Killing Excel.EXE on server [duplicate]

Answer 1

:). I jotted down my skirmish with Excel here. It also has some links that I found after some heavy searching. Hope it helps.
Basically Excel is a pain even though it can be automated.

Answer 2

I agree with not running Office on a server. Not that I have any choice in the matter :)

One thing to keep in mind with the taskkill option, is that unless you specifically plan for it (aka - singleton), you may have multiple copies of Excel (or any other Office app) running, and unintentionally close the wrong instance.

Also note that per http://support.microsoft.com/kb/257757

Microsoft does not currently recommend, and does not support, Automation of Microsoft Office applications from any unattended, non-interactive client application or component (including ASP, ASP.NET, DCOM, and NT Services), because Office may exhibit unstable behavior and/or deadlock when Office is run in this environment.

As an alternative, there is a product called Aspose Cells that offers a product that is designed to allow you to programmatically work with an Excel sheet in a server environment. As a disclaimer, I have never personally used this product, but I have heard about it from several people I worked with in the past.

Answer 3

I've had more time to think about this answer, and would now recommend using an XML approach with the Open XML Office spreadsheet format.

Heres some good links to get started on building a office document with code. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc163478.aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735940(office.12).aspx

Just use SSIS on SQL Server. It provides the ability to export to Excel. Don't run office on the server. Alteranatively waste money on aspose or spreadsheetgear.

GC does work your just not using it properly follow this pattern...

   private void killExcel()
        {
          xlApp.Quit();
          Marshal.ReleaseCOMObject(xlApp);
          if(xlApp != null)
          {
            xlApp = null;
          }
          GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers();
          GC.Collect();
          GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers();
          GC.Collect();
        }

get your Excel operational class to implement IDisposable, and then stick killExcel() in the Dispose method.

UPDATE: Also note that sometimes dev will still see Excel.exe running in task manager. Before assuming the above code isn't working, check that the process that is running the code is also closed. In the case of a VSTO or COM addin, check that Word/powerpoint/other excel instance is also closed as there is still a GC root back to the launching process. Once that is closed the Excel.exe process will close.

Answer 4

The best approach is to use a purpose built library such as the one from Aspose to generate the spreadsheets or populate templates. The next best approach is to use the xml formats for office if practical for your needs. A lightweight approach that is sometimes suitable is to create an HTML file with one table in it and name it with an .xls extension. Excel will happily read that, but it is very limited in what it can do.

Those are the options I've used (but not much). There's also a thing called Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server, but I've no idea how much it really lets you do.

That said, your problem is happening because when you invoke the regular Excel libraries, you're actually spinning up Excel completely independently of .Net and actually just working with a proxy library to talk to it. This is pretty much the same kind of thing you'd have with WCF and a service. You wouldn't expect the service to die just because the client application was done using it. Worse, Excel is an unmanaged resource and will not be disposed/ finalized/ garbage collected at all. The .Net Runtime doesn't know about Excel, it just knows about those proxies. Application.quit is what you need and also you may need to explicitly release the com objects that are created.

Answer 5

The command you need is "taskkill".

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb491009.aspx

> taskkill excel.exe

Answer 6

I actually had a question that was similar to this awhile back - Check for hung Office process when using Office Automation - some of the responses to that question might be useful for you.

Also, I have to agree with what everyone else is saying in regards to keeping any Office products off of a server; however, since you are doing Excel, it might be feasible for you to generate Excel XML documents. You can do this without having to do any Office automation and the process is fairly straightforward. For simple grid based spreadsheets I have found it to be a bit easier than trying to automate it using Excel. The Office Open XML is quite powerful and allows for more complex reports are possible as well some more effort.