Question

I’m using a global keyboard hook class. This class allows to check if keyboard key pressed anywhere. And after some time I’m having an error:

        **CallbackOnCollectedDelegate was detected**

A callback was made on a garbage collected delegate of type 'Browser!Utilities.globalKeyboardHook+keyboardHookProc::Invoke'. This may cause application crashes, corruption and data loss. When passing delegates to unmanaged code, they must be kept alive by the managed application until it is guaranteed that they will never be called.

Here is globalkeyboardHook class:

        public delegate int keyboardHookProc(int code, int wParam, ref keyboardHookStruct lParam);

        public struct keyboardHookStruct
        {
            public int vkCode;
            public int scanCode;
            public int flags;
            public int time;
            public int dwExtraInfo;
        }

        const int WH_KEYBOARD_LL = 13;
        const int WM_KEYDOWN = 0x100;
        const int WM_KEYUP = 0x101;
        const int WM_SYSKEYDOWN = 0x104;
        const int WM_SYSKEYUP = 0x105;

        public List<Keys> HookedKeys = new List<Keys>();

        IntPtr hhook = IntPtr.Zero;

        public event KeyEventHandler KeyDown;
        public event KeyEventHandler KeyUp;

        public globalKeyboardHook()
        {
            hook();
        }

        ~globalKeyboardHook()
        {
            unhook();
        }

        public void hook()
        {
            IntPtr hInstance = LoadLibrary("User32");
            hhook = SetWindowsHookEx(WH_KEYBOARD_LL, hookProc, hInstance, 0);
        }

        public void unhook()
        {
            UnhookWindowsHookEx(hhook);
        }

        public int hookProc(int code, int wParam, ref keyboardHookStruct lParam)
        {
            if (code >= 0)
            {
                Keys key = (Keys)lParam.vkCode;
                if (HookedKeys.Contains(key))
                {
                    KeyEventArgs kea = new KeyEventArgs(key);
                    if ((wParam == WM_KEYDOWN || wParam == WM_SYSKEYDOWN) && (KeyDown != null))
                    {
                        KeyDown(this, kea);
                    }
                    else if ((wParam == WM_KEYUP || wParam == WM_SYSKEYUP) && (KeyUp != null))
                    {
                        KeyUp(this, kea);
                    }
                    if (kea.Handled)
                        return 1;
                }
            }
            return CallNextHookEx(hhook, code, wParam, ref lParam);
        }

        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        static extern IntPtr SetWindowsHookEx(int idHook, keyboardHookProc callback, IntPtr hInstance, uint threadId);


        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        static extern bool UnhookWindowsHookEx(IntPtr hInstance);

        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        static extern int CallNextHookEx(IntPtr idHook, int nCode, int wParam, ref keyboardHookStruct lParam);

        [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
        static extern IntPtr LoadLibrary(string lpFileName);
        #endregion

Any ideas how to fix it? The program works well, but after some time the program freezes ant I get this error.

Answer 1

hhook = SetWindowsHookEx(WH_KEYBOARD_LL, hookProc, hInstance, 0);

There’s your problem. You are relying on C# syntax sugar to have it automatically create a delegate object to hookProc. Actual code generation look like this:

keyboardHookProc $temp = new keyboardHookProc(hookProc);
hhook = SetWindowsHookEx(WH_KEYBOARD_LL, $temp, hInstance, 0);

There’s only one reference to the delegate object, $temp. But it is local variable and disappears as soon as your hook() method stops executing and returns. The garbage collector is otherwise powerless to see that Windows has a ‘reference’ to it as well, it cannot probe unmanaged code for references. So the next time the garbage collector runs, the delegate object gets destroyed. And that’s a kaboom when Windows makes the hook callback. The built-in MDA detects the problem and generates the helpful diagnostic before the program crashes with an AccessViolation.

You will need to create an additional reference to the delegate object that survives long enough. You could use GCHandle for example. Or easier, just store a reference yourself so the garbage collector can always see the reference. Add a field to your class. Making it static is a sure-fire way to ensure the object can’t be collected:

    private static keyboardHookProc callbackDelegate;

    public void hook()
    {
        if (callbackDelegate != null) throw new InvalidOperationException("Can't hook more than once");
        IntPtr hInstance = LoadLibrary("User32");
        callbackDelegate = new keyboardHookProc(hookProc);
        hhook = SetWindowsHookEx(WH_KEYBOARD_LL, callbackDelegate, hInstance, 0);
        if (hhook == IntPtr.Zero) throw new Win32Exception();
    }

    public void unhook()
    {
        if (callbackDelegate == null) return;
        bool ok = UnhookWindowsHookEx(hhook);
        if (!ok) throw new Win32Exception();
        callbackDelegate = null;
    }

No need to pinvoke FreeLibrary, user32.dll is always loaded until your program terminates.