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
I want to run an exe file by my c# code. The exe file is a console application written in c#.
The console application performs some actions which includes writing content in database and writing some files to directory.
The console application (exe file) expects some inputs from user.
Like it first asks , 'Do you want to reset database ?' y for yes and n for no.
again if user makes a choice then application again asks , 'do you want to reset files ?'
y for yes and n for no.
If user makes some choice the console application starts to get executed.
Now I want to run this exe console application by my c# code. I am trying like this
string strExePath = "exe path";
ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
startInfo.CreateNoWindow = false;
startInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
startInfo.FileName = strExePath;
startInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
using (Process exeProcess = Process.Start(startInfo))
{
exeProcess.WaitForExit();
}
I want to know how can I provide user inputs to the console application by my c# code?
Please help me out in this. Thanks in advance.
You can redirect input and output streams from your exe file.
See redirectstandardoutput
and redirectstandardinput for examples.
For reading:
// Start the child process.
Process p = new Process();
// Redirect the output stream of the child process.
p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
p.StartInfo.FileName = "Write500Lines.exe";
p.Start();
// Do not wait for the child process to exit before
// reading to the end of its redirected stream.
// p.WaitForExit();
// Read the output stream first and then wait.
string output = p.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
p.WaitForExit();
For writing:
...
myProcess.StartInfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;
myProcess.Start();
StreamWriter myStreamWriter = myProcess.StandardInput;
myStreamWriter.WriteLine("y");
...
myStreamWriter.Close();
ProcessStartInfo has a constructor that you can pass arguments to:
public ProcessStartInfo(string fileName, string arguments);
Alternatively, you can set it on it's property:
ProcessStartInfo p = new ProcessStartInfo();
p.Arguments = "some argument";
Here is a sample of how to pass arguments to the *.exe file:
Process p = new Process();
// Redirect the error stream of the child process.
p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;
p.StartInfo.FileName = #"\filepath.exe";
p.StartInfo.Arguments = "{insert arguments here}";
p.Start();
error += (p.StandardError.ReadToEnd());
p.WaitForExit();
I'm trying to run this .exe file from my c# code, it does call the .exe file but then it crashes midway through. If I click on the .exe on the explorer it does its job, so I wonder if there's a problem with the code I'm using to invoke it:
string fileName = "loadscript.exe";
Utils.Logger.Info("Calling script:" + fileName);
Process process = new Process();
process.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
process.StartInfo.FileName = fileName;
process.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
process.Start();
Thread.Sleep(10000);
process.WaitForExit();
int exitCode = process.ExitCode;
string output = process.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
Utils.Logger.Info(".exe Output: ");
Utils.Logger.Info(output);
Thread.Sleep(10000);
process.WaitForExit();
int exitCode = process.ExitCode;
string output = process.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
It seems to me like this is creating a deadlock and this might be the problem for the eventual crash. Remove the sleep and try this instead:
string output = process.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
process.WaitForExit();
int exitCode = process.ExitCode;
Please see the answer to this question for an explanation:
ResGen.exe stucks when redirect output
process.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
That requires you to specify the name of a .exe file. With it set to true, another Windows function is used to start the file, it is smart enough to figure out that a .bat file requires cmd.exe to be started to interpret the commands in the .bat file.
Which is what you need to do yourself now, the FileName must be "cmd.exe", the Arguments property needs to be "loadscript.bat".
Can you execute another EXE file from within a C# console application?
Can you pass arguments?
Can you get the exit code back?
Like this:
var proc = new Process();
proc.StartInfo.FileName = "something.exe";
proc.StartInfo.Arguments = "-v -s -a";
proc.Start();
proc.WaitForExit();
var exitCode = proc.ExitCode;
proc.Close();
I'm trying to run a batch file, as another user, from my web app. For some reason, the batch file hangs! I can see "cmd.exe" running in the task manager, but it just sits there forever, unable to be killed, and the batch file is not running. Here's my code:
SecureString password = new SecureString();
foreach (char c in "mypassword".ToCharArray())
password.AppendChar(c);
ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo();
psi.WorkingDirectory = #"c:\build";
psi.FileName = Environment.SystemDirectory + #"\cmd.exe";
psi.Arguments = "/q /c build.cmd";
psi.UseShellExecute = false;
psi.UserName = "builder";
psi.Password = password;
Process.Start(psi);
If you didn't guess, this batch file builds my application (a different application than the one that is executing this command).
The Process.Start(psi); line returns immediately, as it should, but the batch file just seems to hang, without executing. Any ideas?
EDIT: See my answer below for the contents of the batch file.
The output.txt never gets created.
I added these lines:
psi.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
Process p = Process.Start(psi);
String outp = p.StandardOutput.ReadLine();
and stepped through them in debug mode. The code hangs on the ReadLine(). I'm stumped!
I believe I've found the answer. It seems that Microsoft, in all their infinite wisdom, has blocked batch files from being executed by IIS in Windows Server 2003. Brenden Tompkins has a work-around here:
http://codebetter.com/blogs/brendan.tompkins/archive/2004/05/13/13484.aspx
That won't work for me, because my batch file uses IF and GOTO, but it would definitely work for simple batch files.
Why not just do all the work in C# instead of using batch files?
I was bored so i wrote this real quick, it's just an outline of how I would do it since I don't know what the command line switches do or the file paths.
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;
using System.Security;
using System.Diagnostics;
namespace asdf
{
class StackoverflowQuestion
{
private const string MSBUILD = #"path\to\msbuild.exe";
private const string BMAIL = #"path\to\bmail.exe";
private const string WORKING_DIR = #"path\to\working_directory";
private string stdout;
private Process p;
public void DoWork()
{
// build project
StartProcess(MSBUILD, "myproject.csproj /t:Build", true);
}
public void StartProcess(string file, string args, bool redirectStdout)
{
SecureString password = new SecureString();
foreach (char c in "mypassword".ToCharArray())
password.AppendChar(c);
ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo();
p = new Process();
psi.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
psi.WorkingDirectory = WORKING_DIR;
psi.FileName = file;
psi.UseShellExecute = false;
psi.RedirectStandardOutput = redirectStdout;
psi.UserName = "builder";
psi.Password = password;
p.StartInfo = psi;
p.EnableRaisingEvents = true;
p.Exited += new EventHandler(p_Exited);
p.Start();
if (redirectStdout)
{
stdout = p.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
}
}
void p_Exited(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (p.ExitCode != 0)
{
// failed
StringBuilder args = new StringBuilder();
args.Append("-s k2smtpout.secureserver.net ");
args.Append("-f build#example.com ");
args.Append("-t josh#example.com ");
args.Append("-a \"Build failed.\" ");
args.AppendFormat("-m {0} -h", stdout);
// send email
StartProcess(BMAIL, args.ToString(), false);
}
}
}
}
Without seeing the build.cmd it's hard to tell what is going on, however, you should build the path using Path.Combine(arg1, arg2); It's the correct way to build a path.
Path.Combine( Environment.SystemDirectory, "cmd.exe" );
I don't remember now but don't you have to set UseShellExecute = true ?
Another possibility to "debug" it is to use standardoutput and then read from it:
psi.RedirectStandardOutput = True;
Process proc = Process.Start(psi);
String whatever = proc.StandardOutput.ReadLine();
In order to "see" what's going on, I'd suggest you transform the process into something more interactive (turn off Echo off) and put some "prints" to see if anything is actually happening. What is in the output.txt file after you run this?
Does the bmail actually executes?
Put some prints after/before to see what's going on.
Also add "#" to the arguments, just in case:
psi.Arguments = #"/q /c build.cmd";
It has to be something very simple :)
My guess would be that the build.cmd is waiting for some sort of user-interaction/reply. If you log the output of the command with the "> logfile.txt" operator at the end, it might help you find the problem.
Here's the contents of build.cmd:
#echo off
set path=C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727;%path%
msbuild myproject.csproj /t:Build > output.txt
IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 goto :end
:error
bmail -s k2smtpout.secureserver.net -f build#example.com -t josh#example.com -a "Build failed." -m output.txt -h
:end
del output.txt
As you can see, I'm careful not to output anything. It all goes to a file that gets emailed to me if the build happens to fail. I've actually been running this file as a scheduled task nightly for quite a while now. I'm trying to build a web app that allows me to run it on demand.
Thanks for everyone's help so far! The Path.Combine tip was particularly useful.
I think cmd.exe hangs if the parameters are incorrect.
If the batch executes correctly then I would just shell execute it like this instead.
ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo();
Process p = new Process();
psi.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
psi.WorkingDirectory = #"c:\build";
psi.FileName = #"C:\build\build.cmd";
psi.UseShellExecute = true;
psi.UserName = "builder";
psi.Password = password;
p.StartInfo = psi;
p.Start();
Also it could be that cmd.exe just can't find build.cmd so why not give the full path to the file?
What are the endlines of you batch? If the code hangs on ReadLine, then the problem might be that it's unable to read the batch file…