Determine if running as VCL Forms or Service - delphi

Question

I have code which is used both in services and within VCL Form applications (win32 application). How can I determine if the underlying application is running as a NT Service or as an application?
Thanks.

Answer 1

BEGIN OF EDIT
Since this still seems to be getting some attention I decided to update the answer with missing info and newer windows patches. In any case you should not copy / paste the code. The code is just a showcase on how the things should be done.
END OF EDIT:
You can check if the parent process is SCM (service control manager). If you are running as service this is always the case and never the case if running as standard application. Also I think that SCM has always the same PID.
You can check it like this:
type
TAppType = (atUnknown, atDesktop, atService);
var
AppType: TAppType;
function InternalIsService: Boolean;
var
PL: TProcessList;
MyProcessId: DWORD;
MyProcess: PPROCESSENTRY32;
ParentProcess: PPROCESSENTRY32;
GrandParentProcess: PPROCESSENTRY32;
begin
Result := False;
PL := TProcessList.Create;
try
PL.CreateSnapshot;
MyProcessId := GetCurrentProcessId;
MyProcess := PL.FindProcess(MyProcessId);
if MyProcess <> nil then
begin
ParentProcess := PL.FindProcess(MyProcess^.th32ParentProcessID);
if ParentProcess <> nil then
begin
GrandParentProcess := PL.FindProcess(ParentProcess^.th32ParentProcessID);
if GrandParentProcess <> nil then
begin
Result := SameText(string(ParentProcess^.szExeFile), 'services.exe') and
(SameText(string(GrandParentProcess^.szExeFile), 'winlogon.exe') or
SameText(string(GrandParentProcess^.szExeFile), 'wininit.exe'));
end;
end;
end;
finally
PL.Free;
end;
end;
function IsService: Boolean;
begin
if AppType = atUnknown then
begin
try
if InternalIsService then
AppType := atService
else
AppType := atDesktop;
except
AppType := atService;
end;
end;
Result := AppType = atService;
end;
initialization
AppType := atUnknown;
The TProcessList is implemented like this (again THashTable is not included but any hash table should be fine):
type
TProcessEntryList = class(TList)
private
function Get(Index: Integer): PPROCESSENTRY32;
procedure Put(Index: Integer; const Value: PPROCESSENTRY32);
public
property Items[Index: Integer]: PPROCESSENTRY32 read Get write Put; default;
function Add(const Entry: TProcessEntry32): Integer; reintroduce;
procedure Clear; override;
end;
TProcessList = class
private
ProcessIdHashTable: THashTable;
ProcessEntryList: TProcessEntryList;
public
constructor Create; reintroduce;
destructor Destroy; override;
procedure CreateSnapshot;
function FindProcess(const ProcessId: DWORD): PPROCESSENTRY32;
end;
implementation
{ TProcessEntryList }
procedure TProcessEntryList.Clear;
var
i: Integer;
begin
i := 0;
while i < Count do
begin
FreeMem(Items[i]);
Inc(i);
end;
inherited;
end;
procedure TProcessEntryList.Put(Index: Integer; const Value: PPROCESSENTRY32);
var
Item: Pointer;
begin
Item := inherited Get(Index);
CopyMemory(Item, Value, SizeOf(tagPROCESSENTRY32));
end;
function TProcessEntryList.Get(Index: Integer): PPROCESSENTRY32;
begin
Result := PPROCESSENTRY32(inherited Get(Index));
end;
function TProcessEntryList.Add(const Entry: TProcessEntry32): Integer;
var
EntryCopy: PPROCESSENTRY32;
begin
GetMem(EntryCopy, SizeOf(tagPROCESSENTRY32));
CopyMemory(EntryCopy, #Entry, SizeOf(tagPROCESSENTRY32));
Result := inherited Add(EntryCopy);
end;
{ TProcessList }
constructor TProcessList.Create;
begin
inherited;
ProcessEntryList := TProcessEntryList.Create;
ProcessIdHashTable := THashTable.Create;
end;
destructor TProcessList.Destroy;
begin
FreeAndNil(ProcessIdHashTable);
FreeAndNil(ProcessEntryList);
inherited;
end;
function TProcessList.FindProcess(const ProcessId: DWORD): PPROCESSENTRY32;
var
ItemIndex: Integer;
begin
Result := nil;
if not ProcessIdHashTable.ContainsKey(IntToStr(ProcessId)) then
Exit;
ItemIndex := Integer(ProcessIdHashTable.Item[IntToStr(ProcessId)]);
Result := ProcessEntryList.Items[ItemIndex];
end;
procedure TProcessList.CreateSnapshot;
var
SnapShot: THandle;
ProcessEntry: TProcessEntry32;
ItemIndex: Integer;
begin
SnapShot := CreateToolhelp32Snapshot(TH32CS_SNAPPROCESS, 0);
if SnapShot <> 0 then
try
ProcessEntry.dwSize := SizeOf(ProcessEntry);
if Process32First(SnapShot, ProcessEntry) then
repeat
ItemIndex := ProcessEntryList.Add(ProcessEntry);
ProcessIdHashTable.Add(IntToStr(ProcessEntry.th32ProcessID), TObject(ItemIndex));
until not Process32Next(SnapShot, ProcessEntry);
finally
CloseHandle(SnapShot);
end;
end;

Answer 2

The application object (Forms.application) mainform will be nil if it is not a forms based application.
uses
Forms, ... ;
function IsFormBased : boolean;
begin
Result := Assigned(Forms.Application.MainForm);
end;

Answer 3

How about matching GetCurrentProcessId against EnumServicesStatusEx?
The lpServices parameter points to a buffer that receives an array of ENUM_SERVICE_STATUS_PROCESS structures.
The match is done against the enumerated service process ID: ServiceStatusProcess.dwProcessId in that structure.
Another option is using WMI to query for Win32_Service instances where ProcessId=GetCurrentProcessId.

Answer 4

I doubt that
System.IsConsole
System.IsLibrary
will give you the expected results.
All I can think of is to pass an Application object as TObject to the method where you need to make that distinction and test for the passed object's classname being a
TServiceApplication
or
TApplication
That said, there shouldn't be a need for you to know if your code is running in a service or a GUI. You should probably rethink your design and make the caller to pass an object to handle messages you want (or don't want) to show. (I assume it is for showing messages/exceptions you'd like to know).

Answer 5

You can try something like this
Function IsMyformInsideaWindowsService(aForm:TObject) :Boolean;
Begin
Result:=aForm.ClassParent.ClassName='TService'; //When a form is running under a service the Class Parent is a TService
End;

Answer 6

A single project cannot (or I should say ideally is not) both a service and a forms application, at least not if you are able to distinguish between the Forms Application object and the SvcMgr Application object - you must presumably have separate projects for the forms code and the service code.
So perhaps the easiest solution is a project conditional define. i.e. in your project settings for the service project add "SERVICEAPP" to the Conditional Defines.
Then whenever you need to change behaviour simply:
{$ifdef SERVICEAPP}
{$else}
{$endif}
For belts and braces you might adopt one of the previously described tests within some startup code to ensure that your project has been compiled with the expected symbol defined.
program ... ;
:
begin
{$ifdef SERVICEAPP}
// test for service app - ASSERT if not
{$else}
// test for forms app - ASSERT if not
{$endif}
:
end.
It is possible that your Forms app is actually running as a service, using the crude technique that allows any application to be running as a service.
In that case of course your app will always be a Forms application and the easiest way to handle that situation is to have a command line switch that you specify only in the service definition for your executable so that your app can respond appropriate by testing for that command line switch.
This does allow you to more easily test your "service mode" behaviour of course, since you can run your app in "debug" mode with that switch defined from within the IDE, but it's not an ideal way to build a service application so I would not recommend it on the strength of that alone. It's a technique that is usually only used when you have an EXE that you wish to run as a service but have no way to modify the source code to turn it into a "proper" service.

Answer 7

The answer from "Runner" ( https://stackoverflow.com/a/1568462 ) looked very helpful, but I could not use it since neither TProcessList, nor CreateSnapshot is defined. Searching for "TProcessList CreateSnapshot" in Google will just find 7 pages, including this one and mirrors/quotes of this page. No code exists. Alas, my reputation is too low to send him a comment, asking where I can find the code of TProcessList.
Another problem: At my computer (Win7 x64), the "services.exe" is NOT inside "winlogon.exe". It is inside "wininit.exe". Since it seems to be an implementation detail of Windows, I would suggest not querying the grand parent. Also, services.exe does not need to be the direct parent, since processes could be forked.
So this is my version using TlHelp32 directly, solving all the problems:
uses
Classes, TlHelp32;
function IsRunningAsService: boolean;
function FindProcess(FSnapshotHandle: THandle; PID: DWORD; var lppe: TProcessEntry32): boolean;
var
ContinueLoop: BOOL;
begin
ContinueLoop := Process32First(FSnapshotHandle, lppe);
while Integer(ContinueLoop) <> 0 do
begin
if lppe.th32ProcessID = PID then
begin
result := true;
Exit;
end;
ContinueLoop := Process32Next(FSnapshotHandle, lppe);
end;
result := false;
end;
var
CurProcessId: DWORD;
FSnapshotHandle: THandle;
FProcessEntry32: TProcessEntry32;
ExeName, PrevExeName: string;
DeadlockProtection: TList<Integer>;
begin
Result := false;
FSnapshotHandle := CreateToolhelp32Snapshot(TH32CS_SNAPPROCESS, 0);
DeadlockProtection := TList<Integer>.Create;
try
CurProcessId := GetCurrentProcessId;
FProcessEntry32.dwSize := SizeOf(FProcessEntry32);
ExeName := '';
while FindProcess(FSnapshotHandle, CurProcessId, FProcessEntry32) do
begin
if DeadlockProtection.IndexOf(FProcessEntry32.th32ProcessID) > -1 then break;
DeadlockProtection.Add(FProcessEntry32.th32ProcessID);
PrevExeName := ExeName;
ExeName := FProcessEntry32.szExeFile;
(*
Result := SameText(PrevExeName, 'services.exe') and // Parent
SameText(ExeName, 'winlogon.exe'); // Grandparent
*)
Result := SameText(ExeName, 'services.exe'); // Parent
if Result then Exit;
CurProcessId := FProcessEntry32.th32ParentProcessID;
end;
finally
CloseHandle(FSnapshotHandle);
DeadlockProtection.Free;
end;
end;
This code works, also even in applications without MainForm (e.g. CLI apps).

Answer 8

you can use GetStdHandle method for get out console handle.when applications run as windows service has not output console.if GetStdHandle equals zero means your application run as windows service.
{$APPTYPE CONSOLE} // important
uses
uServerForm in 'uServerForm.pas' {ServerForm},
uWinService in 'uWinService.pas' {mofidWinServer: TService},
Windows,
System.SysUtils,
WinSvc,
SvcMgr,
Forms,etc;
function RunAsWinService: Boolean;
var
H: THandle;
begin
if FindCmdLineSwitch('install', ['-', '/'], True) then
Exit(True);
if FindCmdLineSwitch('uninstall', ['-', '/'], True) then
Exit(True);
H := GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);
Result := H = 0;
end;
begin
if RunAsWinService then
begin
SvcMgr.Application.Initialize;
SvcMgr.Application.CreateForm(TmofidWinServer, mofidWinServer);
SvcMgr.Application.Run;
end
else
begin
Forms.Application.Initialize;
Forms.Application.CreateForm(TServerForm, ServerForm);
Forms.Application.Run;
end;
end.

Answer 9

I didn't find the simple answer which can be used easily and does not require recompilation and allows using one exe as a service and an application. You can install your program as a service with the command line parameter like “…\myapp.exe –s” and then check it from the program:
if ParamStr(ParamCount) = '-s' then

Answer 10

You can base the check on checking the session ID of the current process. All services runs with session ID = 0.
function IsServiceProcess: Boolean;
var
LSessionID, LSize: Cardinal;
LToken: THandle;
begin
Result := False;
LSize := 0;
if not OpenProcessToken(GetCurrentProcess, TOKEN_QUERY, LToken) then
Exit;
try
if not GetTokenInformation(LToken, TokenSessionId, #LSessionID, SizeOf(LSessionID), LSize) then
Exit;
if LSize = 0 then
Exit;
Result := LSessionID = 0;
finally
CloseHandle(LToken);
end;
end;

Answer 11

I actually ended up checking the application.showmainform variable.
The problem with skamradt's isFormBased is that some of this code is called before the main form is created.
I am using a software library called SvCom_NTService from aldyn-software. One of purposes is for errors; either to log them or show a message. I totally agree with #Rob; our code should be better maintained and handle this outside of the functions.
The other intention is for failed database connections and queries; I have different logic in my functions to open queries. If it is a service then it will return nil but continue the process. But if failed queries/connections occur in an application then I would like to display a messaage and halt the application.

Answer 12

Check if your Applicatoin is an instance of TServiceApplication:
IsServiceApp := Application is TServiceApplication;