Subscribing to Events

Article
08/19/2020

To subscribe to events, call the EvtSubscribe function. You can subscribe to events from one or more Admin or Operational channels. The channel can exist on the local computer or a remote computer. To specify the events that you want to subscribe to, you can use an XPath query or a structure XML query. For details on writing the query, see Consuming Events.

Windows Event Log provides two models for event subscription:

The push model pushes events asynchronously to a callback that you implement.
The pull model uses an event handle that you create to signal you when there are events available that match your query criteria. You then enumerate the events in the result set.

You can subscribe to past and future events, future events only, or past and future events beginning after the bookmarked event.

For details on subscribing to events, see Push Subscriptions or Pull Subscriptions.

For details on rendering the events, see Rendering Events.

If you want to subscribe to events from where you left off, create a bookmark before ending your subscription and use it the next time you subscribe to events. For details, see Bookmarking Events.

Push Subscriptions

The following example shows how to subscribe to events, implement the subscription callback, and render the events.

#include <windows.h>
#include <conio.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <winevt.h>

#pragma comment(lib, "wevtapi.lib")

DWORD WINAPI SubscriptionCallback(EVT_SUBSCRIBE_NOTIFY_ACTION action, PVOID pContext, EVT_HANDLE hEvent);
DWORD PrintEvent(EVT_HANDLE hEvent);


void main(void)
{
    DWORD status = ERROR_SUCCESS;
    EVT_HANDLE hSubscription = NULL;
    LPWSTR pwsPath = L"<channel name goes here>";
    LPWSTR pwsQuery = L"<xpath query goes here>";

    // Subscribe to events beginning with the oldest event in the channel. The subscription
    // will return all current events in the channel and any future events that are raised
    // while the application is active.
    hSubscription = EvtSubscribe(NULL, NULL, pwsPath, pwsQuery, NULL, NULL, 
                                 (EVT_SUBSCRIBE_CALLBACK)SubscriptionCallback, EvtSubscribeStartAtOldestRecord);
    if (NULL == hSubscription)
    {
        status = GetLastError();

        if (ERROR_EVT_CHANNEL_NOT_FOUND == status)
            wprintf(L"Channel %s was not found.\n", pwsPath);
        else if (ERROR_EVT_INVALID_QUERY == status)
            // You can call EvtGetExtendedStatus to get information as to why the query is not valid.
            wprintf(L"The query \"%s\" is not valid.\n", pwsQuery);
        else
            wprintf(L"EvtSubscribe failed with %lu.\n", status);

        goto cleanup;
    }

    wprintf(L"Hit any key to quit\n\n");
    while (!_kbhit())
        Sleep(10);

cleanup:

    if (hSubscription)
        EvtClose(hSubscription);
}

// The callback that receives the events that match the query criteria. 
DWORD WINAPI SubscriptionCallback(EVT_SUBSCRIBE_NOTIFY_ACTION action, PVOID pContext, EVT_HANDLE hEvent)
{
    UNREFERENCED_PARAMETER(pContext);
    
    DWORD status = ERROR_SUCCESS;

    switch(action)
    {
        // You should only get the EvtSubscribeActionError action if your subscription flags 
        // includes EvtSubscribeStrict and the channel contains missing event records.
        case EvtSubscribeActionError:
            if (ERROR_EVT_QUERY_RESULT_STALE == (DWORD)hEvent)
            {
                wprintf(L"The subscription callback was notified that event records are missing.\n");
                // Handle if this is an issue for your application.
            }
            else
            {
                wprintf(L"The subscription callback received the following Win32 error: %lu\n", (DWORD)hEvent);
            }
            break;

        case EvtSubscribeActionDeliver:
            if (ERROR_SUCCESS != (status = PrintEvent(hEvent)))
            {
                goto cleanup;
            }
            break;

        default:
            wprintf(L"SubscriptionCallback: Unknown action.\n");
    }

cleanup:

    if (ERROR_SUCCESS != status)
    {
        // End subscription - Use some kind of IPC mechanism to signal
        // your application to close the subscription handle.
    }

    return status; // The service ignores the returned status.
}

// Render the event as an XML string and print it.
DWORD PrintEvent(EVT_HANDLE hEvent)
{
    DWORD status = ERROR_SUCCESS;
    DWORD dwBufferSize = 0;
    DWORD dwBufferUsed = 0;
    DWORD dwPropertyCount = 0;
    LPWSTR pRenderedContent = NULL;

    if (!EvtRender(NULL, hEvent, EvtRenderEventXml, dwBufferSize, pRenderedContent, &dwBufferUsed, &dwPropertyCount))
    {
        if (ERROR_INSUFFICIENT_BUFFER == (status = GetLastError()))
        {
            dwBufferSize = dwBufferUsed;
            pRenderedContent = (LPWSTR)malloc(dwBufferSize);
            if (pRenderedContent)
            {
                EvtRender(NULL, hEvent, EvtRenderEventXml, dwBufferSize, pRenderedContent, &dwBufferUsed, &dwPropertyCount);
            }
            else
            {
                wprintf(L"malloc failed\n");
                status = ERROR_OUTOFMEMORY;
                goto cleanup;
            }
        }

        if (ERROR_SUCCESS != (status = GetLastError()))
        {
            wprintf(L"EvtRender failed with %d\n", status);
            goto cleanup;
        }
    }

    wprintf(L"%s\n\n", pRenderedContent);

cleanup:

    if (pRenderedContent)
        free(pRenderedContent);

    return status;
}

Pull Subscriptions

The pull subscription model uses an event object (see the CreateEventEx function) to signal the application that there are events in the result set that match the query criteria. Create a loop construct that waits on the event object until the event is signaled. Then, call the EvtNext function in a loop to enumerate the events in the result set. When the EvtNext function fails and sets the last error to ERROR_NO_MORE_ITEMS, reset the event object and wait for the service to signal the object again when there are events in the result set.

The following example shows how to use the pull subscription model.

#include <windows.h>
#include <conio.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <winevt.h>

#pragma comment(lib, "wevtapi.lib")

#define ARRAY_SIZE 10

DWORD EnumerateResults(EVT_HANDLE hResults);
DWORD PrintEvent(EVT_HANDLE hEvent);
BOOL IsKeyEvent(HANDLE hStdIn);

void __cdecl wmain()
{
    DWORD status = ERROR_SUCCESS;
    EVT_HANDLE hSubscription = NULL;
    LPWSTR pwsPath = L"<channel name goes here>";
    LPWSTR pwsQuery = L"*";
    HANDLE aWaitHandles[2];
    DWORD dwWait = 0;

    // Get a handle for console input, so you can break out of the loop.
    aWaitHandles[0] = GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE);
    if (INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE == aWaitHandles[0])
    {
        wprintf(L"GetStdHandle failed with %lu.\n", GetLastError());
        goto cleanup;
    }

    // Get a handle to a manual reset event object that the subscription will signal
    // when events become available that match your query criteria.
    aWaitHandles[1] = CreateEvent(NULL, TRUE, TRUE, NULL);
    if (NULL == aWaitHandles[1])
    {
        wprintf(L"CreateEvent failed with %lu.\n", GetLastError());
        goto cleanup;
    }

    // Subscribe to events.
    hSubscription = EvtSubscribe(NULL, aWaitHandles[1], pwsPath, pwsQuery, NULL, NULL, NULL, EvtSubscribeStartAtOldestRecord);
    if (NULL == hSubscription)
    {
        status = GetLastError();

        if (ERROR_EVT_CHANNEL_NOT_FOUND == status)
            wprintf(L"Channel %s was not found.\n", pwsPath);
        else if (ERROR_EVT_INVALID_QUERY == status)
            wprintf(L"The query %s was not found.\n", pwsQuery);
        else
            wprintf(L"EvtSubscribe failed with %lu.\n", status);

        goto cleanup;
    }

    wprintf(L"Press any key to quit.\n");

    // Loop until the user presses a key or there is an error.
    while (true)
    {
        dwWait = WaitForMultipleObjects(sizeof(aWaitHandles)/sizeof(HANDLE), aWaitHandles, FALSE, INFINITE);

        if (0 == dwWait - WAIT_OBJECT_0)  // Console input
        {
            if (IsKeyEvent(aWaitHandles[0]))
                break;
        }
        else if (1 == dwWait - WAIT_OBJECT_0) // Query results
        {
            if (ERROR_NO_MORE_ITEMS != (status = EnumerateResults(hSubscription)))
            {
                break;
            }

            ResetEvent(aWaitHandles[1]);
        }
        else
        {
            if (WAIT_FAILED == dwWait)
            {
                wprintf(L"WaitForSingleObject failed with %lu\n", GetLastError());
            }
            break;
        }
    }

cleanup:

    if (hSubscription)
        EvtClose(hSubscription);

    if (aWaitHandles[0])
        CloseHandle(aWaitHandles[0]);

    if (aWaitHandles[1])
        CloseHandle(aWaitHandles[1]);
}

// Enumerate the events in the result set.
DWORD EnumerateResults(EVT_HANDLE hResults)
{
    DWORD status = ERROR_SUCCESS;
    EVT_HANDLE hEvents[ARRAY_SIZE];
    DWORD dwReturned = 0;

    while (true)
    {
        // Get a block of events from the result set.
        if (!EvtNext(hResults, ARRAY_SIZE, hEvents, INFINITE, 0, &dwReturned))
        {
            if (ERROR_NO_MORE_ITEMS != (status = GetLastError()))
            {
                wprintf(L"EvtNext failed with %lu\n", status);
            }

            goto cleanup;
        }

        // For each event, call the PrintEvent function which renders the
        // event for display.
        for (DWORD i = 0; i < dwReturned; i++)
        {
            if (ERROR_SUCCESS == (status = PrintEvent(hEvents[i])))
            {
                EvtClose(hEvents[i]);
                hEvents[i] = NULL;
            }
            else
            {
                goto cleanup;
            }
        }
    }

cleanup:

    // Closes any events in case an error occurred above.
    for (DWORD i = 0; i < dwReturned; i++)
    {
        if (NULL != hEvents[i])
            EvtClose(hEvents[i]);
    }

    return status;
}

// Render the event as an XML string and print it.
DWORD PrintEvent(EVT_HANDLE hEvent)
{
    DWORD status = ERROR_SUCCESS;
    DWORD dwBufferSize = 0;
    DWORD dwBufferUsed = 0;
    DWORD dwPropertyCount = 0;
    LPWSTR pRenderedContent = NULL;

    // The EvtRenderEventXml flag tells EvtRender to render the event as an XML string.
    if (!EvtRender(NULL, hEvent, EvtRenderEventXml, dwBufferSize, pRenderedContent, &dwBufferUsed, &dwPropertyCount))
    {
        if (ERROR_INSUFFICIENT_BUFFER == (status = GetLastError()))
        {
            dwBufferSize = dwBufferUsed;
            pRenderedContent = (LPWSTR)malloc(dwBufferSize);
            if (pRenderedContent)
            {
                EvtRender(NULL, hEvent, EvtRenderEventXml, dwBufferSize, pRenderedContent, &dwBufferUsed, &dwPropertyCount);
            }
            else
            {
                wprintf(L"malloc failed\n");
                status = ERROR_OUTOFMEMORY;
                goto cleanup;
            }
        }

        if (ERROR_SUCCESS != (status = GetLastError()))
        {
            wprintf(L"EvtRender failed with %d\n", GetLastError());
            goto cleanup;
        }
    }

    wprintf(L"\n\n%s", pRenderedContent);

cleanup:

    if (pRenderedContent)
        free(pRenderedContent);

    return status;
}

// Determines whether the console input was a key event.
BOOL IsKeyEvent(HANDLE hStdIn)
{
    INPUT_RECORD Record[128];
    DWORD dwRecordsRead = 0;
    BOOL fKeyPress = FALSE;

    if (ReadConsoleInput(hStdIn, Record, 128, &dwRecordsRead))
    {
        for (DWORD i = 0; i < dwRecordsRead; i++)
        {
            if (KEY_EVENT == Record[i].EventType)
            {
                fKeyPress = TRUE;
                break;
            }
        }
    }

    return fKeyPress;
}

Subscribing to Events

Push Subscriptions

Pull Subscriptions

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