How can a Windows Service determine its ServiceName?

Question

I've looked and couldn't find what should be a simple question:

How can a Windows Service determine the ServiceName for which it was started?

I know the installation can hack at the registry and add a command line argument, but logically that seems like it should be unnecessary, hence this question.

I'm hoping to run multiple copies of a single binary more cleanly than the registry hack.

Edit:

This is written in C#. My apps Main() entry point does different things, depending on command line arguments:

• Install or Uninstall the service. The command line can provide a non-default ServiceName and can change the number of worker threads.
• Run as a command-line executable (for debugging),
• Run as a "Windows Service". Here, it creates an instance of my ServiceBase-derived class, then calls System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase.Run(instance);

Currently, the installation step appends the service name and thread count to the ImagePath in the registry so the app can determine it's ServiceName.

Answer 1

From: https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=387024

Here is a WMI solution. Overriding the ServiceBase.ServiceMainCallback() might also work, but this seems to work for me...

    protected String GetServiceName()
    {
        // Calling System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase::ServiceNamea allways returns
        // an empty string,
        // see https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=387024

        // So we have to do some more work to find out our service name, this only works if
        // the process contains a single service, if there are more than one services hosted
        // in the process you will have to do something else

        int processId = System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess().Id;
        String query = "SELECT * FROM Win32_Service where ProcessId = " + processId;
        System.Management.ManagementObjectSearcher searcher =
            new System.Management.ManagementObjectSearcher(query);

        foreach (System.Management.ManagementObject queryObj in searcher.Get()) {
            return queryObj["Name"].ToString();
        }

        throw new Exception("Can not get the ServiceName");
    } 

Answer 2

ServiceBase.ServiceName property gives the compile-time name of service. If you specify a different name when installing the service, then ServiceName attribute will not give correct name. So, I had to use below code to obtain the service name of my service.

It's an alternative (without using LINQ) to NVRAM's method:

/**
 * Returns the service name of currently running windows service.
 */
static String getServiceName()
{
    ServiceController[] scServices;
    scServices = ServiceController.GetServices();

    // Display the list of services currently running on this computer.
    int my_pid = System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess().Id;

    foreach (ServiceController scTemp in scServices)
    {
        // Write the service name and the display name
        // for each running service.

        // Query WMI for additional information about this service.
        // Display the start name (LocalSytem, etc) and the service
        // description.
        ManagementObject wmiService;
        wmiService = new ManagementObject("Win32_Service.Name='" + scTemp.ServiceName + "'");
        wmiService.Get();

        int id = Convert.ToInt32(wmiService["ProcessId"]);
        if (id == my_pid)
        {
            return scTemp.ServiceName;
#if IS_CONSOLE
            Console.WriteLine();
            Console.WriteLine("  Service :        {0}", scTemp.ServiceName);
            Console.WriteLine("    Display name:    {0}", scTemp.DisplayName);

            Console.WriteLine("    Start name:      {0}", wmiService["StartName"]);
            Console.WriteLine("    Description:     {0}", wmiService["Description"]);

            Console.WriteLine("    Found.......");
#endif
        }
    }
    return "NotFound";
}

I was incorrectly trying to obtain the name of windows service as first line in main() without first calling ServiceBase.Run(). We must register our executable as service using ServiceBase.Run() before obtaining its name.

Ref.: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hde9d63a.aspx#Y320

Answer 3

Short version with Linq

  int processId = System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess().Id;
  ManagementObjectSearcher searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher("SELECT * FROM Win32_Service where ProcessId = " + processId);
  ManagementObjectCollection collection = searcher.Get();
  var serviceName = (string)collection.Cast<ManagementBaseObject>().First()["Name"];

Answer 4

By searching for a better solution i tried this:

string serviceName = "myDynamicServiceName";
string serviceBin = "path\\to\\Service.exe";
string configFile = "path\\to\\myConfig.xml";
string credentials = "obj= .\\mytestuser password= test";

string scCommand = string.Format( "sc create {0} start= auto binPath= \"\\\"{1}\\\" -ini={2} -sn={3}\" type= own{4}", serviceName, serviceBin, configFile , serviceName  ,credentials );

I passed the servicename and an configuration file to the binpath. The service was installed by using the SC.exe (i don't use the installutil!)

On the service you can get the Commandline-Arguments

protected override void OnStart(string[] args){
    string binpath = new System.IO.FileInfo(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetAssembly(this.GetType()).Location).DirectoryName + "\\";
    System.IO.StreamWriter sw = new System.IO.StreamWriter( binpath + "test.log");

    sw.WriteLine( binpath );

    string[] cmdArgs = System.Environment.GetCommandLineArgs();
    foreach (string item in cmdArgs) {
        sw.WriteLine(item);
    }

    sw.Flush();
    sw.Dispose();
    sw = null;
}

Answer 5

I had a chicken-and-egg problem where I needed to know the service location before completing Service.Run() (Service could be part of a client or server installation, installer named them appropriately, and I needed to detect which it was on startup)

I relied on the registry to get me the name.

public String IdentifySelfFromRegistry()
{
    String executionPath = Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location;
    Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey services = Microsoft.Win32.Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(
            @"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services");
    if (services != null)
    {
        foreach(String subkey in services.GetSubKeyNames())
        {
            if (executionPath.Equals(ServicePathFromServiceKey(services.OpenSubKey(subkey))))
                return subkey;
        }
    }
    return String.Empty;
}

protected static String ServicePathFromServiceKey(Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey serviceKey)
{
    if (serviceKey != null)
    {
        String exec = serviceKey.GetValue(ServicePathEntry) as String;
        if (exec != null)
            return exec.Trim('\"');
    }
    return String.Empty;
}

Answer 6

The ServiceMain() entry point that every service executable must implement receives the ServiceName as its first input argument.

If you are writing your service using .NET, the ServiceMain() entry point is implemented by .NET for you. The ServiceName is assigned when the service is installed using the ServiceProcess.ServiceBase.ServiceName property. If you are trying to customize a .NET service to support dynamic ServiceName values, I have no clue how to access the actual ServiceName at runtime.

Answer 7

public static bool IsServiceInstalled(string serviceName)
{
  // get list of Windows services
  ServiceController[] services = ServiceController.GetServices();

  // try to find service name
  foreach (ServiceController service in services)
  {
    if (service.ServiceName == serviceName)
      return true;
  }
  return false;
}

Answer 8

What's wrong with this.ServiceName, if you're inside the service.cs?

i.e.:

protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
    {
        Logger.Info($"{this.ServiceName} started on {Environment.MachineName}...");  
    }