Question

Hi I have created a little application to move some files around and put them into a database. This is working well except that the application needs a timeout.

If my app has not completed the task within 2 hours it re opens and locks out everything. I need to say that if my application has been open for 2 hours close it.

One thought was can you set a time out in an application. I have had a google for this and found some stuff in system.threading about timeout=infinite and threading.sleep=200 but don’t really understand this.

Another thought, is using the timer and counting up to 2 hours and then calling a close method, this seams like a bit of a cheat.

Any ideas on time out in either C# or Vb

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Sadly this is not for a db connection this is not where the application is failing.

Answer 1

What about allowing just one instance of your application to run at the same time?

I guess you are scheduling runs: have a look at this code as a way of preventing multiple instances of your application without changing the scheduling.

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    Mutex flag = new Mutex(false, "UNIQUE_NAME");
    bool acquired = flag.WaitOne(TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(0));  // 0 or more milliseconds
    if (acquired)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Ok, this is the only instance allowed to run.");

        // do your work, here simulated with a Sleep call
        Thread.Sleep(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5));

        flag.ReleaseMutex();
        Console.WriteLine("Done!");
    }
    else
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Another instance is running.");
    }
    Console.WriteLine("Press RETURN to close...");
    Console.ReadLine();
}

Please, don’t abandon your Mutex… 😉

HTH