Question

I am trying to add a logfile to a program I am making, but when I tell the main thread to exit (using Application.ExitThread()), logstrmWriter is suddenly null before it ever gets there. This is a very simple script.

private static FileStream appLogStream;
internal static string logFile;
internal static StreamWriter logstrmWriter;
public static void Main()
{    
    logFile = Application.StartupPath + @"\Archiver.log";
    appLogStream = new FileStream(logFile, FileMode.Append, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.Read);
    TextWriter logtxtWriter = Console.Out;
    StreamWriter logstrmWriter = new StreamWriter(appLogStream);
    if(!console) Console.SetOut(logstrmWriter);

    Application.ApplicationExit += new EventHandler(OnApplicationExit);
    Application.Run();
}
internal static void OnApplicationExit(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    active = false; Console.WriteLine("Main thread is shutting down. Sending Interrupt...");
    Archiver.Stop(); Console.WriteLine("Shutdown. Log and Exit");
    Console.WriteLine();
    logstrmWriter.Flush();
    logstrmWriter.Close();
    logstrmWriter.Dispose();
}

Answer 1

You’re creating a local variable that hides the static variable in question. As such, you never initialize logstrmWriter at all.

TextWriter logtxtWriter = Console.Out;
/* StreamWriter */ logstrmWriter = new StreamWriter(appLogStream);  // Remove the redeclaration here!
if(!console) Console.SetOut(logstrmWriter);