I just browsed log4j's documentation a little, and came across their "ExternallyRolledFileAppender". It is a file appender that listens to a port, and when a certain signal comes through, it rolls the file (i.e. closes the current file, renames it and starts over with a new file). I guess this is the Windows alternative to sending a HUP signal.
To make it work, you would have some sort of external log rotation tool, and a small command line app thats sends the rotation signal. The complexity of the log rotation tool could be arbitrary. It could also be as simple as a windows script. What do you think about such a solution? /Göran -----Original Message----- From: Nicko Cadell [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: den 3 mars 2006 15:09 To: Log4NET User Subject: RE: Compression tool The main problem with this approach (rolling with an external tool, e.g. Logrotate or Rotetelog) on Windows is that files open for writing are locked and cannot be renamed. On UNIX based file systems you can rename a file while it is locked and the application will continue to write to it. Typically after renaming the log file you would send the application a HUP signal to cause it to close the current log file and open a new log file with the original name. There is no standard way of signalling applications in Windows. Personally I think that the current RollingFileAppender is too complex and we would benefit greatly from a more pluggable approach similar to the new implementation in log4j: http://svn.apache.org/viewcvs.cgi/logging/log4j/trunk/src/java/org/apache/lo g4j/rolling/ At least with a plugin model it would be simpler for users to define their own behaviours when the out of the box solution does not fit. Cheers, Nicko
