How-To: Auto-Restart Console App. in .NET.

Question

Hello there, any ideas of how to auto-restart (restart) Console application in .NET ?

I know that forms application have something like this:

Application.Restart();

but this is not possible for Console.

Also, NOTE: The problem is, that I can't start two instances of the same app :)

Answer 1

You could create a new process for your application (see the Process class), initiate it, and close your current application immediately after that.

Answer 2

Well you can start a program that simply starts new instance of your program after old instance exits.

Answer 3

You can create a launcher application, that would wait a few seconds and then start the real console application. Then, whenever you need the application to restart - you run the launcher and exit.

There might be other prettier methods, but you'd have to explain in more detail this part of your question: "I can't start two instances of the same app".

Answer 4

you can put in the Main method a loop while a restart condition is true:

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    do
    {
        Main2(args);
        //Some cleaning may be...
    }while(someCondition)
}

private static void Main2(string[] args)
{
    ....
}

Answer 5

You could try creating a batch file to run your console application, and then a service to run the batch file if it's not currently running.

Answer 6

I might be wrong, but a .NET console application that is single-instance seems like a design flaw. This sounds more like a Windows Service to me. Are you sure that a console application is the right thing, and that you cannot allow multiple instances?