Checking if process is suspended/hanged/not responding

[amakrkr]

Hello everyone,

after searching this forum ower and ower again i couldn't find solution to my problem or i didn't understand hints that were given in some of the threads i found.

Let me explain what am i trying to do.

I have a program that hangs from time to time for many different reasons. Now what am i trying to do is to write an AutoIt script that will be checking if program is running as it should or if its hanged/crashed/not responding (i dont know if those program states are all the same).

After some searching on forum i found a code which is calling a user32.dll function called "IsHungAppWindow" (see code bolow):

If _NotResponding("Calculator", "", 1)  Then
    MsgBox(1,"Test","Process hanged")
Else
    MsgBox(1,"Test","Process not hanged")
EndIf

Func _NotResponding($title, $text, $closeIfHung = 0)
    $hWnd = WinGetHandle($title, $text)

If $hWnd == "0" Then
MsgBox(1,"Tets","Window not found")
EndIf
    $retArr = DllCall("user32.dll", "int", "IsHungAppWindow", "hwnd", $hWnd)
    If @error == 0 Then
        If $retArr[0] == 1 Then
            If $closeIfHung Then
                ProcessClose(WinGetProcess($title, $text))
            EndIf
            Return 1
        EndIf
    Else
        Return 0
    EndIf
EndFunc

I was using windows Calculator to test this code. So what i did was i downloaded some program from CodeProject which is desigend to Suspend process ... and above posted code does not return correct MSGBox.

I am not sure if code doesnt work or the entire logic is wrong?

I hope some of you could help me a bit.

Thank you for your replays.

Best regards.

[amakrkr]

I just realized i have another option but i dont know if its doable.

Is there a settings in windows 7 where you can choose to automatically close non responding programs or something similar.

I could do a simple procesexist search every x seconds and wouldnt need to check if application is running or its hanged.

[KaFu]

In this post the function SendMessageTimeoutW is discussed. I was thinking all along that this might be a good method to check if a window is hung. Set the flags correctly (SMTO_ABORTIFHUNG, SMTO_ERRORONEXIT) with an acceptable timeout (5 seconds?), send something like WM_NULL or an empty WM_COPYDATA or something else not interfering with the program itself and wait for a response (0 on timeout)... will probably have time in the evening to try something ...

[amakrkr]

In this post the function SendMessageTimeoutW is discussed. I was thinking all along that this might be a good method to check if a window is hung. Set the flags correctly (SMTO_ABORTIFHUNG, SMTO_ERRORONEXIT) with an acceptable timeout (5 seconds?), send something like WM_NULL or an empty WM_COPYDATA or something else not interfering with the program itself and wait for a response (0 on timeout)... will probably have time in the evening to try something ...

Ok i will try this even tho i am most certain i will fail .

I am wondering if there is a difference when program is :

a) hanged

not responding

c) something else.

In the mean while i have found some "solutio" on this website. Creating short cut on desktop which closes any non responging programs in one click so i can simply call it from my script.

Any more feedback is welcomed.

thanks for now.

Edit: I have found an even better solution ... what you need to do is a bit of regedit. Link

Edited July 2, 2010 by amakrkr

[Ascend4nt]

'IsHungAppWindow' will work in certain scenarios. However, applications with threads that are Suspended will not usually be reported as 'Hung'. Calling a function with 'SendMessageTimeout' is a good secondary detection mechanism though, and if that fails (when called with flag 'SMTO_ABORTIFHUNG') then you can call 'GetLastError' and see if it returns error code 1460 (ERROR_TIMEOUT). I use both of these methods in my 'Full Screen Crash Recovery' program, and it works well.

[KaFu]

'IsHungAppWindow' will work in certain scenarios. However, applications with threads that are Suspended will not usually be reported as 'Hung'. Calling a function with 'SendMessageTimeout' is a good secondary detection mechanism though, and if that fails (when called with flag 'SMTO_ABORTIFHUNG') then you can call 'GetLastError' and see if it returns error code 1460 (ERROR_TIMEOUT).

Thanks for the infos m8, will give it a try (vacation next week )...

I use both of these methods in my 'Full Screen Crash Recovery' program, and it works well.

Just checked it out but saw no source ...

[Ascend4nt]

Just checked it out but saw no source ...

haha, I know. The only project I had that I closed the source on - though who woulda thunk it, its out there (an older version) on some website of course.

Anyway, I was just referring to my app because the method discussed has worked very well for it in detecting pesky crashed/hung applications. I just realized now though that there's a note on the MSDN website about Windows 2000 not returning the right error code when using 'GetLastError'. Argh, guess that should be fixed now..