Windows Service to run a function at specified time

Question

I wanted to start a Windows service to run a function everyday at specific time.

What method i should consider to implement this? Timer or using threads?

Answer 1

You can do it with a thread and an event; a timer is not necessary.

using System;
using System.ServiceProcess;
using System.Threading;

partial class Service : ServiceBase
{
    Thread Thread;

    readonly AutoResetEvent StopEvent;

    public Service()
    {
        InitializeComponent();

        StopEvent = new AutoResetEvent(initialState: false);
    }

    protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
    {
        if (disposing)
        {
            StopEvent.Dispose();

            components?.Dispose();
        }

        base.Dispose(disposing);
    }

    protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
    {
        Thread = new Thread(ThreadStart);

        Thread.Start(TimeSpan.Parse(args[0]));
    }

    protected override void OnStop()
    {
        if (!StopEvent.Set())
            Environment.FailFast("failed setting stop event");

        Thread.Join();
    }

    void ThreadStart(object parameter)
    {
        while (!StopEvent.WaitOne(Timeout(timeOfDay: (TimeSpan)parameter)))
        {
            // do work here...
        }
    }

    static TimeSpan Timeout(TimeSpan timeOfDay)
    {
        var timeout = timeOfDay - DateTime.Now.TimeOfDay;

        if (timeout < TimeSpan.Zero)
            timeout += TimeSpan.FromDays(1);

        return timeout;
    }
}