C# Process is Terminated due to StackOverFlowException

Question

This is my code. Running time increases memory usage until it stops due to this error:

Process is terminated due to StackOverFlowException

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace KillWW
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Starting... {0} ", DateTime.Now);
            killWinword();
           // Console.Read();
        }

        private static void killWinword()
        {
            var procs = Process.GetProcesses();

            foreach (var proc in procs)
            {
                if (proc.ProcessName == "WINWORD")
                {
                    TimeSpan runtime;
                    runtime = DateTime.Now - proc.StartTime;

                    if (DateTime.Now > proc.StartTime.AddSeconds(20))
                    {
                        proc.Kill();
                    }
                }
            }

            Thread.Sleep(1000);
            killWinword();
        }
    }
}

Can someone explain what the cause of it is? Please help me. Thanks.

Answer 1

Last line of KillWinWord is calling itself. So each second (after the sleep) you add a new layer on the stack.

If you want the kill feature to last forever, replace the recursive call by a while loop.