Application.Exit

George_George

Hello everyone, I am new to this API. After some study, Application.Exit should only be used in Forms application, and in console/Windows service application without any GUI Window, we should not use it to exit application, right? thanks in advance, George

Urs Enzler

Hi George Application.Exit stops th emessage loop and closes all windows. Therefore it is not useful in console applications. Note that Application.Exit does not end the application, it just causes that the Application.Run (normally in Main) returns. See this link to MSDN: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.application.exit(VS.71).aspx[^] Urs

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George_George

Cool, Urs! I think the answer is, in console and Windows service application, Aplication.Exit has no use and it is not used to cause process to terminate, right? regards, George

Urs Enzler

Application.Exit will never terminate the process. Normally you have something like this in your winforms app:

public void Main()
{
MyForm form = new MyForm();
Application.Run(form);
}

Application.Exit will cause that the Application.Run method returns to the Main method and then, of course, the process will end, because nothing is done afterwards. best regards Urs

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George_George

Thanks Urs, So, for console application and Windows service application without GUI, Application.Exit is useless, right? regards, George

MarkB777

If there is no Application.Run process running, then the Application.Exit function is useless. As far as i'm aware your statement is true. Cheers,

Mark Brock Click here to view my blog

George_George

Cool, Mark! Question answered. regards, George

Luc Pattyn

Hi George, A lot of applications don't need Application.Exit(), even Windows Forms applications can do without if one wants them to only terminate when the main form gets closed. Service means no forms, means no Application.Exit(). I trust you are aware of Environment.Exit()? :)

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George_George

Yes, Luc! Currently, I am using Environment.Exit (-1). And I want to keep on learning new things. Is Environment.Exit safe that no resource leak will occur (and all expected exception handler and finally blocks are executed)? regards, George

PIEBALDconsult

I never use Application.Exit; I just call the form's Close method.

George_George

Thanks PIEBALDconsult, I just want to confirm in console and Windows service application, we should not use Application.Exit to terminate the process, right? regards, George

Luc Pattyn

Hi George, 1. yes Environment.Exit() will clean up and avoid leaks. Everything that terminates a process will clean up the resources allocated by the process itself, that is basic functionality in Windows itself. Nevertheless, it is good practice to do it explicitly; and you should clean up if your program has two or more parts that are rather independent, so after part 1 you could and should clean up before starting part 2, so part 2 gets a maximum of available resources (memory, handles, whatever) and hence gets the best performance. 2.

George_George wrote:

finally blocks are executed)?

Why don't you try it? you really should replace some of your questions by looking it up yourself and/or testing it yourself. Here is enough code to figure it out (put it in e.g. a button click handler):

try {
Application.Exit();
} finally {
StreamWriter tw=File.CreateText("finally.txt");
tw.Close();
}

:)

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George_George

Cool, Luc! Finally block is not executed. I think the reason is, process is terminated by Environment.Exit, and resources are released by Windows, so there is no need to execute finally block, right? regards, George

Luc Pattyn

Hi George,

George_George wrote:

Finally block is not executed

:confused::confused: It was executed in my experiment, with the code snippet in a button click handler, the file got generated in \bin\debug folder. :)

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George_George

Hi Luc, can you post your code please? Finally block is not executed, here is my code.

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

namespace ConsoleApplication2
{
class Program
{

    static void Main(string\[\] args)
    {
        try
        {
            Environment.Exit(-1);
        }
        finally
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Hello world");
        }
    }
}

}

regards, George

Luc Pattyn

Hi George, you already have my code[^]. I am not surprised your code snippet is fooling you, after all you ask it to perform console I/O where the application is exiting, hence forms, consoles, and other UI stuff is winding down. The file system however remains alive to the very end of the app. :)

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George_George

Sorry Luc, Here is your code, the finally blocked is not executed. Could you reproduce? I am confused. :-)

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

namespace ConsoleApplication2
{
class Program
{

    static void Main(string\[\] args)
    {
        try
        {
            Environment.Exit(-1);
        }
        finally
        {
            StreamWriter tw = File.CreateText("finally.txt");
            tw.Close();
        }
    }
}

}

regards, George

Luc Pattyn

Hi George, my example was on Application.Exit() which causes an Application.Run() to return, I guess asynchronously by sending a Windows message or something; so the thread has the opportunity to first execute the finally block. Your test was on Environment.Exit() which, from your observation, seems to cause an immediate exit. I trust the exact behavior is hidden somewhere in the documentation. :)

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George_George

Thanks Luc, I think for console and Windows Service application, we should never use Application.Exit, right? regards, George

Luc Pattyn

Application.Exit() causes Application.Run() to return, both make sense in windows apps only. this has been asked and answered many times in the last couple of days, it is not going to change any time soon ... :)

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