在批处理文件中运行命令时安装 Windows 服务失败

Question

I'm converting a legacy VC 6 C++ Windows Service application to Visual Studio 2022

The conversion is completed and, if I open a CMD prompt with Admin rights, I can install the service using this command:

Service.exe /Install

It installs instantly and starts correctly.

However, I need to install it within an installation script, which loads a bunch of services by calling a batch file which contains the commands to start them. It is run with elevated permissions. However, which it reaches the above line (Service.exe /Install) it hangs. There is no error message and I cannot even terminate it using CTRL + C. The only way around it is to close the CMD prompt. The service is not installed.

My service does not appear in the Task manager's list of processes when the batch file hangs.

I've tried adding the full path to the service in the batch file but it makes no difference. Running this batch file from an elevated command prompt (rather than the installer script) runs into the same problem.

I'm tearing my hair out over this (almost bald now :-)) - can anyone provide any suggestions?

Thanks

Andy

Answer 1

Debugging found a logic error in the start up code.

Basically, calling Service.exe /Install directly from the command line just passes "Service.exe /Install" as the command line, whereas calling it from a batch file / CreateProcess() passes the whole path to the service in the command line and the parser was not taking that into account. Maybe it behaved differently in older Windows versions, but the parser was really badly written.

I'm glad it was me who wrote it :-)