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What is the best way in c# to determine whether the programmer is running the program via IDE or it's user?

Answer 1

+1 A:

public static bool IsInVisualStudio
{
    get
    {
        bool inIDE = false;
        string[] args = System.Environment.GetCommandLineArgs();
        if (args != null && args.Length > 0)
        {
            string prgName = args[0].ToUpper();
            inIDE = prgName.EndsWith("VSHOST.EXE");
        }
        return inIDE;
    }
}

mkus 2010-01-05 07:44:20

if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(args) == false) { ... } is nicer imo :)

Christian 2010-01-05 07:49:15

@Christian: `args` is a string array, not a string.

Jon Skeet 2010-01-05 07:50:21

Besides, an equation to true or false is arguably too verbose in comparision with if(String.IsNullOrEmpty()) or if(!String.NullOrEmpty()). Just a little off the record for this question though.

Webleeuw 2010-01-05 07:53:38

Jon: Oops, you're right. My bad :/ I'll blame it on the early morningWebleeuw: It's more verbose, but personally I find it easier to read compared to the negation operator :)

Christian 2010-01-05 08:10:35

It's okay, but enabling the Visual Studio Hosting process is an option that can be turned off.

Hans Passant 2010-01-05 11:24:21

Answer 2

+6 A:

if (System.Diagnostics.Debugger.IsAttached) {
    // You are debugging
}

Webleeuw 2010-01-05 07:48:28

So, what happens when user is running your program and then you attach debugger to it?

Tomek Szpakowicz 2010-01-05 07:53:28

Then the user is running the app. with an IDE (assuming all debuggers are part of an IDE). I supposed the question poster would like to know if there's a debugger running, not necessarily if there's an IDE running.

Webleeuw 2010-01-05 07:56:14

As far as I know, the only way to know if an application is running from e.g. Visual Studio, whether in debug-mode or not (you can run an app without debugger from VS as most people know), is mkus' solution.

Webleeuw 2010-01-05 07:58:09

tomekszpakowicz , you meant that the programmer has set to Debug instead of Release when building the program and then user runs that produced .exe file ?

odiseh 2010-01-05 08:03:49

I think he means that the program is started outside the IDE by launching the .exe from the bin/debug or bin/release folder.Running an app. from the IDE doesn't mean that there's necessarily a debugger attached, nor that there isn't a debugger attached when you run outside an IDE.

Webleeuw 2010-01-05 08:10:20

@Webleeuw, I think that when we build an application with "debug" choise, it creates an .exe file in the bin\Debug folder. The created .exe file has some additional code related to debugging. Is it correct?

odiseh 2010-01-05 11:02:22

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What is the best way in c# to determine whether the programmer is running the program via IDE or it's user?

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