Console.Writeline stops my program... C# - c#

I have just got the wierdest problem in my Windows Froms C# application
I got a few Console.WriteLine in my code for debug, but suddenly this stopped working. For example
try{
line(of.code);
Console.WriteLine("HERE");
other.line(of.code);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
logger.logg(e.ToString());
}
I will not get to the other.line(of.code); line, and I do not get the "HERE" in the console.
There is a few places in the code, the same happens on all of them. It just stops, it does NOT get to the catch...
And the worst part, it worked earlier. I have worked on applications for a long time, and have never seen anything like it.

If you need it just for debugging, try
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("HERE");
instead.
This will write the output into the output window of your development environment and, more important, it will work regardless of the type of application you are developing (console app, win forms, web app etc).
As soon as you change to "release", the debug information will be ignored and not compiled into the code. If you would require it there, too, you should try Trace.Writeline instead.

I can think of a few scenarios that will cause Console.WriteLine to fail:
The output stream has been set to an invalid object or something that will misbehave (in your case stop the program).
You are running in an environment that doesn't give you permission to use the console*.
It is not System.Console.WriteLine but another method with the same name that gets invoked thanks to some using directives.
*: I can't think of such environment, but may be some plug-in system?
If you are making a Windows Froms Application and not setting the output stream for your Console then Console.WriteLine should do nothing. So, if you need debugging follow Matt's recomendation.

Related

Weird issue with C# console app on a specific machine

I have the simplest C# console app that only does a WriteLine and a ReadLine. For some reason, it doesn't run in standalone mode on the machine it was built. I tried the built executable on another box and it works fine.
Trying to run it on this machine makes it just hang there. It works fine inside VS, just not from the command line.
Trying to attach VS to the hanging process says something along the lines of "ConsoleApplication1 has triggered a breakpoint" but can't see what the problem is (it indicates the breakpoint is _LdrpDoDebuggerBreak#0() in ntdll.dll).
Any ideas on how to diagnose what's going on?
EDIT (answering comments below): Same behavior happens for both Release and Debug. Platform is set to Auto. Both machines tested on are 64-bit. The one it's working on is Windows 7, the one I'm building on (and where it hangs) is Windows 10.
EDIT2: Something else I noticed is that trying to run the app doesn't bring up a console window (so it hangs before that). Also, detaching after attaching to the hanging process also hangs VS.
EDIT3: Here's the full zipped project: (removed). It contains the debug .exe file as well for the curious. It's just a vanilla console application project with the following code:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.WriteLine("ASD");
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}
Are you sure that there's nothing in your code except a WriteLine() and a ReadLine()? I haven't tested it, but this sounds like exactly the behavior I would expect from calling Debugger.Break().
The MSDN page has a note:
Starting with .NET Framework 4, the runtime no longer exercises tight control of launching the debugger for the Break method, but instead reports an error to the Windows Error Reporting (WER) subsystem. WER provides many settings to customize the problem reporting experience, so a lot of factors will influence the way WER responds to an error such as operating system version, process, session, user, machine and domain. If you're having unexpected results when calling the Break method, check the WER settings on your machine. For more information on how to customize WER, see WER Settings. If you want to ensure the debugger is launched regardless of the WER settings, be sure to call the Launch method instead.
On the machine where it is working, it's either ignoring this line because you don't have development tools installed, or your settings are such that it just skips it. On the machine you're developing on, the settings would be different. Possibly fees are based on the Windows 7 and 10 defaults, but I don't know.
Finally figured it out. It's my lovely antivirus. Hoping this helps someone in the future, Avast doesn't bring up the usual prompt indicating it's scanning the app or quarantining it or anything. Disabling the shields (Avast Shields Control -> Disable for 10 mins) makes the app work properly. Argh!
Thank you all for the support!
Interestingly the other machine where it works is still running Avast, but I think it's one major version behind. This is for version 10.4.2233.

Program developed by .net 4.0 sometimes cannot start after reboot

I have a program developed by C# and build by .net 4.0.
This program is a windows client which would read the barcode from a barcode reader (via com port) then send the barcode to back-end server via WCF.
The customer have a script in the client OS which would reboot the OS and automatically start up my program every day. The OS is Windows XP Embedded.
Now the problem is, sometimes when the system reboot, my program cannot be started and an error message box will popup to ask whether send this error report to Microsoft.
The most strange thing is, if my colleague copy the program folder and paste as "Copy of ...." in the same folder with the original one the exe under "Copy of ..." one can run without any problem. But the original one still cannot.
What my speculation is maybe the program was writing log and other record files while the system was forced to reboot. And the files get the read/write lock unreleased.
I have uploaded the error screen shots to flickr. Please click here link to visit.
Without knowing what the actual exception is, we can only guess.
You will need to catch the exception that is being thrown in your application.
The best practice is to encapsulate your code in try/catch clauses.
If you are still getting application crashes, then you can attach an event handler to AppDomain.UnhandledException, or Application.UnhandledException and log the exception(s) being received.
Make sure to output the entire exception stack trace, so you can see where it's being thrown from.
Once you've got the exception, if you can't figure out the cause, then ask another question here with that specific detail. eg: "I'm getting an FooException being thrown when I call Bar() after start-up on Windows XP Embedded"
Sometimes after a reboot, some device drivers, or some hardware, will NOT reset itself. The machine has to be power cycled (turned off and back on) or a command needs to be discovered that will force the device driver and/or hardware to reset.
Referring to image IMG_1348 you posted, the error is thrown in your form constructor.
Seems like either code you added or InitializeComponent code is throwing.
Since you are using XPe, you have some options to debug this issue:
Add message box statements around the various constructors to show initialization progress. Guard before and after.
public Form1()
{
MessageBox.Show("Before InitializeComponent");
InitializeComponent();
MessageBox.Show("After InitializeComponent");
//MessageBox.Show("Before Other");
//Other Initialization Code
//MessageBox.Show("After Other");
}
Attempt to use the remote debugger. I am not sure if this works on XPe, but if it does, and since your code is throwing in the constructor, you need to add code to wait until the debugger is connected.
public Form1()
{
while (!System.Diagnostics.Debugger.IsAttached){ System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(0); }
InitializeComponent();
//Other Initialization Code
}

C# Application Restart does not call program Main()

I've already wrote an application that works user base. I was looking for the best way to use for current user logging-out. So I've used Application.Restart();
Soon I found that the code doesn't work properly and Program.Main() doesn't call back again.
I wondered that my Login form Load Method is not going to perform (The Login Form is calling from program class).
So I'll really thankful if you let me know about my bugs and correct solutions.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.application.restart.aspx
Comment listed "Bug in VS2010 SP1"
after calling this method, the application no longer run in debug mode, it's not spawned by the IDE and all breakpoints stop functioning.
EDIT:
This is where something like log4net can really be helpful. It's a very simple library to add to your project and would let you write out debug information to a file so, even though the next instance wasn't spawned by the IDE and wont get breakpoints, you could still do some verification that it's hitting what you expect through the use of Debug traces. Just a suggestion...
A new process gets created, and it's not spawned by the IDE.
A breakpoint is not a valid way to test if Main is entered again.
See somewhat related post:
Does Application.Restart() creates new process for application or no?
If you'd like, you could write to a file or some other simple test in Main just to prove to yourself that it is entered.
Microsoft recently released a solution that allows debugging to continue after Application.Restart(), in the form of a Power Tool:
Child Process Debugging Power Tool
Blog Post
Download in VS Gallery

c# Windows service restarted occasionally

I have written a windows service in c# that's designed not to stop or restart.
In the constructor, there is a log that writes something like "Starting Application".
So i left it running for more than a week and I can see that the constructor that writes the log is being executed. This leads me to believe the windows service is restarting for unknown reason. There are no errors being thrown!!
Any idea?
Cheers.
Usually you can see the reason for a service restart by looking in the event viewer. Open it from Administrative Tools under your start menu. Look underneath Windows Logs/Application. Look for anything with your program name or anything that has a Red exclamation mark.
Generally, when writing a windows service, you want ALL of your code to run within a TRY/CATCH block. You can log any error in the catch block if you want (but be careful that your logging code can't throw an exception!). You have to "swallow" the exception in order to let the service keep running.

Why is Console.WriteLine doesn't work outside of VS?

I have created WinForms app, when I run it from console (cmd) the console is does not show anything I have logged using Console.WriteLine. It just "hangs" until the program has finished execution. In VS the Output shows a lot of informations, both in Debug and Release mode.
I was hopeing to use console and tracing tool and later be able to determine why something did not work on some outside environment. How to enable that in Console?
You may want to see if redirecting the console error output like this suggests will work for you. Or you could use Log4Net like #Mitch Wheat suggested
I was shocked but doing "MyApp.exe > a.log" has created a log file with information I wanted.

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