How to gracefully end external applications when thread is interrupted

Question

Hi again, Is there any way to kill any external apps I've spawned in my threads if the app is interrupted? Cheers!

Sam Hobbs · Answer

It is extremely easy to tell other developers how to kill a process. It is so easy that it is likely someone will come along and say how to do it. When they do, they should emphasize the problems. Saying it is a bad idea is not good enough; the problems of killing a process should be emphasized more than that. It is not so easy to attempt to guide another developer to do it in an approriate way, and I am trying to do that.

Mike Gold · Answer

Yuo can kill a process of another application in .NET using the System.Diagnostics. This is not graceful, but will kill the process. If its a thread you are talking about, it should have a thread id associated with it. You can use this to abort the thread. This is also generally a bad idea. See http://www.devasp.net/net/articles/display/717.html Is this wh

Sam Hobbs · Answer

How is the Windows Forms application closed normally? What do you do to close it normally?

Lars K · Answer

Like in the other thread, I agree 100% with you. Killing apps is my last choice, but I have no control over the source code for the other apps and have to treat them like any other pre-compiled package. I also have to assume there's a reason why the user may cancel out the program or wanting to stop one of the threads, so I don't really see any other solution. However, that is also one of the reasons I posted the question. I have to admin I was kind of hoping one of you guys would part the water and hand me a couple of stones with the ultimate truth about doing this carved into them, but I do realize that's probably hoping for a bit too much ;) Do you have any recommendations on how to handle this kind of scenario? Like I said in the other thread, this is one java application and one windows forms application. The java one handles just fine if I can just send it a stop signal (haven't done any threading since I was working with java about 10-13 years ago :S ), but the windows forms one doesn't even like coming to the foreground if started in background mode - and much less listening to the user. It's like a woman shopping, just forging ahead and needs to be shut down pretty hard if I want to get through to it ;) Cheers!

Sam Hobbs · Answer

I repeat: it is not a good design to design an application to kill applications . First, let's be sure we are using common terminology. I assume the other appliations are processes, not threads. Next, are the other applications developed by you or do you have the ability to modify them?

Lars K · Answer

It is for supporting users ending the application while it's running. In my example, I spawn two external programs per thread, and if the user clicks the red cross to end the app, the external apps will still run to completion.

Sam Hobbs · Answer

It is not a good design to design an application to kill applications. If you want a more specific answer, ask a more specific question.

How to gracefully end external applications when thread is interrupted

Answers (7)