Archisteamfarm: NLog exception when I run ASF as a systemd service (Linux/Mono)

[guihkx]

If I run ASF directly from the console, it works perfectly fine. However, since I have a server running ASF 24/7, I created a systemd unit file to make ASF restart everytime when there's any issue with the server. Here's my asf.service:

[Unit]
Description=Archi Steam Farm
After=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=myself
Environment="MONO_ENV_OPTIONS=--desktop"
ExecStart=/usr/bin/mono /home/myself/ASF.exe
Restart=always
RestartSec=15s

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Alias=asf.service

And here's the journalctl log:

Jul 12 01:17:04 myself systemd[1]: Started Archi Steam Farm.
Jul 12 01:17:04 myself systemd[1]: Starting Archi Steam Farm...
Jul 12 01:17:04 myself mono[3660]: [ERROR] FATAL UNHANDLED EXCEPTION: System.TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for 'NLog.Targets.ColoredConsoleTarget' threw an exception. ---> System.UriFormatException: Invalid URI: The hostname could not be parsed.
Jul 12 01:17:04 myself mono[3660]: at System.Uri.Parse (UriKind kind, System.String uriString) <0x405b04e0 + 0x000b3> in <filename unknown>:0
Jul 12 01:17:04 myself mono[3660]: at System.Uri.ParseUri (UriKind kind) <0x405b03c0 + 0x00023> in <filename unknown>:0
Jul 12 01:17:04 myself mono[3660]: at System.Uri..ctor (System.String uriString, Boolean dontEscape) <0x405b0140 + 0x001b7> in <filename unknown>:0
Jul 12 01:17:04 myself mono[3660]: at System.Uri..ctor (System.String uriString) <0x405b0110 + 0x00013> in <filename unknown>:0
Jul 12 01:17:04 myself mono[3660]: at NLog.Config.ConfigurationItemFactory.BuildDefaultFactory () <0x405aaa10 + 0x0013b> in <filename unknown>:0
Jul 12 01:17:04 myself mono[3660]: at NLog.Config.ConfigurationItemFactory.get_Default () <0x405aa930 + 0x00017> in <filename unknown>:0
Jul 12 01:17:04 myself mono[3660]: at NLog.Conditions.ConditionParser.ParseExpression (System.String expressionText) <0x405aa8e0 + 0x0000f> in <filename unknown>:0
Jul 12 01:17:04 myself mono[3660]: at NLog.Conditions.ConditionExpression.op_Implicit (System.String conditionExpressionText) <0x405aa8c0 + 0x0000f> in <filename unknown>:0
Jul 12 01:17:04 myself mono[3660]: at NLog.Targets.ColoredConsoleTarget..cctor () <0x405aa520 + 0x0005f> in <filename unknown>:0
Jul 12 01:17:04 myself mono[3660]: --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
Jul 12 01:17:04 myself mono[3660]: at ArchiSteamFarm.Logging.InitCoreLoggers () <0x405a9f90 + 0x000cf> in <filename unknown>:0
Jul 12 01:17:04 myself mono[3660]: at ArchiSteamFarm.Program.Init (IEnumerable`1 args) <0x4057d3c0 + 0x000eb> in <filename unknown>:0
Jul 12 01:17:04 myself mono[3660]: at ArchiSteamFarm.Program.Main (System.String[] args) <0x40579c30 + 0x0002f> in <filename unknown>:0
Jul 12 01:17:04 myself mono[3660]: exception inside UnhandledException handler: Attempted to access a missing member.
Jul 12 01:17:11 myself systemd[1]: Stopped Archi Steam Farm.

Sorry if I'm missing some required configuration, I just couldn't find it. Server specs:

CentOS Linux release 7.2.1511 (Core)
Mono JIT compiler version 4.2.3 (Stable 4.2.3.4/832de4b Tue Mar 15 11:39:54 EDT 2016)
Copyright (C) 2002-2014 Novell, Inc, Xamarin Inc and Contributors. www.mono-project.com
        TLS:           __thread
        SIGSEGV:       altstack
        Notifications: epoll
        Architecture:  amd64
        Disabled:      none
        Misc:          softdebug
        LLVM:          supported, not enabled.
        GC:            sgen

Thanks in advance.

[guihkx]

After some research, I was able to make the service work again. I just added EnvironmentFile=/etc/environment into the [Service] section:

[Unit]
Description=Archi Steam Farm
After=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=myself
EnvironmentFile=/etc/environment
Environment="MONO_ENV_OPTIONS=--desktop"
ExecStart=/usr/bin/mono /home/myself/ASF.exe
Restart=always
RestartSec=15s

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Alias=asf.service

[JustArchi]

Weird because it should not happen, but good to know that you solved it.

[guihkx]

Just want to give an update on this:

If you _do not_ have a NLog.config file and you try run ASF as a systemd service, it won't work:

Aug 04 14:54:58 myself systemd[1]: Starting Archi Steam Farm...
Aug 04 14:54:58 myself mono[4590]: [ERROR] FATAL UNHANDLED EXCEPTION: System.TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for 'NLog.Targets.ColoredConsoleTarget' threw an exception. ---> System.UriFormatException: Invalid URI: The hostname could not be parsed.
Aug 04 14:54:58 myself mono[4590]: at System.Uri.Parse (UriKind kind, System.String uriString) <0x41833130 + 0x000ab> in <filename unknown>:0
Aug 04 14:54:58 myself mono[4590]: at System.Uri.ParseUri (UriKind kind) <0x41833010 + 0x00023> in <filename unknown>:0
Aug 04 14:54:58 myself mono[4590]: at System.Uri..ctor (System.String uriString, Boolean dontEscape) <0x41832da0 + 0x001b7> in <filename unknown>:0
Aug 04 14:54:58 myself mono[4590]: at System.Uri..ctor (System.String uriString) <0x41832d70 + 0x00013> in <filename unknown>:0
Aug 04 14:54:58 myself mono[4590]: at NLog.Config.ConfigurationItemFactory.BuildDefaultFactory () <0x4182b580 + 0x00133> in <filename unknown>:0
Aug 04 14:54:58 myself mono[4590]: at NLog.Config.ConfigurationItemFactory.get_Default () <0x4182b4b0 + 0x00017> in <filename unknown>:0
Aug 04 14:54:58 myself mono[4590]: at NLog.Conditions.ConditionParser.ParseExpression (System.String expressionText) <0x4182b460 + 0x0000f> in <filename unknown>:0
Aug 04 14:54:58 myself mono[4590]: at NLog.Conditions.ConditionExpression.op_Implicit (System.String conditionExpressionText) <0x4182b440 + 0x0000f> in <filename unknown>:0
Aug 04 14:54:58 myself mono[4590]: at NLog.Targets.ColoredConsoleTarget..cctor () <0x4182b110 + 0x0004f> in <filename unknown>:0
Aug 04 14:54:58 myself mono[4590]: --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
Aug 04 14:54:58 myself mono[4590]: at ArchiSteamFarm.Logging.InitCoreLoggers () <0x4182abd0 + 0x000b7> in <filename unknown>:0
Aug 04 14:54:58 myself mono[4590]: at ArchiSteamFarm.Program.Init (System.String[] args) <0x417bb3c0 + 0x000cb> in <filename unknown>:0
Aug 04 14:54:58 myself mono[4590]: at ArchiSteamFarm.Program.Main (System.String[] args) <0x417a58e0 + 0x0002f> in <filename unknown>:0
Aug 04 14:54:58 myself mono[4590]: exception inside UnhandledException handler: Access to the path "/log.txt" is denied.
Aug 04 14:55:13 myself systemd[1]: ASF.service holdoff time over, scheduling restart.

I don't know why it happens, and I'm not interested to look into it atm, so if you run into this problem like I did, just create a basic NLog.config from the Wiki page.

[JustArchi]

Aug 04 14:54:58 myself mono[4590]: exception inside UnhandledException handler: Access to the path "/log.txt" is denied.

[guihkx]

I saw that, but I don't understand what would I have to do to get rid of it... Creating a NLog.config file worked.

[JustArchi]

ASF falls back to classic log file when it crashes before NLog initializers, and because it crashed before moving to it's home directory, it tried /log.txt, as systemd probably initialized with home directory set to /. That's misc though.

If you really want to solve this issue, you should report it to NLog devs - https://github.com/NLog/NLog/issues

[guihkx]

Judging by the environment variables in the ASF process created by systemd, $HOME is correctly set, but what do I know... :grin:

Maybe I'll report to them later, thanks.

[JustArchi]

$HOME might be, but current directory is /.

[guihkx]

Mmmm, that makes sense, maybe I can try to set $PWD to see if changes anything.

[guihkx]

I don't even know if the current dictory can be controlled by an environment variable, lol

[JustArchi]

No, as I said - that issue is misc. https://github.com/JustArchi/ArchiSteamFarm/commit/eb886e8ca88a78188de4138d52e3291f007e01d7

It won't solve NLog issue though, only misc ASF one.

[JustArchi]

BTW, this issue is fixed since ASF V2.2.2.8 - no workaround in form of custom NLog.config is required anymore.