Windows like services development in LINUX using MONO?

Question

I just moved from .net development to LINUX MONO development... and i don have much experience with linux dev earlier..

1. I have a requirement to create a background service (like windows services) in mono c#.. is it possible..

2. And is it possible to access the LINUX native APIs from mono c#. (like winAPI calls from win c#)..

Answer 1

I use scripts, so I can capture the exit code and use it to perform automated updates and things. It also restarts itself if it crashes, and e-mails you when it restarts with the last x lines of the log file.

/etc/init.d/MyMonoApp

#!/bin/sh #/etc/init.d/MyMonoApp #  APP_NAME="MyMonoApp" APP_PATH="/home/mono/MyMonoApp"  APP_USER=mono  case "$1" in   start)           echo "Starting $APP_NAME"          start-stop-daemon --start \                           --background \                           --make-pidfile \                           --pidfile /var/run/$APP_NAME.pid \                           --chuid $APP_USER \                           --exec "$APP_PATH/$APP_NAME"     ;;   stop)          echo "Stopping $APP_NAME"                 start-stop-daemon -o  --stop \                 --pidfile /var/run/$APP_NAME.pid      ;;   *)     echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/$APP_NAME {start|stop}"     exit 1     ;; esac  exit 0 

/home/mono/MyMonoApp

#!/bin/sh #!/home/mono/MyMonoApp  APP_NAME=`basename $0` APP_DIR=`dirname $0` HOSTNAME=`hostname`  cd $APP_DIR  tail --lines=300 output.log  | mail -s "MyMonoApp $HOSTNAME:$APP_NAME STARTED" "[email protected]"  exitcode=0 until [ $exitcode -eq 9 ] do         startdate="$(date +%s)"         /usr/local/bin/mono MyMonoApp.exe $HOSTNAME:$APP_NAME > output.log         exitcode=$?         enddate="$(date +%s)"          echo "EXIT CODE = $exitcode" >> output.log          cp -f output.log output.log.1         elapsed_seconds="$(expr $enddate - $startdate)"         echo "Elapsed seconds $elapsed_seconds"           subject="EXIT CODE: $exitcode"         echo "BASH: Exit Code = $exitcode"          if [ $exitcode -eq 6 ] #Restart         then           subject="RESTART"         elif [ $exitcode -eq 7 ] #Previous version         then           subject="PREVIOUS VERSION"           cp -fv MyMonoApp.exe_previous MyMonoApp.exe         elif [ $exitcode -eq 8 ] #Update         then           subject="SOFTWARE UPDATE"           cp -fv MyMonoApp.exe MyMonoApp.exe_previous           mv -fv MyMonoApp.exe_new MyMonoApp.exe         elif [ $exitcode -eq 9 ] #Shutdown         then           subject="SHUTDOWN"         fi           if [ $elapsed_seconds -ge 10 ]  #been running for longer than 10 seconds         then                 tail --lines=300 output.log  | mail -s "MyMonoApp $HOSTNAME:$APP_NAME $subject" "[email protected]"                 sleep 1  # tiny delay to let things settle         else                 sleep 5  # delay to protect against eating the CPU resourses         fi   done 

Note: if you close the app using the init.d script, it will kill the process, rather than signal it to cleanly close.