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avoiding multiple instances

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  • M Mark Donkers

    I'm using the code from following posting to avoid running multiple instances of my app. I'm running an MFC SDI application. Where is the ideal location to create and release the mutex? //======================================================= Subject: Re: Avoiding multiple instances of an application. Sender: John Uhlenbrock Date: 15:53 7 Aug '01 I've seen a few examples to avoid multiple instances of an application. In fact, there are a few of them here on code project. However, they all seem like a lot of code, when there is an easy solution like: HANDLE hMutex = CreateMutex( NULL, TRUE, "MVD Load Utility" ); if( (hMutex == NULL) || (GetLastError() == ERROR_ALREADY_EXISTS) ) { AfxMessageBox( "Two copies of this program are not allowed to run at the same time." ); return FALSE; } Marcus Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir your blood to action. Make big plans, aim high in work and hope -- Daniel Burnham

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    Nish Nishant
    wrote on last edited by
    #2

    CWinApp::InitInstance Nish p.s. Of course that will be the CWinApp derived class in your case... Sonork ID 100.9786 voidmain www.busterboy.org If you don't find me on CP, I'll be at Bob's HungOut

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    • N Nish Nishant

      CWinApp::InitInstance Nish p.s. Of course that will be the CWinApp derived class in your case... Sonork ID 100.9786 voidmain www.busterboy.org If you don't find me on CP, I'll be at Bob's HungOut

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      Mark Donkers
      wrote on last edited by
      #3

      Nish, thanks for the quick response. do I make the mutex's handle a member of my CWinApp derived class. then how (and where) should I realease it? Marcus Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir your blood to action. Make big plans, aim high in work and hope -- Daniel Burnham

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      • M Mark Donkers

        Nish, thanks for the quick response. do I make the mutex's handle a member of my CWinApp derived class. then how (and where) should I realease it? Marcus Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir your blood to action. Make big plans, aim high in work and hope -- Daniel Burnham

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        Joaquin M Lopez Munoz
        wrote on last edited by
        #4

        No need to release it. The system does it for you when the program exits. Joaquín M López Muñoz Telefónica, Investigación y Desarrollo

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        • J Joaquin M Lopez Munoz

          No need to release it. The system does it for you when the program exits. Joaquín M López Muñoz Telefónica, Investigación y Desarrollo

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          Mark Donkers
          wrote on last edited by
          #5

          great... thanks. As a side note, I have to say THANKS to everyone at CodeProject, and everyone that uses CodeProject. I started using VC++ in September on my first real project at work. Coming from Visual Basic, I was a little intimidated making the transition, but CP has really made it less painless, and even enjoyable experience. Thanks for help everyone. Marcus Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir your blood to action. Make big plans, aim high in work and hope -- Daniel Burnham

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          • M Mark Donkers

            great... thanks. As a side note, I have to say THANKS to everyone at CodeProject, and everyone that uses CodeProject. I started using VC++ in September on my first real project at work. Coming from Visual Basic, I was a little intimidated making the transition, but CP has really made it less painless, and even enjoyable experience. Thanks for help everyone. Marcus Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir your blood to action. Make big plans, aim high in work and hope -- Daniel Burnham

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            Joaquin M Lopez Munoz
            wrote on last edited by
            #6

            Marcus, I think there's a flaw in your piece of code. Instead of

            CreateMutex( NULL, TRUE, "MVD Load Utility" )

            you should use

            CreateMutex( NULL, FALSE, "MVD Load Utility" );

            Good luck. Joaquín M López Muñoz Telefónica, Investigación y Desarrollo

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            • J Joaquin M Lopez Munoz

              Marcus, I think there's a flaw in your piece of code. Instead of

              CreateMutex( NULL, TRUE, "MVD Load Utility" )

              you should use

              CreateMutex( NULL, FALSE, "MVD Load Utility" );

              Good luck. Joaquín M López Muñoz Telefónica, Investigación y Desarrollo

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              Mark Donkers
              wrote on last edited by
              #7

              thanks. I read the MSDN on CreateMutex, but I can't make heads or tails of what the difference is. BTW - in your previous example, how did you get the code to appear in beige? Marcus Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir your blood to action. Make big plans, aim high in work and hope -- Daniel Burnham

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              • M Mark Donkers

                thanks. I read the MSDN on CreateMutex, but I can't make heads or tails of what the difference is. BTW - in your previous example, how did you get the code to appear in beige? Marcus Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir your blood to action. Make big plans, aim high in work and hope -- Daniel Burnham

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                Joaquin M Lopez Munoz
                wrote on last edited by
                #8

                thanks. I read the MSDN on CreateMutex, but I can't make heads or tails of what the difference is. The difference is that when bInitialOwner is set to TRUE, the system gives ownership to the first process that creates the mutex, as if it has subsequently called WaitForSingleObject on the mutex handle. As ownership is not needed for your purposes (you are only resorting to mutexes as a convenient way to share global identifier across proceses), bInitialOwner is best left as FALSE (moreover, you'd have to expliciy call RelaseMutex later, which is not the same as closing the handle). Pff, what a messy explanation, hope you've understand something of it :) To get the beige background enclose your code between <pre> and </pre> tags. Regards Joaquín M López Muñoz Telefónica, Investigación y Desarrollo

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                • M Mark Donkers

                  thanks. I read the MSDN on CreateMutex, but I can't make heads or tails of what the difference is. BTW - in your previous example, how did you get the code to appear in beige? Marcus Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir your blood to action. Make big plans, aim high in work and hope -- Daniel Burnham

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                  Nish Nishant
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #9

                  Use the <pre> tags!

                  this is between two 'pre' tags

                  Nish Sonork ID 100.9786 voidmain www.busterboy.org If you don't find me on CP, I'll be at Bob's HungOut

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                  • J Joaquin M Lopez Munoz

                    thanks. I read the MSDN on CreateMutex, but I can't make heads or tails of what the difference is. The difference is that when bInitialOwner is set to TRUE, the system gives ownership to the first process that creates the mutex, as if it has subsequently called WaitForSingleObject on the mutex handle. As ownership is not needed for your purposes (you are only resorting to mutexes as a convenient way to share global identifier across proceses), bInitialOwner is best left as FALSE (moreover, you'd have to expliciy call RelaseMutex later, which is not the same as closing the handle). Pff, what a messy explanation, hope you've understand something of it :) To get the beige background enclose your code between <pre> and </pre> tags. Regards Joaquín M López Muñoz Telefónica, Investigación y Desarrollo

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                    Nish Nishant
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #10

                    If his program exits, he need not call ReleaseMutex as the mutex object itself gets destroyed [or am I highly erroneous here?] Nish Sonork ID 100.9786 voidmain www.busterboy.org If you don't find me on CP, I'll be at Bob's HungOut

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                    • N Nish Nishant

                      If his program exits, he need not call ReleaseMutex as the mutex object itself gets destroyed [or am I highly erroneous here?] Nish Sonork ID 100.9786 voidmain www.busterboy.org If you don't find me on CP, I'll be at Bob's HungOut

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                      Jon Hulatt
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #11

                      "highly erroneous"? that sounds painful! Sorry to dissapoint you all with my lack of a witty or poignant signature.

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                      • J Joaquin M Lopez Munoz

                        thanks. I read the MSDN on CreateMutex, but I can't make heads or tails of what the difference is. The difference is that when bInitialOwner is set to TRUE, the system gives ownership to the first process that creates the mutex, as if it has subsequently called WaitForSingleObject on the mutex handle. As ownership is not needed for your purposes (you are only resorting to mutexes as a convenient way to share global identifier across proceses), bInitialOwner is best left as FALSE (moreover, you'd have to expliciy call RelaseMutex later, which is not the same as closing the handle). Pff, what a messy explanation, hope you've understand something of it :) To get the beige background enclose your code between <pre> and </pre> tags. Regards Joaquín M López Muñoz Telefónica, Investigación y Desarrollo

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                        Mark Donkers
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #12

                        Joaquín... You have shed some light in this dark world of mine. X| It made as much sense as it could for a beginner C++ programmer.

                        where can I find the docs on how to use other tags (or are there any other)

                        thanks again. Marcus Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir your blood to action. Make big plans, aim high in work and hope -- Daniel Burnham

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                        • N Nish Nishant

                          If his program exits, he need not call ReleaseMutex as the mutex object itself gets destroyed [or am I highly erroneous here?] Nish Sonork ID 100.9786 voidmain www.busterboy.org If you don't find me on CP, I'll be at Bob's HungOut

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                          Joaquin M Lopez Munoz
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #13

                          Hi Nish, Well, the thing is a little tricky, because the documentation is not conclusive on this. I haven't found nowehere that closing a mutex handle implies also releasing it, so to the best of my knowledge not calling ReleaseMutex is undefined behavior (though it is perfectly possible that everything works nevertheless). All in all, as the guy didn't need ownership at all, I think it is better to remain on the safe side and simply setting bInitialOwner to FALSE Regards, Joaquín M López Muñoz Telefónica, Investigación y Desarrollo

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                          • M Mark Donkers

                            Joaquín... You have shed some light in this dark world of mine. X| It made as much sense as it could for a beginner C++ programmer.

                            where can I find the docs on how to use other tags (or are there any other)

                            thanks again. Marcus Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir your blood to action. Make big plans, aim high in work and hope -- Daniel Burnham

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                            Joaquin M Lopez Munoz
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #14

                            Apart from <pre> you can use <code> to get an effect like this. If you're including code of yours that may have the character '<', replace those with the escape sequence < Also, you can use regular HTML tags as well. Joaquín M López Muñoz Telefónica, Investigación y Desarrollo

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                            • J Jon Hulatt

                              "highly erroneous"? that sounds painful! Sorry to dissapoint you all with my lack of a witty or poignant signature.

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                              Nish Nishant
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #15

                              LOL Nish Sonork ID 100.9786 voidmain www.busterboy.org If you don't find me on CP, I'll be at Bob's HungOut

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                              • J Joaquin M Lopez Munoz

                                Hi Nish, Well, the thing is a little tricky, because the documentation is not conclusive on this. I haven't found nowehere that closing a mutex handle implies also releasing it, so to the best of my knowledge not calling ReleaseMutex is undefined behavior (though it is perfectly possible that everything works nevertheless). All in all, as the guy didn't need ownership at all, I think it is better to remain on the safe side and simply setting bInitialOwner to FALSE Regards, Joaquín M López Muñoz Telefónica, Investigación y Desarrollo

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                                Nish Nishant
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #16

                                Thanks for your thoughts and time Joaquín! I guess you were correct in your advice to him :-) Regards Nish Sonork ID 100.9786 voidmain www.busterboy.org If you don't find me on CP, I'll be at Bob's HungOut

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                                • J Joaquin M Lopez Munoz

                                  Hi Nish, Well, the thing is a little tricky, because the documentation is not conclusive on this. I haven't found nowehere that closing a mutex handle implies also releasing it, so to the best of my knowledge not calling ReleaseMutex is undefined behavior (though it is perfectly possible that everything works nevertheless). All in all, as the guy didn't need ownership at all, I think it is better to remain on the safe side and simply setting bInitialOwner to FALSE Regards, Joaquín M López Muñoz Telefónica, Investigación y Desarrollo

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                                  Tim Smith
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #17

                                  Mutexes are automatically released. Here is a quote from Helen Custler's Inside Windows NT book which talks about this history of mutants and mutexes in NT. "The name /mutant/ has a colorful [sic] history. Early in Windows NT's development, Dave Cutler created a kernel mutex object that implemented low-level mutual exclusion. Later he discovered that OS/2 required a version of the mutual-exclusion semaphore with additional semantics, which Dave considered "brain-damaged" and which was incompatible with the original object. (Specifically, a thread could abandon the object and leave it inaccessible.) So he created an OS/2 version of the mutex and gave it the name /mutant/. Later Dave modified the mutant object to remove the OS/2 semantics, allowing the Win32 subsystem to use the object. The Win32 API calls the modified object /mutex/, but the native services retain the name /mutant/." Tim Smith Descartes Systems Sciences, Inc.

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                                  • T Tim Smith

                                    Mutexes are automatically released. Here is a quote from Helen Custler's Inside Windows NT book which talks about this history of mutants and mutexes in NT. "The name /mutant/ has a colorful [sic] history. Early in Windows NT's development, Dave Cutler created a kernel mutex object that implemented low-level mutual exclusion. Later he discovered that OS/2 required a version of the mutual-exclusion semaphore with additional semantics, which Dave considered "brain-damaged" and which was incompatible with the original object. (Specifically, a thread could abandon the object and leave it inaccessible.) So he created an OS/2 version of the mutex and gave it the name /mutant/. Later Dave modified the mutant object to remove the OS/2 semantics, allowing the Win32 subsystem to use the object. The Win32 API calls the modified object /mutex/, but the native services retain the name /mutant/." Tim Smith Descartes Systems Sciences, Inc.

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                                    Joaquin M Lopez Munoz
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #18

                                    Beautiful piece of wisdom :) Anyway, I wouldn't rely on only this paragraph to merrily abandon mutexes unreleased, withouth stronger confirmation from the documentation. Regards, Joaquín M López Muñoz Telefónica, Investigación y Desarrollo

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                                    • M Mark Donkers

                                      Joaquín... You have shed some light in this dark world of mine. X| It made as much sense as it could for a beginner C++ programmer.

                                      where can I find the docs on how to use other tags (or are there any other)

                                      thanks again. Marcus Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir your blood to action. Make big plans, aim high in work and hope -- Daniel Burnham

                                      M Offline
                                      M Offline
                                      Michael Dunn
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #19

                                      Marcus2001 wrote: where can I find the docs on how to use other tags In the VC forum FAQ :) --Mike-- My really out-of-date homepage "Hey, you wanna go to the Espresso Pump and get sugared up on mochas?"  -- Willow Rosenberg Sonork - 100.10414 AcidHelm Big fan of Alyson Hannigan.

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