Table of Contents

Diagnostics Logging

Dock includes a lightweight diagnostics logger in Dock.Settings.DockLogger. It is disabled by default and writes messages only when diagnostics logging is enabled.

Enable logging

Enable diagnostics logging globally:

using Dock.Settings;

DockSettings.EnableDiagnosticsLogging = true;

Capture log output

By default, Dock writes to Debug.WriteLine. You can intercept messages by setting DockSettings.DiagnosticsLogHandler:

DockSettings.DiagnosticsLogHandler = message => Console.WriteLine(message);

This handler is invoked for every diagnostics message while logging is enabled.

Logging from custom code

Use DockLogger to emit messages that follow Dock's formatting:

using Dock.Settings;

DockLogger.Log("Layout", "Layout initialized");
DockLogger.LogDebug("Docking", "Validated dock operation");

Both Log and LogDebug respect DockSettings.EnableDiagnosticsLogging. If logging is disabled, they do nothing.

  • Enable logging temporarily while diagnosing docking behavior.
  • Provide a handler in debug builds to route messages to your preferred sink.
  • Leave logging disabled in production unless you need detailed diagnostics.

For related settings see Dock settings.

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