I have an exe that I would like to use by executing it with command line parameters.
var query = Path.Combine(path, calculator.ExeName + ".exe");
var p = new Process();
p.StartInfo.FileName = query;
//the command line parameter that causes the exe to start in an invisible mode
p.StartInfo.Arguments = "episrc"
p.Start();
This code works and it starts the exe but there's one problem : the exe is supposed to be writing on a file in its directory but that doesn't happen. The process exits successfully (Exitcode0). What could be the cause of this problem?
I have a Delphi code that executes successfully the exe and the exe writes to the file but it's using the ExecProcess from win32 API thus the exe is valid and working.
Also if I try to execute it from the command prompt like so : kowwinnt.exe episrc it writes to the file successfully.
You should set the Working Directory.
Your code would look like this:
var query = Path.Combine(path, calculator.ExeName + ".exe");
var p = new Process();
p.StartInfo.FileName = query;
p.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = path;
//the command line parameter that causes the exe to start in an invisible mode
p.StartInfo.Arguments = "episrc"
p.Start();
I have tried to redirect the command prompt output to a file using Asp.Net C#.
System.Diagnostics.Process si = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
si.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = "c:\\";
si.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
si.StartInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
si.StartInfo.Arguments = #"/c dir" +">" + #"Myval.txt";
si.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
si.StartInfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;
si.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
si.StartInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;
si.Start();
string output = si.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
Response.Write(output);
si.Close();
The file is getting created successfully but no content present in it.
Even the variable Output returns nothing.
Help me to resolve this issue.
EDIT after being corrected:
I just tested on my machine and the code works perfectly. I apologize for not reading and testing carefully myself. Myval.txt is created and the DIR output is written into it.
The output variable is empty because you are rerouting any output by the DIR command into the txt file, so that's by design.
Please see if there are any locks on the txt file preventing it from being overwritten. Further than that, I can only guess that there is a security issue preventing the DIR command from running.
IIS7 - I tested this various ways including using a Batch file but the application isn't available on desktop. I can see the worker process and the exe running under my user name but with session id value of zero.
The following has worked for me through command prompt:
// 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 = "YOURBATCHFILE.bat";
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();
I want to allow users to run a command line utility as administrator from within my non-admin program and for my program to get the output. The utility is third-party but is distributed with my programme.
I can redirect the output of a program and I can run a program as administrator but I can't do both at the same time.
The only thing that I can get to work at the moment is using cmd.exe to redirect the output to a file, e.g.:
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.IO;
using System.Reflection;
string appDirectory = Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location);
string utilityPath = Path.Combine(appDirectory, "tools", "utility.exe");
string tempFile = Path.GetTempFileName();
Process p = new Process();
// hide the command window
p.StartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
p.StartInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
// run the tool, redirect the output to the temp file and then close.
p.StartInfo.Arguments = " /C \"\"" + utilityPath + "\" > \"" + tempFile + "\"\"";
p.StartInfo.Verb = "runas"; // run as administrator
p.Start();
p.WaitForExit();
// get the output, delete the file and show the output to the user
string output = File.ReadAllText(tempFile);
File.Delete(tempFile);
MessageBox.Show(output);
This has two problems: 1) it uses a temporary file and 2) the UAC is for cmd.exe rather then utility.exe. There must surely be a better way to do this?
Instead of executing through a new cmd, try executing the utility directly. And instead of redirecting to a file, redirect the standard output to read it from your program.
In order to run as admin, you'll need to use the admin username and password (taken from here). You'll need to set your method as unsafe:
unsafe public static void Main(string[] args){
Process p = new Process();
p.StartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
// set admin user and password
p.StartInfo.UserName = "adminusername";
char[] chArray = "adminpassword".ToCharArray();
System.Security.SecureString str;
fixed (char* chRef = chArray) {
str = new System.Security.SecureString(chRef, chArray.Length);
}
p.StartInfo.Password = str;
// run and redirect as usual
p.StartInfo.FileName = utilityPath;
p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
p.Start();
string output = p.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
Console.WriteLine(output);
p.WaitForExit();
}
This does the magic, although I haven't tested it.
It's written in C++, but a wrapper API can easily be created to be called from C# by using DllImport.
I'm running a batch file from some ASP.NET/C# code on a web server. Basically the batch file performs some test automation tasks on a VM using tools like psloggedon and pexec.
If I run the batch file manually when I'm logged into the server under an administrative account, it works fine.
My problem comes when I run it from my code (below), it seems to run under the 'SYSTEM' account, and psloggedon etc. don't seem to work correctly.
Code
Process p = new Process();
p.StartInfo.FileName = "C:\SetupVM.bat";
p.Start();
p.WaitForExit();
I've got this in my web.config, it doesn't seem to make any differance?
<identity impersonate="true" userName="Administrator" password="myadminpassword"/>
Is there anyway I can ensure the batch file runs under the 'Administrator' account?
UPDATED CODE
Process p = new Process();
p.StartInfo.FileName = "C:\\SetupVM.bat";
p.StartInfo.UserName = "Administrator";
p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
p.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = "C:\\";
string prePassword = "myadminpassword";
SecureString passwordSecure = new SecureString();
char[] passwordChars = prePassword.ToCharArray();
foreach (char c in passwordChars)
{
passwordSecure.AppendChar(c);
}
p.StartInfo.Password = passwordSecure;
p.Start();
p.WaitForExit();
From MSDN:
When UseShellExecute is false, you can start only executables with the Process component.
Maybe this is the issue as I'm trying to run a .bat file?
Thanks.
You can provide the username and password to the StartInfo:
Process p = new Process();
p.StartInfo.FileName = "C:\SetupVM.bat";
p.StartInfo.UserName = "Administrator";
p.StartInfo.Password = "AdminPassword";
p.Start();
p.WaitForExit();
See the documentation for ProcessStartInfo.
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…