Prevent multiple instance of a service - best approach?

Question

So what do you think is the best way to prevent multiple threads of a C# Windows service running simultaneously (the service is using a timer with the OnE

Answer 1

I think that some of these approaches are fantastic, but a bit complicated.

I've created a wrapper class that prevents a timer from overlapping and allows you to choose whether "ELAPSED should be called once every INTERVAL" or "An INTERVAL delay should occur between calls".

If you improve on this code, please post the updates here!

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace AllCommander.Diagnostics {
    public class SafeTimer : IDisposable {

        public enum IntervalStartTime {
            ElapsedStart,
            ElapsedFinish
        }


        private System.Timers.Timer InternalTimer;

        public bool AutoReset { get; set; }

        public bool Enabled {
            get {
                return InternalTimer.Enabled;
            }
            set {
                if (value) {
                    Start();
                } else {
                    Stop();
                }
            }
        }


        private double __Interval;
        public double Interval {
            get {
                return __Interval;
            }
            set {
                __Interval = value;
                InternalTimer.Interval = value;
            }
        }

        /// 

        /// Does the internal start ticking at the END of Elapsed or at the Beginning? 
        /// 
        public IntervalStartTime IntervalStartsAt { get; set; }

        public event System.Timers.ElapsedEventHandler Elapsed;


        public SafeTimer() {
            InternalTimer = new System.Timers.Timer();
            InternalTimer.AutoReset = false;
            InternalTimer.Elapsed += InternalTimer_Elapsed;

            AutoReset = true;
            Enabled = false;
            Interval = 1000;
            IntervalStartsAt = IntervalStartTime.ElapsedStart;
        }


        void InternalTimer_Elapsed(object sender, System.Timers.ElapsedEventArgs e) {

            if (Elapsed != null) {
                Elapsed(sender, e);
            }

            var ElapsedTime = DateTime.Now - e.SignalTime;


            if (AutoReset == true) {
                //Our default interval will be INTERVAL ms after Elapsed finished.
                var NewInterval = Interval;
                if (IntervalStartsAt == IntervalStartTime.ElapsedStart) {
                    //If ElapsedStart is set to TRUE, do some fancy math to determine the new interval.
                    //If Interval - Elapsed is Positive, then that amount of time is remaining for the interval
                    //If it is zero or negative, we're behind schedule and should start immediately.
                    NewInterval = Math.Max(1, Interval - ElapsedTime.TotalMilliseconds);
                }

                InternalTimer.Interval = NewInterval;

                InternalTimer.Start();
            }

        }


        public void Start() {
            Start(true);
        }
        public void Start(bool Immediately) {
            var TimerInterval = (Immediately ? 1 : Interval);
            InternalTimer.Interval = TimerInterval;
            InternalTimer.Start();
        }

        public void Stop() {
            InternalTimer.Stop();
        }


        #region Dispose Code
        //Copied from https://lostechies.com/chrispatterson/2012/11/29/idisposable-done-right/
        bool _disposed;
        public void Dispose() {
            Dispose(true);
            GC.SuppressFinalize(this);
        }

        ~SafeTimer() {
            Dispose(false);
        }

        protected virtual void Dispose(bool disposing) {
            if (!_disposed) {
                if (disposing) {
                    InternalTimer.Dispose();
                }

                // release any unmanaged objects
                // set the object references to null
                _disposed = true;
            }
        }
        #endregion

    }
}