#region Apache License
//
// Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
// contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
// this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
// The ASF licenses this file to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0
// (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
// the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
//
// http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
//
// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
// limitations under the License.
//
#endregion

using System;

namespace log4net.Appender
{
	/// <summary>
	/// Interface that can be implemented by Appenders that buffer logging data and expose a <see cref="Flush"/> method.
	/// </summary>
	public interface IFlushable
	{
		/// <summary>
		/// Flushes any buffered log data.
		/// </summary>
		/// <remarks>
		/// Appenders that implement the <see cref="Flush"/> method must do so in a thread-safe manner: it can be called concurrently with
		/// the <see cref="log4net.Appender.IAppender.DoAppend"/> method.
		/// <para>
		/// Typically this is done by locking on the Appender instance, e.g.:
		/// <code>
		/// <![CDATA[
		/// public bool Flush(int millisecondsTimeout)
		/// {
		///     lock(this)
		///     {
		///         // Flush buffered logging data
		///         ...
		///     }
		/// }
		/// ]]>
		/// </code>
		/// </para>
		/// <para>
		/// The <paramref name="millisecondsTimeout"/> parameter is only relevant for appenders that process logging events asynchronously,
		/// such as <see cref="RemotingAppender"/>.
		/// </para>
		/// </remarks>
		/// <param name="millisecondsTimeout">The maximum time to wait for logging events to be flushed.</param>
		/// <returns><c>True</c> if all logging events were flushed successfully, else <c>false</c>.</returns>
		bool Flush(int millisecondsTimeout);
	}
}