Best way to read in a sliding log file in .NET?

Question

I need to read in a sliding log file in .NET 3.5sp1. I am wondering what is the best way to do this? A file can get really big. The idea I had was

• Open file
• Read the file for the last line of reading (in the first case it was 0)
• Read all remaining lines
• Close the stream and remember the last line number.
• Wait a bit.
• Rinse / repeat.

I'm not sure if this is the best way, albeit memory efficient, given that the file can be quite huge. And I can not lock the log file :(

Thoughts?

Answer 1

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Answer 2

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Answer 3

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    Object mLogLock = new Object(); //to make logging thread safe
    string mLogFile = ""; //set your log location
    string mLogDirectory = "";
    public void HandleMessage(string inMessage)
    {

        lock (mLogLock)
        {
            if (!System.IO.Directory.Exists(mLogDirectory ))
            {
                System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(mLogDirectory );
            }

            String theMessage = DateTime.Now.ToString("s");
            if (inMessage != null)
                theMessage += " : " + inMessage;

            StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(mLogFile, true);

            sw.WriteLine(theMessage );

            sw.Dispose();
            sw.Close();
        }
    }

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