Easier way to debug a Windows service

Question

If I want to quickly debug the service, I just drop in a Debugger.Break() in there. When that line is reached, it will drop me back to VS. Don't forget to remove that line when you are done.

UPDATE: As an alternative to #if DEBUG pragmas, you can also use Conditional("DEBUG_SERVICE") attribute.

[Conditional("DEBUG_SERVICE")]
private static void DebugMode()
{
    Debugger.Break();
}

On your OnStart, just call this method:

public override void OnStart()
{
     DebugMode();
     /* ... do the rest */
}

There, the code will only be enabled during Debug builds. While you're at it, it might be useful to create a separate Build Configuration for service debugging.

I also think having a separate "version" for normal execution and as a service is the way to go, but is it really required to dedicate a separate command line switch for that purpose?

Couldn't you just do:

public static int Main(string[] args)
{
  if (!Environment.UserInteractive)
  {
    // Startup as service.
  }
  else
  {
    // Startup as application
  }
}

That would have the "benefit", that you can just start your app via doubleclick (OK, if you really need that) and that you can just hit F5 in Visual Studio (without the need to modify the project settings to include that /console Option).

Technically, the Environment.UserInteractive checks if the WSF_VISIBLE Flag is set for the current window station, but is there any other reason where it would return false, apart from being run as a (non-interactive) service?

When I set up a new service project a few weeks ago I found this post. While there are many great suggestions, I still didn't find the solution I wanted: The possibility to call the service classes' OnStart and OnStop methods without any modification to the service classes.

The solution I came up with uses the Environment.Interactive the select running mode, as suggested by other answers to this post.

static void Main()
{
    ServiceBase[] servicesToRun;
    servicesToRun = new ServiceBase[] 
    {
        new MyService()
    };
    if (Environment.UserInteractive)
    {
        RunInteractive(servicesToRun);
    }
    else
    {
        ServiceBase.Run(servicesToRun);
    }
}

The RunInteractive helper uses reflection to call the protected OnStart and OnStop methods:

static void RunInteractive(ServiceBase[] servicesToRun)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Services running in interactive mode.");
    Console.WriteLine();

    MethodInfo onStartMethod = typeof(ServiceBase).GetMethod("OnStart", 
        BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
    foreach (ServiceBase service in servicesToRun)
    {
        Console.Write("Starting {0}...", service.ServiceName);
        onStartMethod.Invoke(service, new object[] { new string[] { } });
        Console.Write("Started");
    }

    Console.WriteLine();
    Console.WriteLine();
    Console.WriteLine(
        "Press any key to stop the services and end the process...");
    Console.ReadKey();
    Console.WriteLine();

    MethodInfo onStopMethod = typeof(ServiceBase).GetMethod("OnStop", 
        BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
    foreach (ServiceBase service in servicesToRun)
    {
        Console.Write("Stopping {0}...", service.ServiceName);
        onStopMethod.Invoke(service, null);
        Console.WriteLine("Stopped");
    }

    Console.WriteLine("All services stopped.");
    // Keep the console alive for a second to allow the user to see the message.
    Thread.Sleep(1000);
}

This is all the code required, but I also wrote walkthrough with explanations.

Sometimes it is important to analyze what's going on during the start up of the service. Attaching to the process does not help here, because you are not quick enough to attach the debugger while the service is starting up.

The short answer is, I am using the following 4 lines of code to do this:

#if DEBUG
    base.RequestAdditionalTime(600000); // 600*1000ms = 10 minutes timeout
    Debugger.Launch(); // launch and attach debugger
#endif

These are inserted into the OnStart method of the service as follows:

protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
{
    #if DEBUG
       base.RequestAdditionalTime(600000); // 10 minutes timeout for startup
       Debugger.Launch(); // launch and attach debugger
    #endif
    MyInitOnstart(); // my individual initialization code for the service
    // allow the base class to perform any work it needs to do
    base.OnStart(args);
}

For those who haven't done it before, I have included detailed hints below, because you can easily get stuck. The following hints refer to Windows 7x64 and Visual Studio 2010 Team Edition, but should be valid for other environments, too.

---

Important: Deploy the service in "manual" mode (using either the InstallUtil utility from the VS command prompt or run a service installer project you have prepared). Open Visual Studio before you start the service and load the solution containing the service's source code - set up additional breakpoints as you require them in Visual Studio - then start the service via the Service Control Panel.

Because of the Debugger.Launch code, this will cause a dialog "An unhandled Microsoft .NET Framework exception occured in Servicename.exe." to appear. Click Yes, debug Servicename.exe as shown in the screenshot:

Afterwards, escpecially in Windows 7 UAC might prompt you to enter admin credentials. Enter them and proceed with Yes:

After that, the well known Visual Studio Just-In-Time Debugger window appears. It asks you if you want to debug using the delected debugger. Before you click Yes, select that you don't want to open a new instance (2nd option) - a new instance would not be helpful here, because the source code wouldn't be displayed. So you select the Visual Studio instance you've opened earlier instead:

After you have clicked Yes, after a while Visual Studio will show the yellow arrow right in the line where the Debugger.Launch statement is and you are able to debug your code (method MyInitOnStart, which contains your initialization).

Pressing F5 continues execution immediately, until the next breakpoint you have prepared is reached.

Hint: To keep the service running, select Debug -> Detach all. This allows you to run a client communicating with the service after it started up correctly and you're finished debugging the startup code. If you press Shift+F5 (stop debugging), this will terminate the service. Instead of doing this, you should use the Service Control Panel to stop it.

Note that

• If you build a Release, then the debug code is automatically removed and the service runs normally.

• I am using Debugger.Launch(), which starts and attaches a debugger. I have tested Debugger.Break() as well, which did not work, because there is no debugger attached on start up of the service yet (causing the "Error 1067: The process terminated unexpectedly.").

• RequestAdditionalTime sets a longer timeout for the startup of the service (it is not delaying the code itself, but will immediately continue with the Debugger.Launch statement). Otherwise the default timeout for starting the service is too short and starting the service fails if you don't call base.Onstart(args) quickly enough from the debugger. Practically, a timeout of 10 minutes avoids that you see the message "the service did not respond..." immediately after the debugger is started.

• Once you get used to it, this method is very easy because it just requires you to add 4 lines to an existing service code, allowing you quickly to gain control and debug.

What I usually do is encapsulate the logic of the service in a separate class and start that from a 'runner' class. This runner class can be the actual service or just a console application. So your solution has (atleast) 3 projects:

/ConsoleRunner
   /....
/ServiceRunner
   /....
/ApplicationLogic
   /....

This YouTube video by Fabio Scopel explains how to debug a Windows service quite nicely... the actual method of doing it starts at 4:45 in the video...

Here is the code explained in the video... in your Program.cs file, add the stuff for the Debug section...

namespace YourNamespace
{
    static class Program
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// The main entry point for the application.
        /// </summary>
        static void Main()
        {
#if DEBUG
            Service1 myService = new Service1();
            myService.OnDebug();
            System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(System.Threading.Timeout.Infinite);
#else
            ServiceBase[] ServicesToRun;
            ServicesToRun = new ServiceBase[]
            {
                new Service1()
            };
            ServiceBase.Run(ServicesToRun);
#endif

        }
    }
}

In your Service1.cs file, add the OnDebug() method...

    public Service1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }

    public void OnDebug()
    {
        OnStart(null);
    }

    protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
    {
        // your code to do something
    }

    protected override void OnStop()
    {
    }

How it works

Basically you have to create a public void OnDebug() that calls the OnStart(string[] args) as it's protected and not accessible outside. The void Main() program is added with #if preprocessor with #DEBUG.

Visual Studio defines DEBUG if project is compiled in Debug mode.This will allow the debug section(below) to execute when the condition is true

Service1 myService = new Service1();
myService.OnDebug();
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(System.Threading.Timeout.Infinite);

And it will run just like a console application, once things go OK you can change the mode Release and the regular else section will trigger the logic