Executing Batch File in C

Question

I m trying to execute a batch file in C   but I m not getting any luck doing it   I ve found multiple examples on the Internet doing it  but it is not working for me   public void ExecuteCommand string command        int ExitCode      ProcessStartInfo ProcessInfo      Process Process       ProcessInfo   new ProcessStartInfo  cmd exe     c     command       ProcessInfo CreateNoWindow   true      ProcessInfo UseShellExecute   false       Process   Process Start ProcessInfo       Process WaitForExit         ExitCode   Process ExitCode      Process Close         MessageBox Show  ExitCode      ExitCode ToString     ExecuteCommand        The command string contains the name of the batch file  stored in system32  and some files it should manipulate   Example  txtmanipulator file1 txt file2 txt file3 txt   When I execute the batch file manually  it works correctly   When executing the code  it gives me an   ExitCode  1    Catch all for general errors   What am I doing wrong

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System Diagnostics Process Start  c   batchfilename bat      this simple line will execute the batch file

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With previously proposed solutions  I have struggled to get multiple npm commands executed in a loop and get all outputs on the console window   It finally started to work after I have combined everything from the previous comments  but rearranged the code execution flow   What I have noticed is that event subscribing was done too late  after the process has already started  and therefore some outputs were not captured   The code below now does the following    Subscribes to the events  before the process has started  therefore ensuring that no output is missed   Begins reading from outputs as soon as the process is started    The code has been tested against the deadlocks  although it is synchronous  one process execution at the time  so I cannot guarantee what would happen if this was run in parallel       static void RunCommand string command  string workingDirectory                Process process   new Process                       StartInfo   new ProcessStartInfo  cmd exe      c  command                                  WorkingDirectory   workingDirectory                  CreateNoWindow   true                  UseShellExecute   false                  RedirectStandardError   true                  RedirectStandardOutput   true                                   process OutputDataReceived     object sender  DataReceivedEventArgs e    gt  Console WriteLine  output        e Data            process ErrorDataReceived     object sender  DataReceivedEventArgs e    gt  Console WriteLine  error        e Data            process Start            process BeginOutputReadLine            process BeginErrorReadLine            process WaitForExit             Console WriteLine  ExitCode   0    process ExitCode           process Close

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After some great help from steinar this is what worked for me   public void ExecuteCommand string command        int ExitCode      ProcessStartInfo ProcessInfo      Process process       ProcessInfo   new ProcessStartInfo Application StartupPath      txtmanipulator  txtmanipulator bat   command       ProcessInfo CreateNoWindow   true      ProcessInfo UseShellExecute   false      ProcessInfo WorkingDirectory   Application StartupPath      txtmanipulator              Redirect the output         ProcessInfo RedirectStandardError   true      ProcessInfo RedirectStandardOutput   true       process   Process Start ProcessInfo       process WaitForExit                Read the streams         string output   process StandardOutput ReadToEnd        string error   process StandardError ReadToEnd         ExitCode   process ExitCode       MessageBox Show  output gt  gt      String IsNullOrEmpty output      none     output        MessageBox Show  error gt  gt      String IsNullOrEmpty error      none     error        MessageBox Show  ExitCode      ExitCode ToString     ExecuteCommand        process Close

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This should work  You could try to dump out the contents of the output and error streams in order to find out what s happening   static void ExecuteCommand string command        int exitCode      ProcessStartInfo processInfo      Process process       processInfo   new ProcessStartInfo  cmd exe     c     command       processInfo CreateNoWindow   true      processInfo UseShellExecute   false             Redirect the output         processInfo RedirectStandardError   true      processInfo RedirectStandardOutput   true       process   Process Start processInfo       process WaitForExit                Read the streams            Warning  This approach can lead to deadlocks  see Edit  2     string output   process StandardOutput ReadToEnd        string error   process StandardError ReadToEnd         exitCode   process ExitCode       Console WriteLine  output gt  gt      String IsNullOrEmpty output      none     output        Console WriteLine  error gt  gt      String IsNullOrEmpty error      none     error        Console WriteLine  ExitCode      exitCode ToString     ExecuteCommand        process Close       static void Main         ExecuteCommand  echo testing             EDIT     Given the extra information in your comment below  I was able to recreate the problem  There seems to be some security setting that results in this behaviour  haven t investigated that in detail     This does work if the batch file is not located in C  Windows System32  Try moving it to some other location  e g  the location of your executable  Note that keeping custom batch files or executables in the Windows directory is bad practice anyway     EDIT 2   It turns out that if the streams are read synchronously  a deadlock can occur  either by reading synchronously before WaitForExit or by reading both stderr and stdout synchronously one after the other    This should not happen if using the asynchronous read methods instead  as in the following example   static void ExecuteCommand string command        var processInfo   new ProcessStartInfo  cmd exe     c     command       processInfo CreateNoWindow   true      processInfo UseShellExecute   false      processInfo RedirectStandardError   true      processInfo RedirectStandardOutput   true       var process   Process Start processInfo        process OutputDataReceived     object sender  DataReceivedEventArgs e    gt          Console WriteLine  output gt  gt     e Data       process BeginOutputReadLine         process ErrorDataReceived     object sender  DataReceivedEventArgs e    gt          Console WriteLine  error gt  gt     e Data       process BeginErrorReadLine         process WaitForExit         Console WriteLine  ExitCode   0    process ExitCode       process Close

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Below code worked fine for me  using System Diagnostics   public void ExecuteBatFile         Process proc   null       string  batDir   string Format   C          proc   new Process        proc StartInfo WorkingDirectory    batDir      proc StartInfo FileName    myfile bat       proc StartInfo CreateNoWindow   false      proc Start        proc WaitForExit        ExitCode   proc ExitCode      proc Close        MessageBox Show  Bat file executed

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It works fine   I tested it like this   String command     C  Doit bat    ProcessInfo   new ProcessStartInfo  cmd exe     c     command      ProcessInfo CreateNoWindow   true    I commented out turning off the window so I could SEE it run

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Using CliWrap   var result   await Cli Wrap  foobar bat   ExecuteBufferedAsync     var exitCode   result ExitCode  var stdOut   result StandardOutput

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System Diagnostics Process Start BatchFileName  Parameters    I know this will work for batch file and parameters  but no ideas how to get the results in C   Usually  the outputs are defined in the batch file

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using System Diagnostics   private void ExecuteBatFile         Process proc   null      try               string targetDir   string Format   D  mydir        this is where mybatch bat lies         proc   new Process            proc StartInfo WorkingDirectory   targetDir          proc StartInfo FileName    lorenzo bat           proc StartInfo Arguments   string Format  10       this is argument         proc StartInfo CreateNoWindow   false          proc StartInfo WindowStyle   ProcessWindowStyle Hidden     this is for hiding the cmd window   so execution will happen in back ground          proc Start            proc WaitForExit              catch  Exception ex                Console WriteLine  Exception Occurred   0   1    ex Message  ex StackTrace ToString

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I wanted something that was more directly usable without organization-specific hard-coded string values in it   I offer the following as a directly reusable chunk of code   The minor downside is needing to determine and pass the working folder when making the call   public static void ExecuteCommand string command  string workingFolder                        int ExitCode              ProcessStartInfo ProcessInfo              Process process               ProcessInfo   new ProcessStartInfo  cmd exe     c     command               ProcessInfo CreateNoWindow   true              ProcessInfo UseShellExecute   false              ProcessInfo WorkingDirectory   workingFolder                     Redirect the output                 ProcessInfo RedirectStandardError   true              ProcessInfo RedirectStandardOutput   true               process   Process Start ProcessInfo               process WaitForExit                        Read the streams                 string output   process StandardOutput ReadToEnd                string error   process StandardError ReadToEnd                 ExitCode   process ExitCode               MessageBox Show  output gt  gt      String IsNullOrEmpty output      none     output                MessageBox Show  error gt  gt      String IsNullOrEmpty error      none     error                MessageBox Show  ExitCode      ExitCode ToString     ExecuteCommand                process Close                Called like this          This will get the current WORKING directory  i e   bin Debug      string workingDirectory   Environment CurrentDirectory         This will get the current PROJECT directory     string projectDirectory   Directory GetParent workingDirectory  Parent FullName      string commandToExecute   Path Combine projectDirectory   TestSetup    WreckersTestSetupQA bat        string workingFolder   Path GetDirectoryName commandToExecute       commandToExecute   QuotesAround commandToExecute       ExecuteCommand commandToExecute  workingFolder     In this example  from within Visual Studio 2017  as part of a test run  I want to run an environment reset batch file before executing some tests    SpecFlow xUnit    I got tired of extra steps for manually running the bat file separately  and wanted to just run the bat file as part of the C  test setup code   The environment reset batch file moves test case files back into the input folder  cleans up output folders  etc  to get to the proper test starting state for testing   The QuotesAround method simply puts quotes around the command line in case there are spaces in folder names   Program Files   anyone     All that s in it is this  private string QuotesAround string input   return        input           Hope some find this useful and save a few minutes if your scenario is similar to mine

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Here is sample c  code that are sending 2  parameters to a bat cmd file for answer this question   Comment  how can I pass parameters and read a result of command execution     by  Janatbek Sharsheyev      Option 1   Without hiding the console window  passing arguments and without getting the outputs    This is an edit from this answer  by  Brian Rasmussen     using System  using System Diagnostics    namespace ConsoleApplication       class Program                static void Main string   args                     System Diagnostics Process Start   c  batchfilename bat      1st     2nd                               Option 2   Hiding the console window  passing arguments and taking outputs     using System  using System Diagnostics   namespace ConsoleApplication       class Program                static void Main string   args                     var process   new Process             var startinfo   new ProcessStartInfo   c  batchfilename bat      1st arg     2nd arg     3rd arg               startinfo RedirectStandardOutput   true           startinfo UseShellExecute   false           process StartInfo   startinfo           process OutputDataReceived     sender  argsx    gt  Console WriteLine argsx Data      do whatever processing you need to do in this handler          process Start             process BeginOutputReadLine             process WaitForExit

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Have you tried starting it as an administrator  Start Visual Studio as an administrator if you use it  because working with  bat files requires those privileges

[c#] Executing Batch File in C#

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