Thread: [C] Keep a process alive

Hi, I've done a little program that looks if another process is executed.. if it is not executed, it executes the process. And it starts again ... looping

it enumerates all running processes, then it checks if one of those is Limiter.exe, if so, it keeps looping, else it executes Limiter.exe and start again looping.

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <windows.h>
#include "psapi.h"
#include <string.h>

int ProcessFinder (void);

int main(void)
{

  while( 1 ){  
    sleep(200);
    ProcessFinder();
  }// end while
  
  return 0;
}


/* --------- PROCESS FINDER --------- */
int ProcessFinder (void){
  
  char szProcessName[MAX_PATH] = "BianConiglioRulez";
  DWORD aProcesses[1024], cbNeeded, cProcesses;
  unsigned int i;
  double tmp;
  char tempid[MAX_PATH];
  char pid[MAX_PATH];
  int  PidNumber = 0;
  
  if ( !EnumProcesses( aProcesses, sizeof(aProcesses), &cbNeeded ) )
        return -1;

    cProcesses = cbNeeded / sizeof(DWORD);
    
    for ( i = 0; i < cProcesses; i++ ) // cerca tutti i processi
    {
      HANDLE hProcess = OpenProcess( PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION |
                                     PROCESS_VM_READ,
                                     FALSE,
                                     aProcesses[i] );
      if (NULL != hProcess )
       {
          HMODULE hMod;
          DWORD cbNeeded;

          if ( EnumProcessModules( hProcess,
                                   &hMod,
                                   sizeof(hMod),
                                   &cbNeeded) )
          {
              GetModuleBaseName( hProcess,
                                 hMod,
                                 szProcessName,
                                 sizeof(szProcessName));
          }
       }
    
       if (!strcmp(szProcessName, "Limiter.exe"))
        {
           //printf("found\n");
           return 0;
        }
      CloseHandle( hProcess );
    }// end FOR
    
    //printf("Not found.. executing\n");
    
    ShellExecute(NULL,
                   "open",
                   "C:\\Limiter\\Limiter.exe",
                   NULL,
                   NULL,
                   SW_SHOWNORMAL);
    
    return 0;
}

It seems to work fine but.. sometimes...it does not... if I kill Limiter.exe several times, it can happen that, it is not executed anymore after I killed it.. and my program (the keeper alive) keeps looping without execute Limiter.exe anymore..

Can you find some "logic" bug in the program? I cant

Maybe it's bacuse I just call CloseHandle( hProcess ); only if I find the process and I don't call it if it is not found?

Yesterday in my tests everything was okey, I really don't know how to create the particular situation that crushes this program (really not a crush, it just loops without doing anything)..

Code:

if (!strcmp(szProcessName, "Limiter.exe"))

You still do this check even when you have a NULL handle, I think this is the source of your bug.

thanx for your help
I will try to correct it, anyway, how can it be possible to have a NULL handle? I mean, when can it happen?

And if I have a NULL handle, it will be different from "Limiter.exe" then it will execute it, it will not keep looping without executing anything, right?

how can it be possible to have a NULL handle

Because that is windows method of denoting an error has occured, and you should do something about it. For example, if you get an error, call GetLastError() to get extended information of the error and report this to the user.

when can it happen?

When the OpenProcess call fails.

thanx for your help

I will correct my code and see if it will work