CODEWITHSUNDEEP
windowsprocess
user4520
user4520

Reputation: 3457

Start and monitor multiple instances of one process in Windows

I have a Windows application of which I need multiple instances running, with different command line parameters. The application is quite unstable and tends to crash every 48 hours or so.

Since manual checking for failure and restarting in case of one isn't what I love to do I want to write a "manager program" for this. It would launch the program (all its instances) and then watch them. In case a process crashes it would be restarted.

In Linux I could achieve this with fork()s and pids, but this obviously is not available in Windows. So, should I try to implement a CreateProcess version or is there a better way?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 876

Answers (2)

MC ND
MC ND

Reputation: 70943

If it can be run as a daemon, the simplest way to ensure it keep running is Non-Sucking Service Manager.

It will allow to run as win32 service applications not designed as services. It will monitor and restart if necessary. And the source code is included, if any customization is needed.

All you need to do is define each of your instances as a service, with the required parameters, at it will do the rest.

If you have some kind of security police limitation and can't use third party tools, then coding will be necessary. The answer from David Heffernan gives you the appropiate direction.

Or it can be done in batch, vbs or js without need of anything out of the system. WMI Win32_Process class should allow you to handle it.

Upvotes: 1

David Heffernan
David Heffernan

Reputation: 613352

When you call CreateProcess, you are returned a handle to the new process in the hProcess member of the process information struct that you pass to CreateProcess. You can use this handle to detect when the process terminates.

For instance, you can create another thread and call WaitForSingleObject(hProcess) and block until the process terminates. Then you can decide whether or not to restart it.

Or your could call GetExitCodeProcess(hProcess, &exitcode) and test exitcode. If it has the value STILL_ACTIVE then your process has not terminated. This approach based on GetExitCodeProcess necessitates polling.

Upvotes: 1

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