Question

NLog’s file target is pretty configurable, but it doesn’t seem to support what I am trying to achieve.

My console application writes messages to a log file, but I want it to do two things:

• Start a new log file on each run. So each time the application is started, a new log file should be created.
• Previous log files should not be overwritten or deleted, i want to keep the x latest runs as well.

The archive* properties seem to be pretty close, but they do the rolling on a time basis, not an execution basis.

Answer 1

The first is somewhat easy. Set the filename to "log-${cached:${date:format=yyyyMMdd_HH_mm_ss}}.log" or something similar. This will set up the file with a down-to-the-second name, which will be cached on each application execution.

As far as your second request, that’s a bit more difficult. You might try setting archiveEvery: "None" and maxArchiveFiles: x, but I’m not sure if that would produce the desired behaviour or just never archive anything at all.