Question

I have an application which can only have 1 instance running at each time, however if a 2nd instance is launched it needs to be logged to a common logfile that the first could also be using.

I have the check for how many instances are running and I was planning on simply logging it to the event logger initially but the application can be running in user or system context and exceptions are thrown when attempting to query the eventlog source as a user so that idea is scrapped as the security logs are inaccessible to the user.

So I wanted to find out what the safest method of have 2 seperate instances of the same application write to a log file would be that would ensure both get an opportunity to write to it.

I would prefer not to use an existing additional framework if avoidable

Any help appreciated.

Answer 1

A Mutex could be used for interprocess synchronization of a shared resource such as log file. Here’s a sample.