Need a way to check status of Windows service programmatically

Question

Here is the situation:

I have been called upon to work with InstallAnywhere 8, a Java-based installer IDE, of sorts, that allows starting and stopping of windows ser

Answer 1

I have been dealing with installers for years and the trick is to create your own EXE and call it on setup. This offers good flexibility like displaying precise error messages in the event an error occurs, and have success-based return values so your installer knows about what happened.

Here's how to start, stop and query states for windows services (C++): http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms684941(VS.85).aspx (VB and C# offers similar functions)

Answer 2

I have had some luck in the past with the Java Service Wrapper. Depending upon your situation you may need to pay in order to use it. But it offers a clean solution that supports Java and could be used in the InstallAnywhere environment with (I think) little trouble. This will also allow you to support services on Unix boxes as well.

http://wrapper.tanukisoftware.org/doc/english/download.jsp

Answer 3

A shot in the dark but take a look at your Install Anywhere java documentation.

Specifically,

/javadoc/com/installshield/wizard/platform/win32/Win32Service.html

The class:

com.installshield.wizard.platform.win32
Interface Win32Service

All Superinterfaces:
    Service 

The method:

public NTServiceStatus queryNTServiceStatus(String name)
                                     throws ServiceException

    Calls the Win32 QueryServiceStatus to retrieve the status of the specified service. See the Win32 documentation for this API for more information.

    Parameters:
        name - The internal name of the service. 
    Throws:
        ServiceException

Answer 4

Simply call this method to check the status of service whether running or not.

public boolean checkIfServiceRunning(String serviceName) {
    Process process;
    try {
      process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("sc query " + serviceName);
      Scanner reader = new Scanner(process.getInputStream(), "UTF-8");
      while(reader.hasNextLine()) {
         if(reader.nextLine().contains("RUNNING")) {
           return true;
         }
      }
     } catch (IOException e) {
         e.printStackTrace();
     }            
     return false;
}

Answer 5

During startup, create a file with File.deleteOnExit().

Check for the existence of the file in your scripts.

Answer 6

You can create a small VBS on-th-fly, launch it and capture its return code.

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileWriter;

public class VBSUtils {
  private VBSUtils() {  }

  public static boolean isServiceRunning(String serviceName) {
    try {
        File file = File.createTempFile("realhowto",".vbs");
        file.deleteOnExit();
        FileWriter fw = new java.io.FileWriter(file);

        String vbs = "Set sh = CreateObject(\"Shell.Application\") \n"
                   + "If sh.IsServiceRunning(\""+ serviceName +"\") Then \n"
                   + "   wscript.Quit(1) \n"
                   + "End If \n"
                   + "wscript.Quit(0) \n";
        fw.write(vbs);
        fw.close();
        Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("wscript " + file.getPath());
        p.waitFor();
        return (p.exitValue() == 1);
    }
    catch(Exception e){
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    return false;
  }


  public static void main(String[] args){
    //
    // DEMO
    //
    String result = "";
    msgBox("Check if service 'Themes' is running (should be yes)");
    result = isServiceRunning("Themes") ? "" : " NOT ";
    msgBox("service 'Themes' is " + result + " running ");

    msgBox("Check if service 'foo' is running (should be no)");
    result = isServiceRunning("foo") ? "" : " NOT ";
    msgBox("service 'foo' is " + result + " running ");
  }

  public static void msgBox(String msg) {
    javax.swing.JOptionPane.showConfirmDialog((java.awt.Component)
       null, msg, "VBSUtils", javax.swing.JOptionPane.DEFAULT_OPTION);
  }
}