service auto-stopping during start

NTDEV
1

Is it possible for a SERVICE_WIN32_OWN_PROCESS service to cleanly
stop itself while being started i.e. from inside its own SvcMain function.

“Cleanly” meaning that:
(a) the service never enters the SERVICE_RUNNING state
before stopping for good;
(b) doesn’t trigger an error, or entry with level=error in the event logs;
(c) the SCM actually unloads the .exe as soon as the service sets itself
to a SERVICE_STOPPED status, as opposed to waiting for 30 sec,
which seems to be the default associated with various SC requests.

I tried to SetServiceStatus to SERVICE_STOPPED in SvcMain (right after
RegisterServiceCtrlHandler) which does indeed “stop” it before ever
starting, and doesn’t log an error (except a rather benign “could not be
started … did not report an error … helpmsg 3534” at the cmd prompt).
But the .exe is left hanging in task manager for another 30 seconds with
no good reason. I also tried several permutations of setting the status
to SERVICE_START_PENDING or SERVICE_STOP_PENDING in SvcMain
(with or without a dwWaitHint of 1 msec) then setting SERVICE_STOPPED
in a worker thread spawned by SvcMain, yet those 30 sec still persist.

2

Liviu wrote:

Is it possible for a SERVICE_WIN32_OWN_PROCESS service to cleanly
stop itself while being started i.e. from inside its own SvcMain function.

“Cleanly” meaning that:
(a) the service never enters the SERVICE_RUNNING state
before stopping for good;
(b) doesn’t trigger an error, or entry with level=error in the event logs;
(c) the SCM actually unloads the .exe as soon as the service sets itself
to a SERVICE_STOPPED status, as opposed to waiting for 30 sec,
which seems to be the default associated with various SC requests.

I tried to SetServiceStatus to SERVICE_STOPPED in SvcMain (right after
RegisterServiceCtrlHandler)…

That is the right way to do it. The garbage collection clean-up cycle
within SCM is not under your control.

Is there a reason this causes a problem, or is it just annoyance?

–
Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

3

“Tim Roberts” wrote:

Liviu wrote:
> …I tried to SetServiceStatus to SERVICE_STOPPED in SvcMain
> (right after RegisterServiceCtrlHandler)…

That is the right way to do it. The garbage collection clean-up cycle
within SCM is not under your control.

Is there a reason this causes a problem, or is it just annoyance?

No real problem, mostly annoyance plus a bit of hesitation. Windows
services is not my daily cup of tea, and I wasn’t sure whether that lag
might perhaps hint at some deeper flaw. Thank you for clearing it up.

Liviu

4

It could be Windows is holding the service process alive in anticipation that the service is being restarted. Not sure how much sense it makes anymore, though.

5

wrote:
> It could be Windows is holding the service process alive in anticipation
> that the service is being restarted.

That would be a sensible presumption, but I don’t see it happening.
In a mock test starting the service 5 times in quick succession, and set up
as to “stop while starting” every time, I am getting 5 different PIDs and I
can see the 5 processes still lagging for 30 sec in task manager afterwards.

Liviu

6

It may be worth investigating whether your 30 seconds is related in any way to the ServicesPipeTimeout discussed in
e.g. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/922918

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com [mailto:bounce-597177-
xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of Liviu
Sent: 04 December 2015 08:14
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: Re:[ntdev] service auto-stopping during start

wrote:
> > It could be Windows is holding the service process alive in
> > anticipation that the service is being restarted.
>
> That would be a sensible presumption, but I don’t see it happening.
> In a mock test starting the service 5 times in quick succession, and
> set up as to “stop while starting” every time, I am getting 5 different
> PIDs and I can see the 5 processes still lagging for 30 sec in task
> manager afterwards.
>
> Liviu
This email message has been delivered safely and archived online by Mimecast.

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7

Thank you for the hint. It was definitely the ServicesPipeTimeout 30 sec
default. If I changed that in the registry, the lag changed accordingly.

That said, culprit was the custom entry point in the service code,
which was doing a “return” instead of “ExitProcess”. SCM still had
an active thread at that point, which caused the process to hang on
until the timeout expired. Once I put the due “ExitProcess” in place, the
.exe unloaded as soon as stopped. Obvious, I know, and silly as well.

Thanks all for the pointers, and sorry for the noise.

Liviu

“David Boyce” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…

It may be worth investigating whether your 30 seconds is related in any way
to the ServicesPipeTimeout discussed in
e.g. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/922918

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com [mailto:bounce-597177-
xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of Liviu
Sent: 04 December 2015 08:14
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: Re:[ntdev] service auto-stopping during start

wrote:
> > It could be Windows is holding the service process alive in
> > anticipation that the service is being restarted.
>
> That would be a sensible presumption, but I don’t see it happening.
> In a mock test starting the service 5 times in quick succession, and
> set up as to “stop while starting” every time, I am getting 5 different
> PIDs and I can see the 5 processes still lagging for 30 sec in task
> manager afterwards.
>
> Liviu