Debugging a service

[Juliemac57]

I wrote a service to start a time and check for a serial port. It was installed via InstallUtil and can be seen, started and stopped in services.
Once started, I turn to the IDE with the code and under Debug, attach the service. This puts the IDE in debug mode.

Unfortunately, the first lines of code (as follows) never seems to be triggered.

    Protected Sub OnStart(ByVal args() As String)
        Timer1.Enabled = True
        'Findport()
    End Sub

I put break points in the code, on the timer and the sub triggered by the timer, but none ever seem to be triggered.

Any ideas guys? What am I missing?

[techgnome]

It doesn't stop on those lines because bgy the time you attach to the process, that's already been executed... as to why the code in the timer, or called by the time doesn't stop... don't know. A little surprised to see the use of a Timer there to be honest, because that's usually a componednt that needs to be situated on a Form... so there may actually be something funky in your setup.


-g

[Juliemac57]

Humm. Ok. I can pull the timer, but I need a way to re-run a test of the ports every few seconds.
Any ideas of what could be done to do this?

[techgnome]

Look at this article - bit old, but the timers discussed there are still valid as far as I know ... https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/ar...-class-library
You'll probably want either System.Timers.Timer or System.Threading.Timer

-tg

[Juliemac57]

Ok, I changed out the form-based timer for a system based timer.

Private WithEvents Timer1 As New System.Timers.Timer() With {.Interval = 1000}

    Protected Sub OnStart(ByVal args() As String)
        Timer1.Start()
        Timer1.Enabled = True
        'Findport()
    End Sub

    Private Sub Timer1_Tick(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
        ReceiveSerialData()
    End Sub

Does this look better? Its still noy triggering or just not beinging displayed as such.

[kareninstructor]

Use System.Threading.Timer rather than a standard Timer.

For setting up to debug, in the following, Debugger.Launch will prompt to debug. This line ScheduleService (non-existing code) would be where you setup the timer and when the timer is triggered do work and reset the timer.

		Protected Overrides Sub OnStart(ByVal args() As String)

#If DEBUG Then
			Debugger.Launch()
#End If
			RequestAdditionalTime(10000)

			ScheduleService()

		End Sub

See also https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/ar...ndows-services