How to debug a windows service with Delphi?

Question

Is there a way to debug completely a windows service with Delphi?

Answer 1

You can use unitDebugService.pas from Colin Wilson's NT Low Level Utilities (page is gone, available in the wayback machine)

and then in the DPR:

begin
  if (paramCount > 0) and (SameText(ParamStr(1), '-DEBUG')) then
  begin
    FreeAndNil (Application);
    Application := TDebugServiceApplication.Create(nil);
  end;

  //... the rest of the normal DPR code
end.

This way you can run from within Delphi with debugging (by setting the project Debugger Parameters), use the EXE as a service, or run from the commandline with the -DEBUG switch, and .