How do you configure and enable log4net for a stand-alone class library assembly?

Question

Background

I am writing a class library assembly in C# .NET 3.5 which is used for integration with other applications including third-party Commercial-Off-The-Shel

Answer 1

You can probably code something around the XmlConfigurator class:

public static class MyLogManager
{
    // for illustration, you should configure this somewhere else...
    private static string configFile = @"path\to\log4net.config";

    public static ILog GetLogger(Type type)
    {
        if(log4net.LogManager.GetCurrentLoggers().Length == 0)
        {
            // load logger config with XmlConfigurator
            log4net.Config.XmlConfigurator.Configure(configFile);
        }
        return LogManager.GetLogger(type);
    }
}

Then in your classes, instead of:

private static readonly ILog log = LogManager.GetLogger(typeof(MyApp));

Use:

private static readonly ILog log = MyLogManager.GetLogger(typeof(MyApp));

Of course, it would be preferable to make this class a service and dynamically configure it with the IoC container of your choice, but you get the idea?

EDIT: Fixed Count() problem pointed out in comments.