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c# Windows Service starts and then stops

The code below builds without any errors and ran fine as console application. However now that I've made it into a WindowsService and used the C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\InstallUtil to successfully install it. It stops as soon as I start it up. I feel like I'm missing something simple that I'm going to forever hit myself over the head once another set of eyes looks at it.
Please forgive the mess you are about see. I will clean it up after its working properly. Thanks in advance for any help that can be provided.
Service1.cs
namespace LGCDialHome
{
public partial class Service1 : ServiceBase
{
private System.Timers.Timer _timer = null;
public Service1()
{
InitializeComponent();
System.Timers.Timer stateTimer = new System.Timers.Timer(60000);
}
protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
{
try
{
EventLog.WriteEntry("Dial Home service started : " + DateTime.Now);
_timer = new System.Timers.Timer();
_timer.Interval = 10000; //in milliseconds
EventLog.WriteEntry("Timer Interval is : " + _timer.Interval);
_timer.Elapsed += timer_Elapsed;
_timer.Start();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
EventLog.WriteEntry("Dial Home service error : " + ex);
}
}
protected override void OnStop()
{
EventLog.WriteEntry("Dial Home service Stopped : " + DateTime.Now);
}
protected void timer_Elapsed(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
int invokeCount = 0;
int maxCount = 10;
string host = Environment.MachineName;
string user = System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Name;
string uname = Environment.UserName;
try
{
_timer.Stop();
Console.WriteLine("{0} Checking status {1,2}.",
DateTime.Now.ToString("h:mm:ss.fff"),(++invokeCount).ToString());
Console.WriteLine("Host -> {0} \r\nNTID -> {1}", host, user);
if (invokeCount == maxCount)
{
invokeCount = 0;
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
EventLog.WriteEntry("Dial Home service error : " + ex);
}
finally
{
_timer.Start();
}
}
}
}

Well, you will need to debug your code, but attaching to Windows Services is a little different than debugging other types of projects.
Try the following:
1- At the very beginning of your OnStart() method, add the following line:
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(10000);
2- Set a breakpoint on the next line immediately after the line above. Build and reinstall your service using InstallUtil.
3- Start your service.
4- In Visual Studio, click Debug -> Attach to Process.
5- Find your service in the Available Processes list and attach to it. This will cause the breakpoint to be hit, and will let you debug your code to see if there's any exception thrown (by looking at your code, I feel like the problem might be security related. The user that the service is running as might not have access to the EventLog or something).
Note: After starting your service, you have 10 seconds to perform steps 4 and 5. If you think you need more time, change the sleep value to something like 20000(20 seconds).

C# Application does not crash in VS BUT CRASH on system running

I'm developing a simple test tool to verify how many HASH(SHA1) the customer server can elaborate in 1 second.
The attached sample use muti-threading to start and stop a timer that counts executed HASH.
The HASHes are sequential.
The application works well in Visual Studio, but if I run it outside the VS environment it crashes.
The problem is on increment() function in "using" section. If I comment it, everything works well!
static void increment()
{
try
{
using (SHA1 sha = new SHA1CryptoServiceProvider())
{
byte[] result;
byte[] data = new byte[20];
new Random().NextBytes(data);
result = sha.ComputeHash(data);
}
Interlocked.Increment(ref safeInstanceCount);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
}
}
The code used to start and stop the time is the following:
bool stop;
static void Main()
{
try {
TimerQueueTimer qt;
qt = new TimerQueueTimer();
TimerQueueTimer.WaitOrTimerDelegate CallbackDelete = new TimerQueueTimer.WaitOrTimerDelegate(QueueTimerCallback);
uint dueTime = uint.Parse(textBox1.Text); // string "60000" = 1 min
uint period = 0;
qt.Create(dueTime, period, CallbackDelete);
while (!stop)
{
// Thread thread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(increment));
// thread.IsBackground = true;
// thread.Start();
increment();
}
stop = false;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
}
}
private void QueueTimerCallback(IntPtr pWhat, bool success)
{
try
{
stop = true;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
}
}
How can I understand where is the error?
=
The application crashes without any exception.
I try to catch it, without success, it happened after 60 sec. (Maybe QueueTimerCallback is called?)
The application does not generate any error trace and it DOES not crash running under Visual Studio!
When it crashes it does not generate any stack trace, just a pop-up crash window giving in detail the "StackHash_xxxxx" error
Nothing to do! I've try to use Console.Read (it's a Windows app not console) but I cannot see anything. Here is the error shown! https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/iHsBhRSy-DNTYVo4CpoeA9MTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

Your program is likely throwing an exception, and it's getting written to the console, but you don't have anything from stopping the console from closing immediately after the message is written.
Add a Console.ReadKey(); after your try/catch block.

Windows service starts and then stops, can't figure out the bug [closed]

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This question does not appear to be about programming within the scope defined in the help center.
Closed 9 years ago.
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I am trying to read a file at constant intervals and then send the data queried to a specific webserver. The following is the code I am using, but the service starts and stops without doing any thing. I can't Figure out the bug.
public partial class IPTProjectService : ServiceBase
{
private Thread checkingThread;
private System.Timers.Timer timer;
Boolean sendingTime;
public IPTProjectService()
{
InitializeComponent();
checkingThread = new Thread(update);
timer = new System.Timers.Timer(Properties.Settings.Default.TIMEINTERVAL);
timer.Elapsed += timer_Elapsed;
sendingTime = true;
}
void timer_Elapsed(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
setSendingTime();
if (!File.Exists("Testfile.txt"))
{
File.Create("Testfile.txt");
timer_Elapsed(sender, e);
}
else
{
File.WriteAllText("Testfile.txt", timer.ToString());
}
}
private void setSendingTime()
{
sendingTime = true;
}
private void update()
{
while (true)
{
if (sendingTime)
{
CarpoolWebClient.sendData(Properties.Settings.Default.DATAFILE);
sendingTime = false;
}
}
}
protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
{
try
{
timer.Start();
checkingThread.Start();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Debug.Fail(ex.ToString());
}
}
protected override void OnStop()
{
try
{
timer.Stop();
checkingThread.Abort();
}
catch(Exception e)
{
StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter("testfile.txt", true);
writer.Write(e.ToString());
writer.Close();
}
}
}
class CarpoolWebClient
{
public static void sendData(String fileName)
{
WebRequest req = null;
WebResponse rsp = null;
try
{
//URL of message broker
string uri = "http://localhost/IPTProject/receive_xml.php";
req = WebRequest.Create(uri);
req.Method = "POST";
req.ContentType = "text/xml";
// Wrap the request stream with a text-based writer
StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(req.GetRequestStream());
// Write the xml text into the stream
writer.WriteLine(GetTextFromXMLFile(#fileName));
writer.Close();
rsp = req.GetResponse();
}
catch (WebException webEx)
{
//MessageBox.Show(webEx.Message);
throw webEx;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
//MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
throw ex;
}
finally
{
if (req != null) req.GetRequestStream().Close();
if (rsp != null) rsp.GetResponseStream().Close();
}
}
private static string GetTextFromXMLFile(string file)
{
StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(file);
string ret = reader.ReadToEnd();
reader.Close();
return ret;
}
}

If you can, debug the service. If it's a problem because the service is set to automatically start then you can use this "trick" to automatically attach the debugger and figure out what is going wrong that way.

The call to
File.Create("Testfile.txt");
timer_Elapsed(sender, e);
will create a file and return a FileStream to the newly created file. This file is subsequently still open then timer_Elapsed is called and will cause the application to fail as it cannot open the file a second time. See the MSDN Docs on the subject.
The Create call is not required for your code, you can simplyfying the method to the example below, and it should resolve this issue. Alternatively, close the FileStream object.
void timer_Elapsed(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
setSendingTime();
File.WriteAllText("Testfile.txt", timer.ToString());
}
File.WriteAllText will create the file is it does not exist, and overwrite the file if it does exist, effectively doing the same thing as your check.
If this does not resolve the issue, check the event log for errors, or alternatively provided error handling code in your timer_Elapsed and update methods that log the error message.

As I was requesting the webserver on my own computer i.e. localhost, I didn't noticed that wampserver was not running. I checked the event log which showed me the WebException. Starting the wampserver code works fine. Thank you every one.

Yes, I encountered similar issues a lot of times...
Log all uncaught exceptions:
// Somewhere at the start of the constructor:
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.UnhandledException += new UnhandledExceptionEventHandler(CurrentDomain_UnhandledException);
[...]
void CurrentDomain_UnhandledException(object sender, UnhandledExceptionEventArgs e)
{
// Log exeption e.ExceptionObject.ToString to a file
}
Also, I would use a try-catch + log in the update method to make sure that if the thread exits for any unknown reason, you find out the reason.
If these things don't work, it's usually something stupid like a missing DLL, the incorrect version of a DLL (64/32-bit mix), or something like that. This can be found in the event log.
That should do it :-)

If you are running this on a machine that has Visual Studio installed (e.g., your dev machine), add a call to
System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Launch();
in your startup or wherever appropriate. This will launch the Visual Studio debugger, so you don't have to fight with timing issues (Service stopping before you can manually attach the debugger)

stop windows service in onStart() method

I want to stop windows service in onStart() method when customer doesn't have a license. I use service.Stop(), but it does not work.
protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
{
try
{
_bridgeServiceEventLog.WriteEntry("new OnStart");
if (LicenseValidetor.ValidCountAndTypeDevices())
{
WsInitializeBridge();
}
else
{
service = new ServiceController("BridgeService");
service.Stop();
_bridgeServiceEventLog.WriteEntry("LicenseValidetor Error");
}
_bridgeServiceEventLog.WriteEntry("end Start");
}
catch (Exception e)
{
_bridgeServiceEventLog.WriteEntry("error In onstart method ");
}
}

You cannot stop a service from within the OnStart method of that same service.
The ServiceController.Stop method internally calls ControlService (or it's Ex counterpart). Notice that one of the reasons that this function can fail is:
ERROR_SERVICE_CANNOT_ACCEPT_CTRL
The requested control code cannot be sent to the service because the state of the service is SERVICE_STOPPED, SERVICE_START_PENDING, or SERVICE_STOP_PENDING.
Well, guess what - when you're inside your OnStart method, the state of your service is SERVICE_START_PENDING.
The correct way to cope with this situation is to signal any other threads that you may have started to have them exit, and then to exit your OnStart method. The service control manager will notice that the process has exited and revert your service status to SERVICE_STOPPED. It may also notify an interactive user that "The service started and then stopped" or words to that effect.

I want to add that "simply not starting any workers" may not work (or perhaps I am being just plain stupid ;) ).
I built a service, with a try/catch(all) around my OnStart code. Because of a missing line in my .config file it crashed with an IOException, before it started any worker thread. The exception skipped over my thread starters. No thread was started by my code. Honestly.
But the service DID NOT STOP. I don't know why. As a desperate measure, I rethrew the exception, that helped.
I am still wondering if the file system watcher threads in Enterprise Library configuration were the problem. EntLib is woven to deeply into my code to remove it as an experiment, so I did not investigate further.

The accepted answer explains why what you are doing doesn't work but doesn't offer a good solution.
There are a couple of things your code isn't doing that it should.
Set the .ExitCode to indicate that your service is in an error state.
Throw an exception. Not having a license is exceptional. Throw it.
EXAMPLE:
protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
{
_bridgeServiceEventLog.WriteEntry("new OnStart");
try
{
if (LicenseValidetor.ValidCountAndTypeDevices())
{
WsInitializeBridge();
}
else
{
throw new ApplicationException("LicenseValidetor Error");
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
this.ExitCode = e.HResult
_bridgeServiceEventLog.WriteEntry($"error In onstart method: {e.Message}");
throw
}
_bridgeServiceEventLog.WriteEntry("end Start");
}

I have noticed that your not waiting to ensure that the Service has actually stopped or if it is even running in the first instance.
Do this :-
protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
{
try
{
_bridgeServiceEventLog.WriteEntry("new OnStart");
if (LicenseValidetor.ValidCountAndTypeDevices())
{
WsInitializeBridge();
}
else
{
int time = 10000;
TimeSpan timeout = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(time);
service.Stop();
service.WaitForStatus(ServiceControllerStatus.Stopped, timeout);
_bridgeServiceEventLog.WriteEntry("LicenseValidetor Error");
}
_bridgeServiceEventLog.WriteEntry("end Start");
}
catch (Exception e)
{
_bridgeServiceEventLog.WriteEntry("error In onstart method ");
}
}

Process is terminated due to StackOverflowException

This is difficult situation to explain. Have a service process that starts 2 threads, each thread loops forever but sleeps for 5 minutes each once the payload is finished.
Problem is that my second thread terminates well before the payload is even finished, for no apparent reason, and i also can't catch the exception as it seems to be triggered from outside the delegate process?
Any suggestions on how to find the problem?
The code....
public void StartService()
{
ThreadStart stRecieve = new ThreadStart(DownloadNewMail);
ThreadStart stSend = new ThreadStart(SendNewMail);
senderThread = new Thread(stRecieve);
recieverThread = new Thread(stSend);
sendStarted = true;
recieveStarted = true;
senderThread.Start();
recieverThread.Start();
}
private void DownloadNewMail()
{
while(recieveStarted)
{
//Payload....
if (recieveStarted)
{
Thread.Sleep(new TimeSpan(0, confSettings.PollInterval, 0));
}
}
}
private void SendNewMail()
{
while(sendStarted)
{
//Payload....
if (sendStarted)
{
Thread.Sleep(new TimeSpan(0, confSettings.PollInterval, 0));
}
}
}

Try to check callstack lenght in your code:
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
try
{
Hop();
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine("Exception - {0}", e);
}
}
static void Hop()
{
CheckStackTrace();
Hip();
}
static void Hip()
{
CheckStackTrace();
Hop();
}
static void CheckStackTrace()
{
StackTrace s = new StackTrace();
if (s.FrameCount > 50)
throw new Exception("Big stack!!!!");
}
}

If you are having trouble following the flow of your application's code execution, try logging the entrance of methods with a timestamp and threadid.
Also, You can't catch the exception because it is a StackOverflowException.
See msdn: "Starting with the .NET Framework version 2.0, a StackOverflowException object cannot be caught by a try-catch block and the corresponding process is terminated by default. Consequently, users are advised to write their code to detect and prevent a stack overflow. For example, if your application depends on recursion, use a counter or a state condition to terminate the recursive loop. "

Do you utlize any heavy-weight library for tasks like DownloadNewMail and SendNewMail? For example I encountered StackOverflows when running large jobs using Microsoft.SqlServer.Dts.Runtime.Package. Try running the same workload sequentially inside a command-line application to see if the issue persists.