Worker Service looking for appsettings.json in System32 folder instead of local folder

Question

I have a .Net core worker service, which I am running as a windows service. The service is using appsettings.json file for the config information. After installing the service using SC CREATE command, the service was failing.

In the event viewer I found the error it cannot find the file C:\Windows\System32\appsettings.json. My service files are placed in a different folder c:\Services\, instead of looking at that location, the service is looking for a the file in System32 folder.

The configuration registration is as below.

 var configBuilder = new ConfigurationBuilder()
                   .SetBasePath(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())
                   .AddJsonFile("appsettings.json");
var configuration = configBuilder.Build();
            services.AddSingleton(configuration);

How can I make the service to look at the local folder?

Answer 1

That's because the current directory is changed to C:\Windows\System32 at runtime. You could get a relative path by Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly(). For example:

var configBuilder = new ConfigurationBuilder()
    .SetBasePath( Path.GetDirectoryName( Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location))
    .AddJsonFile("appsettings.json");
var configuration = configBuilder.Build();

Answer 2

I´ve successfully used the docs in Host ASP.NET Core in a Windows Service

In a nutshell, you should just add .UseWindowsService() in your configuration builder step, like in the following:

Host.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
    .UseWindowsService()
    .ConfigureAppConfiguration((hostContext, configuration) => 
        {
            //...set your configurations here
        })
        .ConfigureServices((hostContext, services) =>
        {
            //...configure you services here
        }