]

Here you go: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rJXLd6pni7iirck

[@Gramr98]

@@IAmTimCorey Thank you very much!

[@toastyshrimp1882]

10:23 what is the term for "chaining" methods(?) like that? You hinted that it only works because of interfaces, and I've not really seen this kind of logic before, so I'm curious.

[@IAmTimCorey]

The keyword is Fluent.

[@TutorialsMethod]

Dear Sir! what is the best way to logging in microservices architecutre?which library should we use? Thanks

[@rikudouensof]

Hello Tim, thanks for this. How can one do 8:50 to 19:24 on .Net 6?

[@petrsindelar5]

Great job!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@ashankasr]

Great video.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@6freeborn]

Tim you are a GOD!

[@IAmTimCorey]

It sounds like it was helpful. I'm glad.

[@ramakrishnareddy7488]

Tim, Your videos are really helpful. Can u do a video on covering application insights to capture logs in real-time web apps

[@IAmTimCorey]

I will add it to the list. Thanks for the suggestion.

[@ramakrishnareddy7488]

@@IAmTimCorey Thank u

[@thethomasproject]

Sorry something else I forgot to mention is you had mentioned Azure logging. Would you consider a video on using it with the Azure App Services File and Azure App Services Blob?

[@IAmTimCorey]

More Azure videos like these are coming. Thanks for the suggestions.

[@pasiosterman4749]

For some reason modifying the Microsoft* category for Console LogLevel to Warning results in VSCode no longer opening the project in a browser (Firefox) on Start debugging. Also by default there seems to be a lot less logging going on with 3.1 (at least with VSCode Debug Console) than what is going on in the video. This threw me off a little to troubleshoot if I was missing something. Luckily example message at 22:30 got displayed properly so guess there's just less logging going on due to changes or appsettings.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Interesting. I'll have to check it out.

[@zoltantorok1189]

15:30 Did you ever do that video on application insights?

[@wcdeich4]

Hi, where can I find an example of manually sending information to the log inside the Program.cs or Startup.cs ?

[@sethnejame6786]

Really enjoy your videos, Tim. . .thanks a million! Any word on when you'll release a video on logging + ApplicationInsights?

[@IAmTimCorey]

No specific date but it is on the schedule. I was just reviewing some content this morning on this topic.

[@sethnejame6786]

@@IAmTimCorey Excellent, thanks for your response. I just started receiving your emails and have subscribed almost everywhere. . .I'm coming from the frontend and learning C#/.NET with the help of your videos. They are fantastic and very easy to follow. Thank you for all that you do!

[@gauravsharma8220]

thanks tim

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@nirmaldanwesh]

Is the application insights video available already ?

[@IAmTimCorey]

Not yet.

[@malhaar707]

Hey, you didn't demonstrate how to use the logger inside the static method. I am not able to use inside the class static methods.

[@pipetabor2011]

Hi @IAmTimCorey First Thanks for the video, it was really helpful. Second, where can i find the Application Insights video that you mentioned?

[@mohamaddjelouah9332]

hi tim i wanted to ask u about charts and graphics can u plz recommend a nuget or library for using charts and data analyse i want to show for example how many incidents in days and thank u

[@IAmTimCorey]

I don't have one specific package to recommend. I would recommend looking at a few options, seeing which is popular, and then looking at their demos.

[@AboOmar385]

Great video and structured one 👌 But I have questions about the data to be logged itself from the best practices point of view Should I log every thing inside every layer in my app or API, or logging the most important ? I will appreciate if you share the best practices in logging in real world scenario for a real world app or API. Thanks alot

[@IAmTimCorey]

I can add that to the suggestion list. In general, log what you are going to use. If you aren't going to read the logs, don't capture that information.

[@larsoleruben]

This is SO HELPFUL, thanks a lot. Microsoft documentation stinks on this subject.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad it was helpful!

[@sanketss84]

Whats the correct approach to implement logging for nuget packages and console apps. A lot of tutorials cover this for web apps only.

[@IAmTimCorey]

A lot of NuGet packages do not have logging for production. You would either need to do the logging internally or accept an optional ILogger from the caller. As for Console apps, they would act similarly to a web application.

[@sanketss84]

@@IAmTimCorey got it

[@PushkarThakar]

How to use iLogger from the class library (.Net Standard), which is added as a reference to the .Net Core MVC app

[@utpmahesh444]

Thank you. May I ask a question what is the different configure logging between host level and app level. I have seen in many articles that suggest to configure it inside startup

[@IAmTimCorey]

We are configuring it in startup here. Typically you want to configure it in startup so that you can log when the application starts and capture a failure to the logs.

[@esamcoding]

Great video. the only thing that was not covered is: how to log what happens if the CreateHostBuilder(args).Build() failed. I need an ILogger even before that piece of code runs.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You can declare the logger very early in the process and then re-implement it inside dependency injection. However, it won't necessarily catch very early errors. In those cases, you will need to rely on the event logs to capture why the application crashed so early in the process (since at that point, it is an issue outside of your code most likely).

[@davidliu243]

Tim, waiting for your NLog video

[@steliosvasiliadis3480]

I am using nlog and i thnink i am satisfied

[@IAmTimCorey]

As long as it works for you, stick with it.

[@FemilShajin]

Where are these logs located? And how to access those? Can we log performance (i.e. time taken for computing)for endpoint and method or there are better ways to do that??

[@IAmTimCorey]

If you are saving them as files, you get to choose where they are saved. If you are choosing console, they aren't saved anywhere, they are displayed on the console. Basically, you get to choose what type of logging to do and where to save it (if applicable). As for performance logging, yes you can capture performance but deep performance monitoring is probably better done with a perfmon tool.

[@fredywenger3785]

Very good and easy to follow video - thanks. Unfortunately, not what I have searched for. I (and I think many other developers) have the problem, that I have INTERNAL (kestrel) exceptions in the console: - not able to reproduce (with the app) - without a timestamp - without any help to found the reason for the exception => No idea how to search (and fix) the reason It would be nice, if you would take this problem and create a video to this theme (how to troubleshoot internal kestrel exceptions or similar. Anyway - really good video!

[@IAmTimCorey]

I'm not sure what type of internal exceptions you would have in Kestrel. You can't debug Kestrel itself and it doesn't often have issues. Maybe try screenshotting when you have an exception that is internal to Kestrel and then requesting help on something like Stack Overflow. Just make sure you do your research first on the displayed error.

[@fredywenger3785]

@@IAmTimCorey : See my other posting to the other video, that describes my problem in detail (I have watched two of your videos today;-) I already have posted the exception (see other posting) at SO...

[@gcp_testcrdc3012]

When the app is deployed to azure and running as an app service, how to see the console logging?

[@IAmTimCorey]

Logging to the Console is typically only used for development. You would probably want to log to a database or Application Insights if you were on Azure. With that being said, there is a console on an Azure Web App that you can open that I believe will show those logs. It isn't ideal, though.

[@zokymasa]

Hi Tim, how can I delete the header of my log on my debug output window when debugging? For example, when I start my API, the first line is always the "info:" and the second line is my generated log message. How can I delete the first line so it doesn't show up?

[@IAmTimCorey]

I believe you need to disable the logging from Microsoft sources.

[@zokymasa]

@@IAmTimCorey My question was not good. What I wanted to ask is Is it possible to disable category output in .NET Core ConsoleLogger and DebugLogger?

[@sudhakark403]

Tim! please upload a step by step execution of .Net MVC project. I'm a beginner to .net core. I don't know how to build an MVC project for real-time.

[@IAmTimCorey]

I will add it to the list. Thanks for the suggestion.

[@sudhakark403]

@@IAmTimCorey Tim! Why you removed your which . Net core in udemy?

[@darrellabney5017]

Hi - Great video, but how can I use logging in a non-web application?

[@IAmTimCorey]

The same way. Sometimes .NET Core projects don't have the Startup class for configuration but you can add it. You can do logging the exact same way for WinForms Core, WPF Core, Worker Services, .NET Core Console Applications, etc.

[@sanketss84]

How does your terminal video change opacity when you drag it ?

[@IAmTimCorey]

I use a tool called MaxTo for positioning windows. That is what does it.

[@joshmonreal]

Hi, thank you for such an informative video! I have a question though. Does the built-in logging of Microsoft have an integration with Log Analytics? What I mean by this is, does the logs in Console or Debug get added to Log Analytics - assuming that the application is deployed in Azure App Service and has Log Analytics integration enabled?

[@manishpatil8284]

Tim What is OUTPUT of this Code you didn't show

[@IAmTimCorey]

I showed the logging output (at 49:39 for example), which was the focus of the application. If you mean the application itself, it is just an ASP.NET Core web project so it is the default website.

[@gould10]

I was struggling with understanging the concept of logging in c# until I found this video. Very clear and straight forward. Thank you Tim. I have one question. What if I want to perform further actions with logging such as notifying users via email that something ocurred. If I want to utilize the ILogger interface and factory in inner layers (not on the controller) such as the services layer. How would be the best way to achieve this while keeping a clean architecture? Thank ou.

[@1prasadjoshi]

I am using SeriLog for logging in dotnet core 3.1. Can I write custom methods to log Login-Logout logs (And I want to write these logs in different table. As serilog is creating one Logs Table by default I want to write Login-Logout logs in LoginLogoutLogs table or something like that) And that logging will also have few more info like IP etc.

[@luismendez9436]

Cool!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Yep.

[@rajendrank9582]

Is there a way I can modify the logging level without going to appsettins.json at runtime? Like using a flag I want to change warning to trace for a couple of minutes and if the flag changes move back to default?

[@IAmTimCorey]

Yes, you can move those into code and change them programmatically.

[@rajendrank9582]

@@IAmTimCorey Thanks for the reply, Can we achieve without touching appsetiing.json, I don't want any other providers like envio variable, any inbuit method which I can change the configuration at runtime.

[@darkogele]

Can i use this as Nlog to log to hdd on txt files ?

[@IAmTimCorey]

Yes, you can use NLog.

[@xavierlarocque9470]

Very interesting video! Is there any news for the videos about Application Insights?

[@IAmTimCorey]

It is still on the list. I just haven't had the time to get to it yet.

[@thorstenfricke3257]

Hi Tim what is used more react or .NET?

[@IAmTimCorey]

I'm not sure a comparison is really healthy or productive. What are you intending to get from the answer? .NET is a cross-platform high-level programming language. React is a JavaScript framework. If you are looking for which to learn for your career, the Stack Overflow 2023 survey indicates that there are more React developers than C# developers but that React developers get paid less than C# developers. My recommendation, if you are trying to determine which path to go down, is to pick which one you like better.

[@thorstenfricke3257]

@Coreyoh thank you! In india react developers are paid twice or more compared to engineering developers. In case i loose my job i am learning now .net web :-)

[@jamesbest2221]

Thank you so much!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@chetan_mali]

Tim can you please make one sample web application course on .net core?

[@IAmTimCorey]

It is coming.

[@harag9]

@@IAmTimCorey Can't wait - I'm starting to learn core for work. Though when you do please specify if it will work in v2.2 as I use VS2017 and don't think v3 will be available for VS2017

[@IAmTimCorey]

I'll try to keep that in mind. In order to make it as relevant as possible for as long as possible, it will use 3.0 but I'll try to point out any differences from 2.2 (which should be minor for a web project).

[@harag9]

@@IAmTimCorey Super, Thanks.

[@haas1001]

Thank Tim, great video. This is working, but the logname and logsource is nog working and won’t be read from the settings. How can I fix this?

[@IAmTimCorey]

I'm not sure. Try downloading my source code and running it to see if it works. If it does, there is something to tweak in your code. If it doesn't, there is something to tweak in your environment.

[@WeBhartiya]

Debug logs are not getting printed. Any suggestion , I am using 3.1 . Please suggest .

[@IAmTimCorey]

I believe it is a newer configuration setting in the appsettings.json and appsettings.developer.json files. You would need to change the restrictions to see additional messages.

[@WeBhartiya]

@@IAmTimCorey You are right and your point at 42:02 is correct as debug should not be present in output as per configuration.(and I was expecting more info as in 6:48 ) Thanks.

[@santiagoquinapallo1567]

Is it possible to use EventLog of Microsoft and SeriLog at the same time?

[@IAmTimCorey]

Do you mean can you write to the event log and use Serilog? If so then yes.

[@efexzium]

Thanks

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@moneyfresher3035]

Hi Tim, Another excellent video. So what I understood is, we use third party logging like Serilog because the default logger provided by Microsoft is not able to write on text file or Database. is it correct ? Another question is while using Serilog, the default logger also keep running in parallel. does not it has any performance impact ?

[@IAmTimCorey]

Yes, using Serilog is an upgrade to the built-in logger. As for both running at the same time, no, Serilog takes over for the default logger.

[@TrueTaladan]

Good Tutorial. But i missed the most common logging in your video. Logging to file.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Logging to a file isn't something that is provided out of the box from .NET Core. You need to add your own provider like NLog or Serilog to do that.

[@kussostyle]

14:03 logging.AddFile("Path/yourAppName-{date}.log");

[@rogerguess926]

@@kussostyle do not think that timestamp is correct...

[@Lior_Banai]

I don't understand why the interface does not include caller member attribute like line number or method name..

[@IAmTimCorey]

Couple reasons. FIrst, expense. Those things are expensive to get. Second, when you obfuscate an application, you don't have valid values for those things. You will get it for exceptions if you can, but for "regular' calls, it usually isn't practical.

[@Megyez]

Is there already a video about application insights?

[@IAmTimCorey]

Not directly, no. I've touched on it a couple time but have not yet done a full video on it. I will.

[@Megyez]

@@IAmTimCorey Thanks for the answer, looking forward to it. Great videos!

[@NeffPedro]

Hello Tim, thanks for all your tutorials/videos. can´t seem to receive your Source code thru the link you have available?!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Check your spam filters, if still not there, If still not there, email me at [e-mail]

[@NeffPedro]

Hello again Tim, just sent you email!