Arbitrary SERVICE_NAME_PREFIX

[hamano]

I would like to specify an arbitrary service name for a Windows service.
This is because I want to allow end users to run commands like sc.exe [stop|start] myservice.

I expected this to be possible by renaming wsw.exe, but the SERVICE_NAME_PREFIX is defined as a fixed constant:

pub const SERVICE_NAME_PREFIX: &str = "wsw";

If we want to allow arbitrary service names, possible approaches include:

• Retrieving the name from the executable file using env::current_exe()
• Specifying the name as an option during installation

Which approach do you prefer?

Let's organize the naming as follows.

• Application name (-n option): app
• Service name prefix: wsw
• Sservice name: wsw-app

[ferama]

There is already an option for that

Ex.

wsw.exe install --name myapp --cmd "C:\MyApp\app.exe --arg1 --arg2"

Thre resulting service name will be wsw-myapp

Anyway I recomend to manage wsw service with wsw itlself
wsw can stop, start, restart a service, list managed services and so on.

You don't have to rename wsw.exe, you don't need different copies. wsw must be a system tool that manage its own class of services.

[hamano]

I am pointing out that I cannot create a service named myapp.
Using wsw-myapp would break backward compatibility.
This means I cannot migrate an existing service that was created with WinSW.

[ferama]

Oh I got it. Unfortunately I can't see an easy way to do that. The SERVICE_NAME_PREFIX is used as a sort of TAG to mark service as managed from WSW. The list and status subcommands for example rely on the prefix to get WSW managed services. We should explore the windows api to check if there is a more elegant way to add a property to a service.

[ferama]

I found a way. WSW now uses the service description (lpDisplayName from winapi) and not the service name anymore to filter out managed services.

Now you can use arbitrary service name using the -n option. This should fix your issue

[hamano]

Thank you for your response.

To clarify my comment:
I understand that you have designed wsw to manage multiple services.
In my use case, I am targeting a single service, and I was specifying an arbitrary service name by renaming WinSW.
I believe this change will enable many users to migrate to wsw from WinSW.

I also looked into the Windows API regarding ways to group services.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/winsvc/nf-winsvc-changeserviceconfigw
I wondered if we could use lpLoadOrderGroup to mark that a service is managed under wsw. What do you think?

It seems that this field cannot be specified through the current Rust bindings. If needed, I’m willing to propose a fix to the binding.

https://github.com/mullvad/windows-service-rs/blob/main/src/service_manager.rs#L154