Creating Windows and Linux background services in dotnet 6.0/7.0
by darren horrocksThere are times when you need an application to just sit there in the background and deal with the same repetitive task over and over again.
In dotnet core 3.0, a new type of template was introduced, “Worker Service”, which is a very easy way of creating Windows Services and Linux Daemons, and it is just as easy in dotnet 6 and 7 (if not, even easier).
The Basics
The “worker” template can be accessed in one of two ways:
- via the command line
mkdir myNewWorker
cd myNewWorker
dotnet new worker
- via Visual Studio
Either way, you end up with the same basic template to start with, which is your Startup class, and your Worker class.
The Startup Class
The startup class is your entry point to the executable In the initial template, we are
public static IHostBuilder CreateHostBuilder(string[] args)
{
return Host.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
.ConfigureServices((hostContext, services) =>
{
services.AddHostedService<Worker>();
});
}
The first thing we need to do is add the generic host library nuget package Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting and switch the SDK to the worker SDK.
You can do this by opening up your csproj file and making the following changes:
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Worker">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>net7.0</TargetFramework>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting" />
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
Next, we need to add the following lines to our CreateHostBuilder.
public static IHostBuilder CreateHostBuilder(string[] args)
{
return Host.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
.UseSystemd()
.UseWindowsService()
.ConfigureServices((hostContext, services) =>
{
services.AddHostedService<Worker>();
});
}
The Worker class
Lastly, we can create our background service worker class, which is executed asynchronously, has logging, and has configuration built in too.
public class Worker : BackgroundService
{
private readonly ILogger<Worker> _logger;
private readonly IConfiguration configuration;
public Worker(ILogger<Worker> logger, IConfiguration configuration)
{
_logger = logger;
this.configuration = configuration;
}
protected override async Task ExecuteAsync(CancellationToken stoppingToken)
{
while (!stoppingToken.IsCancellationRequested)
{
await Task.Delay(1000, stoppingToken);
}
}
}