Develop Reference

Working with the command prompt in C#

I am working on a project of remotely receiving commands from a server, but I am facing a problem when working with the command prompt locally. Once I get it working locally, then I will move to remote communication.
Problem:
I have to completely hide the console, and client must not see any response when the client is working with the command line but it will show a console for a instance and then hide it.
I had to use c# to send a command to cmd.exe and receive the result back in C#. I have done it in one way by setting the StandardOutput... and input to true.
The commands are not working. For example, D: should change the directory to D and it does, but after that, if we use dir to see the directories in D, it does not show the appropriate directories.
Here is my code:
First Method
Process process = new Process();
ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
startInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
startInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
startInfo.Arguments = "/C " + textBoxInputCommand.Text + " >> " + " system";
process.StartInfo = startInfo;
process.Start();
Second Method
ProcessStartInfo procStartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("cmd", "/c " + textBoxInputCommand.Text);
procStartInfo.WorkingDirectory = #"c:\";
procStartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
procStartInfo.UseShellExecute = true;
procStartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
Process proc = new Process();
proc.StartInfo = procStartInfo;
proc.Start();
string result = proc.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
richTextBoxCommandOutput.Text += result;
I want the program to run as administrator because the exe it generates does not run commands when it runs from the C drive.

Try not to run the commands by passing them to cmd instead write the commands passed by the client to a.bat file execute the .bat. file from your program this will probably hide your command prompt window.
You can also use process.OutputDataRecieved event handler to do anything with the output.
If you want to execute command using administrator rights you can use runascommand. It is equivalent to the sudo command in Linux. Here is a piece of code may be it will help you
var process = new Process();
var startinfo = new ProcessStartInfo(#"c:\users\Shashwat\Desktop\test.bat");
startinfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
startinfo.UseShellExecute = false;
process.StartInfo = startinfo;
process.OutputDataRecieved += DoSomething;
process.Start();
process.BeginOutputReadLine();
process.WaitForExit();
//Event Handler
public void DoSomething(object sener, DataReceivedEventArgs args)
{
//Do something
}
Hope it helps you.

You could hide command prompt window by adding this line of code:
startInfo.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
or do not create it at all
startInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
Here can be found a few awarding solutions:
Run Command Prompt Commands

Cannot see the results of command line

Previously somebody has asked how to run a command line command in C# from visual studio and the beneath was the answer.
I tried the same intended to call a tool called cccc which can run on command line. But when I run the beneath code I do not get any results and nothing shows wrong.
Stating generally how can we run the same commands from C# as it was in command line and get the same results. Say I call a program (it could be any program that is able to run on command line, for instance, cccc, ccm, and so on) on command line and get some results. How to call the command line and give the arguments so it will call in its turn the cccc or whatever and do the same thing as it was without C#.
string strCmdText;
strCmdText = "/C d: cd D:\\Exercises\\npp52\\PowerEditor\\src && dir /s /b | cccc - --outdir=d:\\myfolder";
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("CMD.exe", strCmdText);

Add 'pause' to the end of your command:
string strCmdText;
strCmdText = "/C d: cd D:\\Exercises\\npp52\\PowerEditor\\src && dir /s /b | cccc - --outdir=d:\\myfolder & pause";
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("CMD.exe", strCmdText);
or redirect console standard output to a stream.

Here need more magic with OutputDataReceived handler
void Main()
{
System.Diagnostics.Process proc = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
proc.StartInfo.FileName="cmd.exe";
proc.StartInfo.Arguments = "/c ping 127.0.0.1";
proc.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
proc.OutputDataReceived += new DataReceivedEventHandler(SortOutputHandler);
proc.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
proc.Start();
proc.BeginOutputReadLine();
proc.WaitForExit();
proc.Close();
}
private void SortOutputHandler(object sendingProcess,
DataReceivedEventArgs outLine)
{
if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(outLine.Data))
{
// Do what You need with out
Console.WriteLine(outLine.Data);
}
}

Instead of trying to put everything inside a string you could take advantage of the ProcessStartInfo class to better define your arguments
ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo();
psi.FileName = "CMD.EXE";
psi.WorkingDirectory = "D:\\Exercises\\npp52\\PowerEditor\\src ";
psi.Arguments = "/C dir /s /b | cccc - --outdir=d:\\myfolder"";
psi.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Normal;
Process.Start(psi);
Also with the command window open you could see if there are syntax errors in your command

Another problem is that you are not using RedirectStandardOutput, so output is discarded. Take a look at this answer.

Execute a Batch File From C#

I have a small problem. Okay let's say from my C# console application I want to run a batch file that will take an argument. The string variable at the stop of my C# application will be the string argument to pass to the batch file. How would I go about doing it?
Here is my code so far my C# console program:
//String argument to pass to the batch file
string message = "Hello World";
System.Diagnostics.Process process = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
//startInfo.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
startInfo.FileName = "Greetings.bat";
startInfo.Arguments = "/C " + message;
process.StartInfo = startInfo;
process.Start();
My Batch File
CLS
#ECHO OFF
ECHO %1

You can give argument like this.
ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo(filePath);
psi.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
psi.Arguments = "value1";

Is this possible to run a python code from C# through command prompt?

I want to run python code from C# through command Prompt.The Code is attached below
Process p = new Process();
p.StartInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
p.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = #"d:";
p.StartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Normal;
p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;
p.Start();
p.StandardInput.WriteLine(#"cd D:\python-source\mypgms");
p.StandardInput.WriteLine(#"main.py -i example-8.xml -o output-8.xml");
string output = p.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
p.WaitForExit();
Console.WriteLine("Output:");
Console.WriteLine(output);
Output :
D:\python-source\mypgms>main.py -i example-8.xml -o output-8.xml
D:\python-source\mypgms>
But nothing happened.Actually main.py is my main program and it takes 2 arguments. one is input xml file and another one is converted output xml file.
But i dont know how to run this python script from C# through command prompt. Please Guide me to get out of this issue...
Thanks & Regards,
P.SARAVANAN

I think you are mistaken in executing cmd.exe. I'd say you should be executing python.exe, or perhaps executing main.py with UseShellExecute set to true.
At the moment, your code blocks at p.WaitForExit() because cmd.exe is waiting for your input. You would need to type exit to make cmd.exe terminate. You could add this to your code:
p.StandardInput.WriteLine(#"exit");
But I would just cut out cmd.exe altogether and call python.exe directly. So far as I can see, cmd.exe is just adding extra complexity for absolutely no benefit.
I think you need something along these lines:
var p = new Process();
p.StartInfo.FileName = #"Python.exe";
p.StartInfo.Arguments = "main.py input.xml output.xml";
p.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = #"D:\python-source \mypgms";
p.StartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Normal;
p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
p.Start();
p.WaitForExit();
Also the Python script appears to output to a file rather than to stdout. So when you do p.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd() there will be nothing there.

Why not host IronPython in your app and then execute the script?
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/charlie/archive/2009/10/25/hosting-ironpython-in-a-c-4-0-program.aspx
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/53611/Embedding-IronPython-in-a-C-Application

or use py2exe to pragmatically convert your python script to exe program.
detail steps...
download and install py2exe.
put your main.py input.xml and output.xml in c:\temp\
create setup.py and put it in folder above too
setup.py should contain...
from distutils.core import setup
import py2exe
setup(console=['main.py'])
your c# code then can be...
var proc = new Process();
proc.StartInfo.FileName = #"Python.exe";
proc.StartInfo.Arguments = #"setup.py py2exe";
proc.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = #"C:\temp\";
proc.Start();
proc.WaitForExit();
proc.StartInfo.FileName = #"C:\temp\dist\main.exe";
proc.StartInfo.Arguments = "input.xml output.xml";
proc.Start();
proc.WaitForExit();

Executing command-prompt command in C#

:)
I have a software which can be executed via command line, and now I want it to be executed directly from my C# app. Sadly, there is no error but I still can't do it. :(
The path of .exe file of the software is C:\program files\mysoftware.exe
The command I would like to input is
cd c:\program files\mysoftwareFolder
enter
mysoftware.exe d:\myfolder\file1.xxx d:\myfolder\file2.xxx -mycommand
enter
exit
The commands above work so well in the actual command prompt, but they just don't work from my C# code.
Here is the code:
Process cmdprocess = new Process();
System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo startinfo = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo();
startinfo.FileName = "cmd";
startinfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
startinfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
startinfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;
startinfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
startinfo.UseShellExecute = false;
cmdprocess.StartInfo = startinfo;
cmdprocess.Start();
System.IO.StreamReader sr = cmdprocess.StandardOutput;
System.IO.StreamWriter sw = cmdprocess.StandardInput;
sw.WriteLine(#"echo on");
sw.WriteLine(#"c:");
sw.WriteLine(#"cd" +#"program files\mysoftwarefolder");
sw.WriteLine(#"mysoftware.exe" +#"d:\myfolder\file1.xxx" +#"d:\myfolder\file2.xxx" +#"-mycommand");
sw.WriteLine(#"exit");
sw.Close();
sr.Close();
I guess the incorrect parts might be "startinfo.FileName = "cmd";" or the way I typed the command in the code, but I have no idea how to correct them. :(
Please tell me what I did wrong. I appreciate every answer from you! :)))
UPDATE Thank you for your helps! I tried writing the command in batch file, but it only works in debugging mode. (I forgot to tell you guys that I am developing a web service.) When I run my external project which will use this C# service, it won't work. I don't know whether I should add something to my code or not.
help meeeeee pleaseeeee (T___T)

Write these commands in a batch file and execute the batch file.
In batch file:
cd c:\program files\mysoftwareFolder
mysoftware.exe
d:\myfolder\file1.xxx
d:\myfolder\file2.xxx -mycommand
exit
Code:
Process cmdprocess = new Process();
ProcessStartInfo startinfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
startinfo.FileName = "path to batchfile.bat";
startinfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
startinfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
startinfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;
startinfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
startinfo.UseShellExecute = false;
cmdprocess.StartInfo = startinfo;
cmdprocess.Start();

Instead of:
startinfo.FileName = "cmd";
Directly use
startinfo.FileName = #"c:\program files\mysoftwarefolder\mysoftware.exe";
Then pass the arguments to the start info as
startinfo.Arguments = #"d:\myfolder\file1.xxx " +#"d:\myfolder\file2.xxx " +#"-mycommand";
So the whole code looks like:
Process p = new Process();
p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
p.StartInfo.FileName = #"c:\program files\mysoftwarefolder\mysoftware.exe";
p.StartInfo.Arguments = #"d:\myfolder\file1.xxx " +#"d:\myfolder\file2.xxx " +#"-mycommand";
p.Start();
string output = p.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
p.WaitForExit();
If you need to see output from your program you can simply use the output string.

2 things: I think you have spacing problems and you're not reading the result of these commands. cmd is probably telling you ..."is not recognized as an internal or external command"
If you look at what you're throwing at cmd, it will be:
echo on
c:
cdprogram files\mysoftware folder
mysoftware.exed:\myfolder\file1.xxx
That won't work when you try it in cmd. CMD is almost certainly kicking back error messages at you, but you're never reading from sr so you'll never know it.
I'd add in some spaces and include all the paths in quotes internally like so:
sw.WriteLine(#"echo on");
sw.WriteLine(#"c:");
sw.WriteLine("cd \"program files\\mysoftwarefolder\"");
sw.WriteLine("mysoftware.exe \"d:\\myfolder\\file1.xxx\" d:\\myfolder\\file2.xxx\" -mycommand");
sw.WriteLine(#"exit");