C# – Cannot call COM object created from STAThread from oher STA threads

ccominteropmarshallingmultithreading

I am new to COM and trying to understand the difference between STA and MTA. I tried to create an example that would show that COM can manage calls to object created in STA that is not thread-safe.

MyCalcServer class here is created using ATL Simple Object. The settings used are the same as in this article:

Threading Model: Apartment
Aggregation: No
Interface: Custom

MyCalcServer COM object is used in another C# project which is:

class Program
{
    [STAThread]
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        MyCOMLib.MyCalcServer instance = new MyCOMLib.MyCalcServer();
        string output1;
        instance.ChangeValue("Gant", out output1);
        Console.WriteLine(output1);


        Thread t1 = new Thread(() =>
        {
            while (true)
            {
                string output;
                instance.ChangeValue("Gant", out output);
                Console.WriteLine(output);
            }
        });
        t1.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
        t1.Start();

        // :
        // also has t2 and t3 here with similar code
        // :

        t1.Join(); t2.Join(); t3.Join();

    }
}

However, this always results in InvalidCastException (E_NOINTERFACE) raised inside t1's code. I have also tried changing ApartmentState to MTA with no success.

Unable to cast COM object of type
'MyCOMLib.MyCalcServerClass' to
interface type
'MyCOMLib.IMyCalcServer'. This
operation failed because the
QueryInterface call on the COM
component for the interface with IID
'{B005DB8C-7B21-4898-9DEC-CBEBE175BB21}'
failed due to the following error: No
such interface supported (Exception
from HRESULT: 0x80004002
(E_NOINTERFACE)).

Could anybody please explain what I am doing wrong here?

Best Answer

You explicitly ask COM to create instance for main thread, then you pass this to another thread. Of course in some circumstance it is allowed (for example declare MyCalcServer as multithread).

But in your case it looks you need create proxy for another thread. In regular COM clients it is done by CoMarshalInterThreadInterfaceInStream. There is large article to clarify it http://www.codeproject.com/KB/COM/cominterop.aspx

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Ruby – How to call shell commands from Ruby

This explanation is based on a commented Ruby script from a friend of mine. If you want to improve the script, feel free to update it at the link.

First, note that when Ruby calls out to a shell, it typically calls /bin/sh, not Bash. Some Bash syntax is not supported by /bin/sh on all systems.

Here are ways to execute a shell script:

cmd = "echo 'hi'" # Sample string that can be used

Kernel#` , commonly called backticks – `cmd`

This is like many other languages, including Bash, PHP, and Perl.

Returns the result (i.e. standard output) of the shell command.

Docs: http://ruby-doc.org/core/Kernel.html#method-i-60
```
value = `echo 'hi'`
value = `#{cmd}`
```
Built-in syntax, %x( cmd )

Following the x character is a delimiter, which can be any character. If the delimiter is one of the characters (, [, {, or <, the literal consists of the characters up to the matching closing delimiter, taking account of nested delimiter pairs. For all other delimiters, the literal comprises the characters up to the next occurrence of the delimiter character. String interpolation #{ ... } is allowed.

Returns the result (i.e. standard output) of the shell command, just like the backticks.

Docs: https://docs.ruby-lang.org/en/master/syntax/literals_rdoc.html#label-Percent+Strings
```
value = %x( echo 'hi' )
value = %x[ #{cmd} ]
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Kernel#system

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Returns true if the command was found and run successfully, false otherwise.

Docs: http://ruby-doc.org/core/Kernel.html#method-i-system
```
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Returns none, the current process is replaced and never continues.

Docs: http://ruby-doc.org/core/Kernel.html#method-i-exec
```
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Here's some extra advice: $?, which is the same as $CHILD_STATUS, accesses the status of the last system executed command if you use the backticks, system() or %x{}. You can then access the exitstatus and pid properties:

$?.exitstatus

For more reading see:

C# – Why cannot I cast the COM object to the interface it implements in C#

This exception can be a DLL Hell problem. But the simplest explanation is for what's missing from your snippet. Your Main() method is missing the [STAThread] attribute.

That's an important attribute that matters when you use COM objects in your code. Most of them are not thread-safe and they require a thread that's a hospitable home for code that cannot support threading. The attribute forces the state of the thread, the one you can set explicitly with Thread.SetApartmentState(). Which you can't do for the main thread of an app since Windows starts it, so the attribute is used to configure it.

If you omit it then you the main thread joins the MTA, the multi-threaded apartment. COM is then forced to create a new thread to give the component a safe home. Which requires all calls to be marshaled from your main thread to that helper thread. The E_NOINTERFACE error is raised when COM cannot find a way to do that, it requires a helper that knows how to serialize the method arguments. That's something that needs to be taken care of by the COM developer, he didn't do that. Sloppy but not unusual.

A requirement of an STA thread is that it also pumps a message loop. The kind you get in a Winforms or WPF app from Application.Run(). You don't have one in your code. You might get away with it since you don't actually make any calls from a worker thread. But COM components tend to rely on the message loop to be available for their own use. You'll notice this by it misbehaving, not raising an event or deadlocking.

So start fixing this by applying the attribute first:

[STAThread]
static void Main(string[] args)
{
    // etc..
}

Which will solve this exception. If you have the described event raising or deadlock problems then you'll need to change your application type. Winforms is usually easy to get going.

I cannot otherwise take a stab at the mocking failure. There are significant deployment details involved with COM, registry keys have to be written to allow COM to discover components. You have to get the guids right and the interfaces have to be an exact match. Regasm.exe is required to register a .NET component that's [ComVisible]. If you try to mock an existing COM component, and got it right, then you'll destroy the registration for the real component. Not so sure that's worth pursuing ;) And you'll have a significant problem adding a reference to the [ComVisible] assembly, the IDE refuses to allow a .NET program to use a .NET assembly through COM. Only late binding can fool the machine. Judging from the COM exception, you haven't gotten close to mocking yet. Best to use the COM component as-is, also a real test.

Best Answer

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