Topshelf: Getting started guide - Run .net core console application as windows service

Introduction

For people that don't know what Topshelf is.

"Topshelf is a framework for hosting services written using the .NET framework.
The creation of services is simplified, allowing developers to create a simple console application that can be installed as a service using Topshelf.
The reason for this is simple: It is far easier to debug a console application than a service.
And once the application is tested and ready for production, Topshelf makes it easy to install the application as a service."
Source

This "Topshelf: Getting started guide" post will explain the basics and how to use Topshelf with:

.NET Core 3.1

Topshelf 4.2.1

Serilog 2.9.0

Source code

You can find the source code of this post on: https://github.com/gergroen/Topshelf-getting-started-guide

Post summary

Installing NuGet

Create service class

Configure logging and windows service

Control the windows service

The result

Installing NuGet

First create a .Net core console project and install the next nuget packages.

Serilog

Serilog.Sinks.Console

Serilog.Sinks.File

Topshelf

Topshelf.Serilog

Create service class

Create a Service class. In this example the implementation has only log lines
but here you can add your own functionality for the windows service.

using Serilog;

namespace Topshelf.GettingStarted
{
    public class Service
    {
        public void Start()
        {
            Log.Information("Started");
        }

        public void Stop()
        {
            Log.Information("Stopped");
        }
    }
}

Configure logging and windows service

Logging and the windows service are configured in the Program.Main.

using System;
using Serilog;

namespace Topshelf.GettingStarted
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Log.Logger = new LoggerConfiguration()
                .WriteTo.Console()
                .WriteTo.File("log.txt", rollingInterval: RollingInterval.Day)
                .CreateLogger();

            var rc = HostFactory.Run(x =>
            {
                x.Service(s =>
                {
                    s.ConstructUsing(name => new Service());
                    s.WhenStarted(tc => tc.Start());
                    s.WhenStopped(tc => tc.Stop());
                });
                x.RunAsLocalSystem();

                x.SetDescription("Topshelf Getting Started");
                x.SetDisplayName("Topshelf.GettingStarted");
                x.SetServiceName("Topshelf.GettingStarted");
                x.UseSerilog();
            });

            var exitCode = (int)Convert.ChangeType(rc, rc.GetTypeCode());
            Environment.ExitCode = exitCode;
        }
    }
}

This is the result when we run the console application.

Control the windows service

To control the windows service we create the next batch files.

_install-service.bat

"%~dp0Topshelf.GettingStarted" install

_start-service.bat

"%~dp0Topshelf.GettingStarted" start

_stop-service.bat

"%~dp0Topshelf.GettingStarted" stop

_uninstall-service.bat

"%~dp0Topshelf.GettingStarted" uninstall

Set the "Copy to output directory" of the batch files to "Copy if newer".

The result

Now you can run _install-service.bat as Administrator to install the application as windows service.
If you open the Services console you will see the application in the list.

Useful links:

Source code
Topshelf documentation

Developer blog: Getting started guide - Stackoverflow code styling for blog posts

Stackoverflow.com use google-code-prettify as syntax highlighter.
To use google-code-prettify on Blogger.com you have to add the following css to your template:

/* Pretty printing styles. Used with prettify.js. */

/* SPAN elements with the classes below are added by prettyprint. */
.pln { color: #000 }  /* plain text */
 
@media screen {
  .str { color: #800000 }  /* string content */
  .kwd { color: #00008b }  /* a keyword */
  .com { color: #808080 }  /* a comment */
  .typ { color: #2b91af }  /* a type name */
  .lit { color: #800000 }  /* a literal value */
  /* punctuation, lisp open bracket, lisp close bracket */
  .pun, .opn, .clo { color: #000 }
  .tag { color: #800000 }  /* a markup tag name */
  .atn { color: #ff0000 }  /* a markup attribute name */
  .atv { color: #0000ff }  /* a markup attribute value */
  .dec, .var { color: #000 }  /* a declaration; a variable name */
  .fun { color: #000 }  /* a function name */
}

/* Use higher contrast and text-weight for printable form. */
@media print, projection {
  .str { color: #060 }
  .kwd { color: #006; font-weight: bold }
  .com { color: #600; font-style: italic }
  .typ { color: #404; font-weight: bold }
  .lit { color: #044 }
  .pun, .opn, .clo { color: #440 }
  .tag { color: #006; font-weight: bold }
  .atn { color: #404 }
  .atv { color: #060 }
}

/* Put a border around prettyprinted code snippets. */
pre.prettyprint 
{ 
  background-color:#eeeeee;
  font-family:Consolas; 
  font-size:10.5pt; 
  overflow:auto;
  padding:5px;
}

/* Specify class=linenums on a pre to get line numbering */
ol.linenums { margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0 } /* IE indents via margin-left */
li.L0,
li.L1,
li.L2,
li.L3,
li.L5,
li.L6,
li.L7,
li.L8 { list-style-type: none }
/* Alternate shading for lines */
li.L1,
li.L3,
li.L5,
li.L7,
li.L9 { background: #eee }

Also you have to add the following javascript between the <head></head> tags of your blog.

  <script src="https://cdn.rawgit.com/google/code-prettify/master/loader/run_prettify.js"></script>

And add onload='prettyPrint()' in the body tag.

<body onload='prettyPrint()'>

Now you can create posts with code snippets stackoverflow.com style.
You need to add your code between <pre class="prettyprint"> and </pre>.

<pre class="prettyprint lang-cs">

// A Hello World! program in C#.
using System;
namespace HelloWorld
{
    class Hello 
    {
        static void Main() 
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");

            // Keep the console window open in debug mode.
            Console.WriteLine("Press any key to exit.");
            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }
}

</pre>

The result of the code snippet is:

// A Hello World! program in C#.
using System;
namespace HelloWorld
{
    class Hello 
    {
        static void Main() 
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");

            // Keep the console window open in debug mode.
            Console.WriteLine("Press any key to exit.");
            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }
}