Severity: Info

Summary

ServiceValidationRules.Validate checks service name length but not its character set. The Windows SCM rejects names containing \ or / (and treats leading/trailing whitespace inconsistently). When an invalid name is submitted, the user sees a generic Win32 error surfaced from CreateService / ChangeServiceConfig rather than a friendly validation message.

File and lines

src/Servy.Core/Validators/ServiceValidationRules.cs, lines 42–50:

if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(dto.Name) || string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(dto.ExecutablePath))
{
    result.Errors.Add(Strings.Msg_ValidationError);
    return result; // Stop early for missing vital fields
}

// Length Bounds
if (dto.Name.Length > AppConfig.MaxServiceNameLength)
    result.Warnings.Add(string.Format(Strings.Msg_ServiceNameLengthReached, AppConfig.MaxServiceNameLength));

Only presence and length are checked. Characters like \, /, and embedded whitespace are accepted at validation time but rejected later by the SCM.

For comparison, ServiceDependenciesValidator (see the change in #324) already enforces a character regex on dependency names — the same rigor would be appropriate for the primary service name.

Explanation

Windows service names must:

• Not contain \ or /
• Be ≤ 256 characters (already enforced here)
• Not be empty or whitespace-only (already enforced via IsNullOrWhiteSpace)

Per Microsoft docs on CreateService, the service name is subject to the same restrictions as an SCM key name: forward slash and backslash are forbidden, and the name is not case-sensitive. Submitting My/Service or path\svc triggers a Win32 error 123 (ERROR_INVALID_NAME) that bubbles up as a raw error message instead of a validation failure the caller can surface nicely.

Suggested fix

Add an explicit character-set check alongside the existing length/presence checks:

// Basic Requirements
if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(dto.Name) || string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(dto.ExecutablePath))
{
    result.Errors.Add(Strings.Msg_ValidationError);
    return result;
}

if (dto.Name.IndexOfAny(new[] { '\', '/' }) >= 0)
    result.Errors.Add(Strings.Msg_InvalidServiceName); // new Strings resource

Then add a matching Msg_InvalidServiceName entry to the Servy.Core Strings resources (English + translations).