Simple Logging

Article
01/12/2023

Tip

You can download this article's sample from GitHub.

Entity Framework Core (EF Core) simple logging can be used to easily obtain logs while developing and debugging applications. This form of logging requires minimal configuration and no additional NuGet packages.

Tip

EF Core also integrates with Microsoft.Extensions.Logging, which requires more configuration, but is often more suitable for logging in production applications.

Configuration

EF Core logs can be accessed from any type of application through the use of LogTo when configuring a DbContext instance. This configuration is commonly done in an override of DbContext.OnConfiguring. For example:

protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
    => optionsBuilder.LogTo(Console.WriteLine);

Alternately, LogTo can be called as part of AddDbContext or when creating a DbContextOptions instance to pass to the DbContext constructor.

Tip

OnConfiguring is still called when AddDbContext is used or a DbContextOptions instance is passed to the DbContext constructor. This makes it the ideal place to apply context configuration regardless of how the DbContext is constructed.

Directing the logs

Logging to the console

LogTo requires an Action<T> delegate that accepts a string. EF Core will call this delegate with a string for each log message generated. It is then up to the delegate to do something with the given message.

The Console.WriteLine method is often used for this delegate, as shown above. This results in each log message being written to the console.

Logging to the debug window

Debug.WriteLine can be used to send output to the Debug window in Visual Studio or other IDEs. Lambda syntax must be used in this case because the Debug class is compiled out of release builds. For example:

protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
    => optionsBuilder.LogTo(message => Debug.WriteLine(message));

Logging to a file

Writing to a file requires creating a StreamWriter or similar for the file. The WriteLine method can then be used as in the other examples above. Remember to ensure the file is closed cleanly by disposing the writer when the context is disposed. For example:

private readonly StreamWriter _logStream = new StreamWriter("mylog.txt", append: true);

protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
    => optionsBuilder.LogTo(_logStream.WriteLine);

public override void Dispose()
{
    base.Dispose();
    _logStream.Dispose();
}

public override async ValueTask DisposeAsync()
{
    await base.DisposeAsync();
    await _logStream.DisposeAsync();
}

Tip

Consider using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging for logging to files in production applications.

Getting detailed messages

Sensitive data

By default, EF Core will not include the values of any data in exception messages. This is because such data may be confidential, and could be revealed in production use if an exception is not handled.

However, knowing data values, especially for keys, can be very helpful when debugging. This can be enabled in EF Core by calling EnableSensitiveDataLogging(). For example:

protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
    => optionsBuilder
        .LogTo(Console.WriteLine)
        .EnableSensitiveDataLogging();

Detailed query exceptions

For performance reasons, EF Core does not wrap each call to read a value from the database provider in a try-catch block. However, this sometimes results in exceptions that are hard to diagnose, especially when the database returns a NULL when not allowed by the model.

Turning on EnableDetailedErrors will cause EF to introduce these try-catch blocks and thereby provide more detailed errors. For example:

protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
    => optionsBuilder
        .LogTo(Console.WriteLine)
        .EnableDetailedErrors();

Filtering

Log levels

Every EF Core log message is assigned to a level defined by the LogLevel enum. By default, EF Core simple logging includes every message at Debug level or above. LogTo can be passed a higher minimum level to filter out some messages. For example, passing Information results in a minimal set of logs limited to database access and some housekeeping messages.

protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
    => optionsBuilder.LogTo(Console.WriteLine, LogLevel.Information);

Specific messages

Every log message is assigned an EventId. These IDs can be accessed from the CoreEventId class or the RelationalEventId class for relational-specific messages. A database provider may also have provider-specific IDs in a similar class. For example, SqlServerEventId for the SQL Server provider.

LogTo can be configured to only log the messages associated with one or more event IDs. For example, to log only messages for the context being initialized or disposed:

protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
    => optionsBuilder
        .LogTo(Console.WriteLine, new[] { CoreEventId.ContextDisposed, CoreEventId.ContextInitialized });

Message categories

Every log message is assigned to a named hierarchical logger category. The categories are:

Category	Messages
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore	All EF Core messages
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Database	All database interactions
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Database.Connection	Uses of a database connection
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Database.Command	Uses of a database command
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Database.Transaction	Uses of a database transaction
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Update	Saving entities, excluding database interactions
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Model	All model and metadata interactions
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Model.Validation	Model validation
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query	Queries, excluding database interactions
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Infrastructure	General events, such as context creation
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Scaffolding	Database reverse engineering
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Migrations	Migrations
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.ChangeTracking	Change tracking interactions

LogTo can be configured to only log the messages from one or more categories. For example, to log only database interactions:

protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
    => optionsBuilder
        .LogTo(Console.WriteLine, new[] { DbLoggerCategory.Database.Name });

Notice that the DbLoggerCategory class provides a hierarchical API for finding a category and avoids the need to hard-code strings.

Since categories are hierarchical, this example using the Database category will include all messages for the subcategories Database.Connection, Database.Command, and Database.Transaction.

Custom filters

LogTo allows a custom filter to be used for cases where none of the filtering options above are sufficient. For example, to log any message at level Information or above, as well as messages for opening and closing a connection:

protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
    => optionsBuilder
        .LogTo(
            Console.WriteLine,
            (eventId, logLevel) => logLevel >= LogLevel.Information
                                   || eventId == RelationalEventId.ConnectionOpened
                                   || eventId == RelationalEventId.ConnectionClosed);

Tip

Filtering using custom filters or using any of the other options shown here is more efficient than filtering in the LogTo delegate. This is because if the filter determines the message should not be logged, then the log message is not even created.

Configuration for specific messages

The EF Core ConfigureWarnings API allows applications to change what happens when a specific event is encountered. This can be used to:

Change the log level at which the event is logged
Skip logging the event altogether
Throw an exception when the event occurs

Changing the log level for an event

The previous example used a custom filter to log every message at LogLevel.Information as well as two events defined for LogLevel.Debug. The same can be achieved by changing the log level of the two Debug events to Information:

protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
    => optionsBuilder
        .ConfigureWarnings(
            b => b.Log(
                (RelationalEventId.ConnectionOpened, LogLevel.Information),
                (RelationalEventId.ConnectionClosed, LogLevel.Information)))
        .LogTo(Console.WriteLine, LogLevel.Information);

Suppress logging an event

In a similar way, an individual event can be suppressed from logging. This is particularly useful for ignoring a warning that has been reviewed and understood. For example:

protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
    => optionsBuilder
        .ConfigureWarnings(b => b.Ignore(CoreEventId.DetachedLazyLoadingWarning))
        .LogTo(Console.WriteLine);

Throw for an event

Finally, EF Core can be configured to throw for a given event. This is particularly useful for changing a warning into an error. (Indeed, this was the original purpose of ConfigureWarnings method, hence the name.) For example:

protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
    => optionsBuilder
        .ConfigureWarnings(b => b.Throw(RelationalEventId.MultipleCollectionIncludeWarning))
        .LogTo(Console.WriteLine);

Message contents and formatting

The default content from LogTo is formatted across multiple lines. The first line contains message metadata:

The LogLevel as a four-character prefix
A local timestamp, formatted for the current culture
The EventId in the form that can be copy/pasted to get the member from CoreEventId or one of the other EventId classes, plus the raw ID value
The event category, as described above.

For example:

info: 10/6/2020 10:52:45.581 RelationalEventId.CommandExecuted[20101] (Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Database.Command)
      Executed DbCommand (0ms) [Parameters=[], CommandType='Text', CommandTimeout='30']
      CREATE TABLE "Blogs" (
          "Id" INTEGER NOT NULL CONSTRAINT "PK_Blogs" PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
          "Name" INTEGER NOT NULL
      );
dbug: 10/6/2020 10:52:45.582 RelationalEventId.TransactionCommitting[20210] (Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Database.Transaction)
      Committing transaction.
dbug: 10/6/2020 10:52:45.585 RelationalEventId.TransactionCommitted[20202] (Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Database.Transaction)
      Committed transaction.

This content can be customized by passing values from DbContextLoggerOptions, as shown in the following sections.

Tip

Consider using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging for more control over log formatting.

Using UTC time

By default, timestamps are designed for local consumption while debugging. Use DbContextLoggerOptions.DefaultWithUtcTime to use culture-agnostic UTC timestamps instead, but keep everything else the same. For example:

protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
    => optionsBuilder.LogTo(
        Console.WriteLine,
        LogLevel.Debug,
        DbContextLoggerOptions.DefaultWithUtcTime);

This example results in the following log formatting:

info: 2020-10-06T17:55:39.0333701Z RelationalEventId.CommandExecuted[20101] (Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Database.Command)
      Executed DbCommand (0ms) [Parameters=[], CommandType='Text', CommandTimeout='30']
      CREATE TABLE "Blogs" (
          "Id" INTEGER NOT NULL CONSTRAINT "PK_Blogs" PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
          "Name" INTEGER NOT NULL
      );
dbug: 2020-10-06T17:55:39.0333892Z RelationalEventId.TransactionCommitting[20210] (Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Database.Transaction)
      Committing transaction.
dbug: 2020-10-06T17:55:39.0351684Z RelationalEventId.TransactionCommitted[20202] (Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Database.Transaction)
      Committed transaction.

Single line logging

Sometimes it is useful to get exactly one line per log message. This can be enabled by DbContextLoggerOptions.SingleLine. For example:

protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
    => optionsBuilder.LogTo(
        Console.WriteLine,
        LogLevel.Debug,
        DbContextLoggerOptions.DefaultWithLocalTime | DbContextLoggerOptions.SingleLine);