Thread: What is the equivalent of main() for a Service?

I need to debug a service, but there's no main() function. So I'm wondering, what is the first function to get called when a Service starts? i.e. what's the Service equivalent of main()?

ServiceMain

Thanks.
Now, if I wanted to run this service as a regular program to make it easier to debug, could I just do this:

Code:

#ifdef DEBUGGING_SERVICE
   int main( int argc, char* argv[] )
#else
   void ServiceMain( DWORD dwNumArgs, LPTSTR* lpServiceArgs )
#endif  // DEBUGGING_SERVICE
{
   ...
}

Right now I see some things like:

Code:

theApp.RegisterScmCtrlHandler(*lpServiceArgs, (LPHANDLER_FUNCTION)ControlHandler);

in the ServiceMain() function. If I can rename it to main(), I'm assuming I'd have to do something else with the lines like that?

Originally Posted by MSDN

ServiceMain is a placeholder for an application-defined function name.

It can actually be anything you want. It is defined when you install the service. A given executable can have multiple services with different ServiceMain function entry points. Look for an entry like this -

Code:

    SERVICE_TABLE_ENTRY DispatchTable[] = 
    { 
        { SVCNAME, (LPSERVICE_MAIN_FUNCTION) SvcMain }, 
        { NULL, NULL } 
    };

Originally Posted by abachler

It can actually be anything you want. It is defined when you install the service. A given executable can have multiple services with different ServiceMain function entry points. Look for an entry like this -

Code:

    SERVICE_TABLE_ENTRY DispatchTable[] = 
    { 
        { SVCNAME, (LPSERVICE_MAIN_FUNCTION) SvcMain }, 
        { NULL, NULL } 
    };

OK thanks, I found that, and the only function it lists is ServiceMain.