CPU friendly infinite loop

Solution 1:

To avoid the infinity loop simply use a WaitHandle. To let the process be exited from the outer world use a EventWaitHandle with a unique string. Below is an example.

If you start it the first time, it simple prints out a message every 10 seconds. If you start in the mean time a second instance of the program it will inform the other process to gracefully exit and exits itself also immediately. The CPU usage for this approach: 0%

private static void Main(string[] args)
{
    // Create a IPC wait handle with a unique identifier.
    bool createdNew;
    var waitHandle = new EventWaitHandle(false, EventResetMode.AutoReset, "CF2D4313-33DE-489D-9721-6AFF69841DEA", out createdNew);
    var signaled = false;

    // If the handle was already there, inform the other process to exit itself.
    // Afterwards we'll also die.
    if (!createdNew)
    {
        Log("Inform other process to stop.");
        waitHandle.Set();
        Log("Informer exited.");

        return;
    }

    // Start a another thread that does something every 10 seconds.
    var timer = new Timer(OnTimerElapsed, null, TimeSpan.Zero, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10));

    // Wait if someone tells us to die or do every five seconds something else.
    do
    {
        signaled = waitHandle.WaitOne(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5));
        // ToDo: Something else if desired.
    } while (!signaled);

    // The above loop with an interceptor could also be replaced by an endless waiter
    //waitHandle.WaitOne();

    Log("Got signal to kill myself.");
}

private static void Log(string message)
{
    Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now + ": " + message);
}

private static void OnTimerElapsed(object state)
{
    Log("Timer elapsed.");
}

Solution 2:

You can use System.Threading.Timer Class which provides ability to execute callback asynchronously in a given period of time.

public Timer(
    TimerCallback callback,
    Object state,
    int dueTime,
    int period
)

As alternative there is System.Timers.Timer class which exposes Elapsed Event which raises when a given period of time is elapsed.

Solution 3:

Why would you condone the use of an infinite loop? For this example would setting the program up as a scheduled task, to be run every minute, not be more economical?