Question: appsettings.json and appsettings.environment.json for ASP.NET Core

ASP.NET Core appsettings.json files can be used additively for different environments, e.g.:

.AddJsonFile("appsettings.json", optional:false)
.AddJsonFile("appsettings.Development.json", optional:true)

The latter adds to the former.

Let’s say I always want file sink, but console sink only in development. So I add file sink to appsettings.json and console sink to appsettings.Development.json.

But in development, the result is that file sink is ignored. If I want it then I must add it to both files, which is a bad idea as copy-paste mistakes will happen one day.

Am I doing this correctly?

[skomis-mm]

@lonix1 json array syntax is a syntatic sugar here.

"WriteTo": [
  { "Name": "File", "Args": { "path": "log.txt" } }
]

is equal to:

`"WriteTo:0":  {
   "Name": "File", "Args": { "path": "log.txt" } 
}

where 0 is element index in the array. Microsoft.Extension.Configuration is build around key-value dictionary so each configuration key must have unique path. So in your case you overwrite the first element in the appsettings.Development.json. Workaround will be any other name (not 0):

"WriteTo:1": {
   "Name": "Console" 
}

"WriteTo:MyConsole": {
   "Name": "Console" 
}

"WriteTo:Whatever": {
   "Name": "Console" 
}

[lonix1]

Problem is it now gives System.InvalidOperationException: The configuration value in Serilog:WriteTo:0:Name has no 'Name' element.

However when I remove the array then it works. Since I’m only using one sink in that configuration, it’s good enough for me. Thanks.