Targets

Use

Targets are used to display, store, or pass log messages to another destination. There are two kinds of target; those that receive and handle the messages, and those that buffer or route the messages to another target. The second group are called 'wrapper' targets.

Supported Targets

• AspNetTrace
  - Writes log messages to the ASP.NET trace.
• AspResponse
  - Outputs log messages through the ASP Response object.
• Chainsaw
  - Sends log messages to the remote instance of Chainsaw application from log4j.
• ColoredConsole
  - Writes log messages to the console with customizable coloring.
• Console
  - Writes log messages to the console.
• Database
  - Writes log messages to the database using an ADO.NET provider.
• Debug
  - Mock target - useful for testing.
• Debugger
  - Writes log messages to the attached managed debugger.
• EventLog
  - Writes log message to the Event Log.
• File
  - Writes log messages to one or more files.
• FormControl
  - Logs text to Windows.Forms.Control.Text property control of specified Name.
• LogReceiverService
  
  - Sends log messages to a NLog Receiver Service (using WCF or Web Services).
• Mail
  - Sends log messages by email using SMTP protocol.
• Memory
  - Writes log messages to an ArrayList in memory for programmatic retrieval.
• MessageBox
  - Pops up log messages as message boxes.
• MethodCall
  - Calls the specified static method on each log message and passes contextual parameters to it.
• MSMQ
  - Writes log message to the specified message queue handled by MSMQ.
• Network
  - Sends log messages over the network.
• NLogViewer
  - Sends log messages to the remote instance of NLog Viewer.
• Null
  - Discards log messages. Used mainly for debugging and benchmarking.
• OutputDebugString
  - Outputs log messages through the OutputDebugString() Win32 API.
• PerfCounter
  - Increments specified performance counter on each write.
• RichTextBox
  - Log text a Rich Text Box control in an existing or new form.
• Trace
  - Sends log messages through System.Diagnostics.Trace.
• WebService
  - Calls the specified web service on each log message.

Wrapper Targets

• AspNetBufferingWrapper
  - Buffers log events for the duration of ASP.NET request and sends them down to the wrapped target at the end of a request.
• AsyncWrapper
  - Provides asynchronous, buffered execution of target writes.
• AutoFlushWrapper
  - Causes a flush after each write on a wrapped target.
• BufferingWrapper
  - A target that buffers log events and sends them in batches to the wrapped target.
• FallbackGroup
  - Provides fallback-on-error.
• FilteringWrapper
  - Filters log entries based on a condition.
• ImpersonatingWrapper
  - Impersonates another user for the duration of the write.
• PostFilteringWrapper
  - Filters buffered log entries based on a set of conditions that are evaluated on a group of events.
• RandomizeGroup
  - Sends log messages to a randomly selected target.
• RepeatingWrapper
  - Repeats each log event the specified number of times.
• RetryingWrapper
  - Retries in case of write error.
• RoundRobinGroup
  - Distributes log events to targets in a round-robin fashion.
• SplitGroup
  - Writes log events to all targets.

Custom Targets

NLog supports custom target. For more information, see: How to write a Target