How to use log4cxx RollingFileAppender on Windows - c++

Question

I'm trying to use log4cxx to log my application using RollingFileAppender on a Windows C++ console application. I would like to create a new log file every time the size reaches 1MB. Furthermore, when the desired size is reached, the file should be zipped automatically. The maximum number of files created must be 10; after which older files should be overwritten.
I'm using:
apache-log4cxx-0.10.0
apr-util-1.6.1
apr-1.7.0
This is my code:
log4cxx::rolling::RollingFileAppender* fileAppender1 = new log4cxx::rolling::RollingFileAppender();
fileAppender1->setLayout(log4cxx::LayoutPtr(new log4cxx::PatternLayout(L"[%d{ISO8601}{GMT}] %-4r [%t] %c | %-5p | %m%n")));
fileAppender1->setAppend(true);
log4cxx::helpers::Pool p;
fileAppender1->activateOptions(p);
log4cxx::rolling::FixedWindowRollingPolicy* rollingPolicy = new log4cxx::rolling::FixedWindowRollingPolicy();
rollingPolicy->setMinIndex(1);
rollingPolicy->setMaxIndex(10);
rollingPolicy->setFileNamePattern(L"j_log_%i.log");
log4cxx::rolling::SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy* triggerPolicy = new log4cxx::rolling::SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy();
triggerPolicy->setMaxFileSize(1024*1024);
fileAppender1->setRollingPolicy(rollingPolicy);
fileAppender1->setTriggeringPolicy(triggerPolicy);
LoggerPtr logger(Logger::getLogger("LogConsole1"));
logger->addAppender(fileAppender1);
logger->setLevel(log4cxx::Level::getTrace());
for (int i = 0; i < 10000; i++)
{
LOG4CXX_INFO(logger, "Created FileAppender appender");
LOG4CXX_INFO(logger, "LOGGER1");
}
The result obtained is a file named ".1" (without any extension) with such content (it seems ok):
[2019-09-13 07:44:58,619] 21063 [0x00003e14] LogConsole1 | INFO | Created FileAppender appender
[2019-09-13 07:44:58,622] 21066 [0x00003e14] LogConsole1 | INFO | LOGGER1
The problems are:
The file does not have the proper name
The file does not roll over (only one file is created also if its size exceeds 1MB)
On the application console I see many exceptions like: "log4cxx: Exception during rollover"
What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

I do not completely understand your file pattern but the docs do not use the "L" char in their Pattern.
In my projects is use
rollingPolicy->setFileNamePattern("file.%i.log");
sometimes with a string variable which works good.
I can not find the configuration in your code snipped.
As far as i know, you have to setup the appender by using the BasicConfiguration object.
log4cxx::BasicConfigurator::configure(log4cxx::AppenderPtr(yourAppenderPointer));
this will append your appender to the root logger and works for my case.
Here is my full code snippet of my initialize.
void someclass::initLogger(std::string fileName) {
std::string::size_type found = fileName.find(".log");
std::string strippedFileName;
if (found != std::string::npos)
{
strippedFileName = fileName.substr(0, found);
}
else
{
strippedFileName = fileName;
fileName = fileName + ".log";
}
//initializes for rolling file appenders
rollingFileAppender = new log4cxx::rolling::RollingFileAppender();
rollingPolicy = new log4cxx::rolling::FixedWindowRollingPolicy();
rollingPolicy->setMinIndex(1);
rollingPolicy->setMaxIndex(3);
log4cxx::LogString fileNamePattern = strippedFileName + ".%i.log";
rollingPolicy->setFileNamePattern(fileNamePattern);
trigger = new log4cxx::rolling::SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy();
trigger->setMaxFileSize(1024);
rollingFileAppender->setRollingPolicy(rollingPolicy);
rollingFileAppender->setTriggeringPolicy(trigger);
rollingFileAppender->setLayout(log4cxx::LayoutPtr(new log4cxx::PatternLayout(LOGFILE_LAYOUT_PATTERN)));
rollingFileAppender->setFile(fileName);
rollingFileAppender->setAppend(true);
//initializes for a console appender
consoleAppender = new log4cxx::ConsoleAppender(log4cxx::LayoutPtr(new log4cxx::PatternLayout(LOGFILE_LAYOUT_PATTERN)));
log4cxx::helpers::Pool p;
rollingFileAppender->activateOptions(p);
log4cxx::BasicConfigurator::configure(log4cxx::AppenderPtr(consoleAppender));
log4cxx::BasicConfigurator::configure(log4cxx::AppenderPtr(rollingFileAppender));
}
This code prints to a specified file via a rolling file appender and also prints to the terminal using the consoleAppender
This prints file one file with fileName.log and up to three more with fileName.i.log