How do I show a console output window in a forms application

Question

To get stuck in straight away  a very basic example   using System  using System Windows Forms   class test        static void Main                  Console WriteLine  test            MessageBox Show  test              If I compile this with default options  using csc at command line   as expected  it will compile to a console application  Also  because I imported System Windows Forms  it will also show a message box   Now  if I use the option  target winexe  which I think is the same as choosing Windows Application from within project options  as expected I will only see the Message Box and no console output    In fact  the moment it is launched from command line  I can issue the next command before the application has even completed    So  my question is - I know that you can have  windows  forms output from a console application  but is there anyway to show the console from a Windows application

User · Answer

Perhaps this is over-simplistic     Create a Windows Form project     Then  Project Properties -  Application -  Output Type -  Console Application  Then can have Console and Forms running together  works for me

User · Answer

From your application set the Console to write to your RichTextkBox    object  Console SetOut new RichTextBoxWriter yourRichTextBox       To ensure that your RichTextBox object is scrolled down when its text is    changed add this event  private void yourRichTextBox TextChanged object sender  EventArgs e        yourRichTextBox SelectionStart   yourRichTextBox Text Length      yourRichTextBox ScrollToCaret       public delegate void StringArgReturningVoidDelegate string text   public class RichTextBoxWriter   TextWriter       private readonly RichTextBox  richTextBox      public RichTextBoxWriter RichTextBox richTexttbox                 richTextBox   richTexttbox             public override void Write char value                SetText value ToString                public override void Write string value                SetText value              public override void WriteLine char value                SetText value   Environment NewLine              public override void WriteLine string value                SetText value   Environment NewLine              public override Encoding Encoding   gt  Encoding ASCII         Write to your UI object in thread safe way      private void SetText string text                   InvokeRequired required compares the thread ID of the              calling thread to the thread ID of the creating thread               If these threads are different  it returns true            if   richTextBox InvokeRequired                        var d   new StringArgReturningVoidDelegate SetText                richTextBox Invoke d  text                     else                        richTextBox Text    text

User · Answer

There are basically two things that can happen here   Console output It is possible for a winforms program to attach itself to the console window that created it  or to a different console window  or indeed to a new console window if desired   Once attached to the console window Console WriteLine   etc works as expected  One gotcha to this approach is that the program returns control to the console window immediately  and then carries on writing to it  so the user can also type away in the console window  You can use start with the  wait parameter to handle this I think   Link to start Command syntax  Redirected console output This is when someone pipes the output from your program somewhere else  eg   yourapp   file txt  Attaching to a console window in this case effectively ignores the piping  To make this work you can call Console OpenStandardOutput   to get a handle to the stream that the output should be piped to  This only works if the output is piped  so if you want to handle both of the scenarios you need to open the standard output and write to it and attach to the console window  This does mean that the output is sent to the console window and to the pipe but its the best solution I could find  Below the code I use to do this      This always writes to the parent console window and also to a redirected stdout if there is one     It would be better to do the relevant thing  eg write to the redirected file if there is one  otherwise    write to the console  but it doesn t seem possible  public class GUIConsoleWriter   IConsoleWriter        System Runtime InteropServices DllImport  kernel32 dll        private static extern bool AttachConsole int dwProcessId        private const int ATTACH PARENT PROCESS   -1       StreamWriter  stdOutWriter          this must be called early in the program     public GUIConsoleWriter                    this needs to happen before attachconsole             If the output is not redirected we still get a valid stream but it doesn t appear to write anywhere            I guess it probably does write somewhere  but nowhere I can find out about         var stdout   Console OpenStandardOutput             stdOutWriter   new StreamWriter stdout            stdOutWriter AutoFlush   true           AttachConsole ATTACH PARENT PROCESS              public void WriteLine string line                 stdOutWriter WriteLine line           Console WriteLine line

User · Answer

Why not just leave it as a Window Forms app  and create a simple form to mimic the Console  The form can be made to look just like the black-screened Console  and have it respond directly to key press  Then  in the program cs file  you decide whether you need to Run the main form or the ConsoleForm  For example  I use this approach to capture the command line arguments in the program cs file  I create the ConsoleForm  initially hide it  then pass the command line strings to an AddCommand function in it  which displays the allowed commands  Finally  if the user gave the -h or -  command  I call the  Show on the ConsoleForm and when the user hits any key on it  I shut down the program  If the user doesn t give the -  command  I close the hidden ConsoleForm and Run the main form

User · Answer

Create a Windows Forms Application  and change the output type to Console  It will result in both a console and the form to open

User · Answer

using System  using System Runtime InteropServices   namespace SomeProject       class GuiRedirect            DllImport  kernel32 dll   SetLastError   true       private static extern bool AttachConsole int dwProcessId        DllImport  kernel32 dll   SetLastError   true       private static extern IntPtr GetStdHandle StandardHandle nStdHandle        DllImport  kernel32 dll   SetLastError   true       private static extern bool SetStdHandle StandardHandle nStdHandle  IntPtr handle        DllImport  kernel32 dll   SetLastError   true       private static extern FileType GetFileType IntPtr handle        private enum StandardHandle   uint               Input   unchecked  uint -10           Output   unchecked  uint -11           Error   unchecked  uint -12             private enum FileType   uint               Unknown   0x0000          Disk   0x0001          Char   0x0002          Pipe   0x0003            private static bool IsRedirected IntPtr handle                FileType fileType   GetFileType handle            return  fileType    FileType Disk      fileType    FileType Pipe              public static void Redirect                 if  IsRedirected GetStdHandle StandardHandle Output                          var initialiseOut   Console Out                     bool errorRedirected   IsRedirected GetStdHandle StandardHandle Error            if  errorRedirected                        var initialiseError   Console Error                     AttachConsole -1            if   errorRedirected              SetStdHandle StandardHandle Error  GetStdHandle StandardHandle Output

User · Answer

You can call AttachConsole using pinvoke to get a console window attached to a WinForms project  http   www csharp411 com console-output-from-winforms-application   You may also want to consider Log4net   http   logging apache org log4net index html   for configuring log output in different configurations

User · Answer

This worked for me  to pipe the output to a file   Call the console with      cmd  c  C  path to your application exe    myfile txt   Add this code to your application        DllImport  kernel32 dll        static extern bool AttachConsole UInt32 dwProcessId        DllImport  kernel32 dll        private static extern bool GetFileInformationByHandle          SafeFileHandle hFile          out BY HANDLE FILE INFORMATION lpFileInformation                 DllImport  kernel32 dll        private static extern SafeFileHandle GetStdHandle UInt32 nStdHandle        DllImport  kernel32 dll        private static extern bool SetStdHandle UInt32 nStdHandle  SafeFileHandle hHandle        DllImport  kernel32 dll        private static extern bool DuplicateHandle          IntPtr hSourceProcessHandle          SafeFileHandle hSourceHandle          IntPtr hTargetProcessHandle          out SafeFileHandle lpTargetHandle          UInt32 dwDesiredAccess          Boolean bInheritHandle          UInt32 dwOptions                private const UInt32 ATTACH PARENT PROCESS   0xFFFFFFFF      private const UInt32 STD OUTPUT HANDLE   0xFFFFFFF5      private const UInt32 STD ERROR HANDLE   0xFFFFFFF4      private const UInt32 DUPLICATE SAME ACCESS   2      struct BY HANDLE FILE INFORMATION               public UInt32 FileAttributes          public System Runtime InteropServices ComTypes FILETIME CreationTime          public System Runtime InteropServices ComTypes FILETIME LastAccessTime          public System Runtime InteropServices ComTypes FILETIME LastWriteTime          public UInt32 VolumeSerialNumber          public UInt32 FileSizeHigh          public UInt32 FileSizeLow          public UInt32 NumberOfLinks          public UInt32 FileIndexHigh          public UInt32 FileIndexLow            static void InitConsoleHandles                 SafeFileHandle hStdOut  hStdErr  hStdOutDup  hStdErrDup          BY HANDLE FILE INFORMATION bhfi          hStdOut   GetStdHandle STD OUTPUT HANDLE           hStdErr   GetStdHandle STD ERROR HANDLE              Get current process handle         IntPtr hProcess   Process GetCurrentProcess   Handle             Duplicate Stdout handle to save initial value         DuplicateHandle hProcess  hStdOut  hProcess  out hStdOutDup          0  true  DUPLICATE SAME ACCESS              Duplicate Stderr handle to save initial value         DuplicateHandle hProcess  hStdErr  hProcess  out hStdErrDup          0  true  DUPLICATE SAME ACCESS              Attach to console window     this may modify the standard handles         AttachConsole ATTACH PARENT PROCESS              Adjust the standard handles         if  GetFileInformationByHandle GetStdHandle STD OUTPUT HANDLE   out bhfi                         SetStdHandle STD OUTPUT HANDLE  hStdOutDup                     else                       SetStdHandle STD OUTPUT HANDLE  hStdOut                     if  GetFileInformationByHandle GetStdHandle STD ERROR HANDLE   out bhfi                         SetStdHandle STD ERROR HANDLE  hStdErrDup                     else                       SetStdHandle STD ERROR HANDLE  hStdErr                             lt summary gt          The main entry point for the application           lt  summary gt       STAThread      static void Main string   args                   initialize console handles         InitConsoleHandles             if  args Length    0                         if  args 0  Equals  waitfordebugger                                  MessageBox Show  Attach the debugger now                              if  args 0  Equals  version                   if DEBUG                 String typeOfBuild    d    else                 String typeOfBuild    r    endif                 String output   typeOfBuild   Assembly GetExecutingAssembly                        GetName   Version ToString                      Just for the fun of it                 Console Write output                   Console Beep 4000  100                   Console Beep 2000  100                   Console Beep 1000  100                   Console Beep 8000  100                   return                                  I found this code here  http   www csharp411 com console-output-from-winforms-application  I thought is was worthy to post it here as well

User · Answer

If you are not worrying about opening a console on-command  you can go into the properties for your project and change it to Console Application      This will still show your form as well as popping up a console window  You can t close the console window  but it works as an excellent temporary logger for debugging   Just remember to turn it back off before you deploy the program

User · Answer

You can any time switch between type of applications  to console or windows  So  you will not write special logic to see the stdout  Also  when running application in debugger  you will see all the stdout in output window  You might also just add a breakpoint  and in breakpoint properties change  When Hit      you can output any messages  and variables  Also you can check uncheck  Continue execution   and your breakpoint will become square shaped  So  the breakpoint messages without changhing anything in the application in the debug output window

User · Answer

this one should work   using System Runtime InteropServices   private void Form1 Load object sender  EventArgs e        AllocConsole        DllImport  kernel32 dll   SetLastError   true    return  MarshalAs UnmanagedType Bool   static extern bool AllocConsole

User · Answer

Building on Chaz s answer  in  NET 5 there is a breaking change  so two modifications are required in the project file  i e  changing OutputType and adding DisableWinExeOutputInference  Example   lt PropertyGroup gt       lt OutputType gt Exe lt  OutputType gt       lt TargetFramework gt net5 0-windows10 0 17763 0 lt  TargetFramework gt       lt UseWindowsForms gt true lt  UseWindowsForms gt       lt DisableWinExeOutputInference gt true lt  DisableWinExeOutputInference gt       lt Platforms gt AnyCPU x64 x86 lt  Platforms gt   lt  PropertyGroup gt

[c#] How do I show a console output/window in a forms application?

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