How to add CategoryName to output

[leastprivilege]

By default Serilog does not output the CategoryName e.g.:

var logger = loggerFactory.CreateLogger("test");

I tried a couple of templates - e.g.

.WriteTo.Trace(outputTemplate: "{Timestamp} [{Level}] ({CategoryName:l}) {Message}{NewLine}{Exception}")

but it does not work - any pointers?

thanks

[nblumhardt]

Hi Dominick,

I'm not sure we have any handling for this currently - I'm not actually sure how CategoryName propagates through the logging pipeline to be honest.

Any insights here would be appreciated. Definitely sounds like something we should support, if it's native to m.f.Logging.

[leastprivilege]

Well - I don't know either. Need to look at their source code. Thought that's pretty fundamental.

In LibLog I always used {Name} in the format string.

[leastprivilege]

Could someone help out? @danroth27 @HaoK @rynowak

[rynowak]

@nblumhardt - the category name is what's passed in here: https://github.com/serilog/serilog-framework-logging/blob/dev/src/Serilog.Framework.Logging/SerilogLoggerProvider.cs#L31

[nblumhardt]

Thanks @rynowak.

It looks like we should attach the CurrentScope's name as a property, if there is one, in here:

https://github.com/serilog/serilog-framework-logging/blob/dev/src/Serilog.Framework.Logging/SerilogLoggerProvider.cs#L41

@leastprivilege how is the scope name actually set, when calling an ILogger? I don't seem to have a BeginScope() method that allows it to be provided...

[nblumhardt]

@leastprivilege sorry, I see that is in your original post. What I guess is throwing me off is how it fits with the hierarchical nature of the scopes, if it can only be set when creating the root logger? Cheers! :-)

[leastprivilege]

I remember seeing something about nested scopes in the source code. But for now I would be happy if the simple "name" would work ;)

[leastprivilege]

Was this ever resolved?

[nblumhardt]

No, not as yet - any help here would be great.

[prasannavl]

Not sure if it was updated since this question was asked, but categoryName is sent in as context in Serilog.

Ref: https://github.com/serilog/serilog-framework-logging/blob/dev/src/Serilog.Framework.Logging/SerilogLogger.cs#L37

So it should be available from {SourceContext:l} ..

However, I'm wondering.. is there a way to conditionally emit it on the templates only if its available?
Doing something like

config.WriteTo.ColoredConsole(outputTemplate: "{Timestamp:yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss} [{Level}] [{SourceContext:l}] {Message}{NewLine}{Exception}");

ends up with the verbatim string [{SourceContext:l}] when there is no SourceContext available.

[nblumhardt]

@prasannavl I think you need to omit the :l for the behaviour you're looking for (output template tokens are literals by default).

[prasannavl]

@nblumhardt, if I omit it, it ends up with quotes around it.

[prasannavl]

@nblumhardt - Actually, omitting :l doesn't help. It still ends up with the verbatim string - which I think is the correct behavior. I'm just wondering if there is a way to remove it when the property is not available.

[nblumhardt]

Interesting - are you using an old Serilog build? (Know that is unlikely - but the change to omit empty properties has been in there for a while, may be a bug here?)

[prasannavl]

Build info from project.lock.json :

      "Serilog.Framework.Logging/1.0.0-rc1-final-10071": {
        "type": "package",
        "dependencies": {
          "Microsoft.Extensions.Logging": "1.0.0-rc1-final",
          "Serilog": "1.5.11"
        },

[stajs]

However, I'm wondering.. is there a way to conditionally emit it on the templates only if its available?

I'm also interested in this.

[nblumhardt]

Thanks for the notes and follow-ups.

This is a bug in ColoredConsoleSink: serilog/serilog#649

The other sinks (Console, Literate Console) shouldn't have the issue. Serilog.Sinks.LiterateConsole is by far my favourite console option now BTW, so worth trying out if you haven't already!

Hoping we'll get some traction on the issue linked above for 2.0 RTM (feel free to take a shot at it if you get an opportunity).

Thanks again!

[stajs]

The other sinks (Console, Literate Console) shouldn't have the issue.

Tried it, much better! Thanks for the recommendation =)

[nblumhardt]

Looks like this is covered by SourceContext. Thanks again all!