Develop Reference

TeraTerm macro immediately closes when run as a process from c#

I'm currently working on a Winforms program from Visual Studio that acts as a control panel for a whole bunch of TeraTerm macros. I did a dumb and didn't add my first working version to version control, and now it's stopped working and I have no idea why/how to get back to what I had.
The function is question is
using System;
using System.IO.Ports;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Diagnostics;
...
namespace Test
{
public partial class MainWindow : Form
{
...
private void ImagesButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
RunMacro("F:\\Users\\Isaac\\Documents\\LED Sign Commands\\Macros\\StartDisplayImages.ttl");
}
....
private void RunMacro(string userArgument)
{
panel1.Enabled = false;
StatusLabel.Visible = true;
Process process = new Process();
ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo()
{
WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden,
#if DEBUG
FileName = "F:\\Users\\Isaac\\Documents\\LED Sign Commands\\teraterm\\ttpmacro.exe",
#else
FileName = "..\\teraterm\\ttpmacro.exe",
#endif
Arguments = userArgument
};
process.StartInfo = startInfo;
process.Start();
process.WaitForExit();
panel1.Enabled = true;
StatusLabel.Visible = false;
}
...
}
}
When run, I see that ttpmacro.exe does start, and if I omit the Arguments assignment then it will prompt me to select a macro; if I select StartDisplayImages.ttl, it will run as expected. If I include it as an argument as above, however, then ttpmacro still opens but immediately closes. No error comes up (and RedirectStandardOutput/Error produce nothing), it's as if ttpmacro accepts the file but won't do anything with it. I've confirmed both filepaths are valid and correct.
While I didn't add version control, I did extract the main file using ILSpy, and my original functions in the working version were:
private void ImagesButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
RunMacro("/V ..\\Macros\\StartDisplayImages.ttl");
}
private void RunMacro(string userArgument)
{
panel1.Enabled = false;
StatusLabel.Visible = true;
Process process = new Process();
ProcessStartInfo startInfo = (process.StartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo
{
WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden,
FileName = "..\\teraterm\\ttpmacro.exe",
Arguments = userArgument
});
process.Start();
process.WaitForExit();
panel1.Enabled = true;
StatusLabel.Visible = false;
}
Being from the published release, the filepaths are relative to the folder of the application. Other than that, the only difference seems to be minor syntax in how process.StartInfo is assigned, but I tried reverting that with no luck. Target framework is .NET Core 3.1. The /V flag isn't the issue; removing it simply makes the ttpmacro window visible for the fraction of a second it runs before closing. If I use a commandline execution of the same file (eg start "F:/Users/.../ttpmacro.exe" "F:/.../StartDisplayImages.ttl"), it also runs as expected.

It turned out the problem was the spaces in the full macro filepath, and surrounding it with escaped double quotes resolved the issue. TeraTerm just wasn't telling me that it wasn't finding the file. Should have been obvious, but I was sure it had been working previously when I was debugging, without requiring the quotes.

Trying to call Python script in C#

I'm making a mini Python IDE for fun. Why not. So I want to be able to call a python script from C# and right now I'm just testing a simple scenario. I know this is NOT how professional IDE's probably work.
private void Run_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
run_cmd("C:/Python34/python.exe", "C:/Users/Alaseel/Desktop/test.py");
}
private void About_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// Open the about documentation
}
private void run_cmd(string cmd, string args)
{
ProcessStartInfo start = new ProcessStartInfo();
start.FileName = "C:/Python34/python.exe";
start.Arguments = string.Format("{0} {1}", cmd, args);
start.UseShellExecute = false;
start.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
using (Process process = Process.Start(start))
{
using (StreamReader reader = process.StandardOutput)
{
string result = reader.ReadToEnd();
Console.Write(result);
}
}
}
Whenever I click the "run" button on the Windows Form app, it briefly runs the python.exe then closes. It does not actually run the file that I passed in. Am I doing something wrong?
PS: The run_cmd method is NOT mine. I looked up this issue previously on a thread and used their code. But I think I'm using the method wrong.
Any ideas? Thank you!

You are actually putting twice your python.exe path in this case. You have it as cmd and start.Filename
Your commandline will look like : "C:/Python34/python.exe" "C:/Python34/python.exe" "C:/Users/Alaseel/Desktop/test.py"
Which is probably an invalid command.

%~dp0 and running batch file from C# [duplicate]

I have some code that launches an external program, although is it possible to specify the working directory, as the external program is a console program:
Code:
private void button5_Click_2(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(#"update\update.exe");
}

Yes, it's possible, use ProcessStartInfo object to specify all the params you need and then just pass it to the Start method like that:
...
using System.Diagnostics;
...
var psi = new ProcessStartInfo(#"update\update.exe");
psi.WorkingDirectory = #"C:\workingDirectory";
Process.Start(psi);

You can specify the Working Directory using ProcessStartInfo.WorkingDirectory.
...
using System.Diagnostics;
...
var processStartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo(#"explorer.exe");
processStartInfo.WorkingDirectory = #"C:\";
var process = Process.Start(processStartInfo);

Input from forms can't execute .bat file

Hi everyone I've been creating this program for a day now. But it seems that I can't get it to work. What I want is, I have a windows form, who will get the IP address input and will execute a .bat file.
#echo off
wmic /node:x computersystem get username
where x is the string variable for my IP.
the command will print out the current logged in username.
Here's my c# code:
using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace wmic_forms
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
public string x;
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo();
psi.FileName = "C:\\ken.bat";
Process p = Process.Start(psi);
string strOutput = p.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
//p.WaitForExit();
psi.UseShellExecute = false;
psi.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
psi.Arguments = textBox1.Text;
MessageBox.Show(strOutput);
//Console.WriteLine(strOutput);
//Console.ReadLine();
}
private void textBox1_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
//my input text box for IP
x = textBox1.Text;
}
}
}
The code runs with no error. But it would only print out the entire strings from .bat file. Please give me feedback on how can I pass variable x to .bat file and execute its command.

You don't need a batch file to do that, simply run wmic with those parameters. And you especially don't need to follow malware practices of storing files in system folders, like the C: drive.
As to the specific problem in your code, you're setting the process object's properties after you launch it instead of before. Of course they don't matter anymore.
And while we're on the topic of refactoring, I'll remind you that it's not 1985 anymore to launch chains of scripts because the OS doesn't expose its inner workings. You can easily access the WMI API directly from C# using managed classes: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.management.managementscope(v=vs.110).aspx

Open Program from C# - also specifying the working directory

I have some code that launches an external program, although is it possible to specify the working directory, as the external program is a console program:
Code:
private void button5_Click_2(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(#"update\update.exe");
}

Yes, it's possible, use ProcessStartInfo object to specify all the params you need and then just pass it to the Start method like that:
...
using System.Diagnostics;
...
var psi = new ProcessStartInfo(#"update\update.exe");
psi.WorkingDirectory = #"C:\workingDirectory";
Process.Start(psi);

You can specify the Working Directory using ProcessStartInfo.WorkingDirectory.
...
using System.Diagnostics;
...
var processStartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo(#"explorer.exe");
processStartInfo.WorkingDirectory = #"C:\";
var process = Process.Start(processStartInfo);