Programmatically Launching Windows NT Applications

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In our version of RunProcessAndWait, we don’t wait more that 300s (5mn) if the process is still working or stucked,
the function exits with a FALSE return value.

RunAndForgetProcess(..) just run a create the command line process and exit.

Note:

Using DDE in the child process of ‘RunProcessAndWait’ may give some deadlock. (Thank for the comments !)

Enough explanations for a so few code lines!

Return Value:

TRUE if the process was created

FALSE if it not.

See *nRetValue for LastError

Code

#include “windows.h”

#include <process.h>

BOOL RunProcessAndForget(CString sCmdLine,

                         CString sRunningDir,

                         int *nRetValue);

BOOL RunProcessAndWait(CString sCmdLine,

                       CString sRunningDir,

                       int *nRetValue);
//———————————————————

// Run a synchronized other command line EXE. Returns only 

// after this exits. The process is runned as a console window.

// Returns Values : TRUE if the process was created

//                  FALSE if not.

// see *nRetValue for the LastError number

BOOL RunProcessAndWait(CString sCmdLine,

                       CString sRunningDir,

                       int *nRetValue)

{

 int nRetWait;

 int nError;
 // That means wait 300 s before returning an error

 // You can change it to the value you need.

 // If you want to wait for ever just use ‘dwTimeout = INFINITE’>

 DWORD dwTimeout = 1000 *300;
 STARTUPINFO stInfo;

 PROCESS_INFORMATION prInfo;

 BOOL bResult;

 ZeroMemory( &stInfo, sizeof(stInfo) );

 stInfo.cb = sizeof(stInfo);

 stInfo.dwFlags=STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW;

 stInfo.wShowWindow=SW_MINIMIZE;
 bResult = CreateProcess(NULL,

                         (LPSTR)(LPCSTR)sCmdLine,

                         NULL,

                         NULL,

                         TRUE,

                         CREATE_NEW_CONSOLE

                         | NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS,

                         NULL,

                         (LPCSTR)sRunningDir,

                         &stInfo,

                         &prInfo);

 *nRetValue = nError = GetLastError();
 if (!bResult) return FALSE;

  nRetWait =  WaitForSingleObject(prInfo.hProcess,dwTimeout);
 CloseHandle(prInfo.hThread);

 CloseHandle(prInfo.hProcess);
 if (nRetWait == WAIT_TIMEOUT) return FALSE;

  return TRUE;

}

//———————————————————

// This function call a command line process.

// Returns Values : TRUE if the process was created

//                  FALSE if not.

// see *nRetValue for the LastError number

BOOL RunAndForgetProcess(CString sCmdLine,

                         CString sRunningDir,

                         int *nRetValue)

{

 int nRetWait;

 int nError;

 STARTUPINFO stInfo;

 PROCESS_INFORMATION prInfo;

 BOOL bResult;

 ZeroMemory( &stInfo, sizeof(stInfo) );

 stInfo.cb = sizeof(stInfo);

 stInfo.dwFlags=STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW;

 stInfo.wShowWindow=SW_MINIMIZE;
 bResult = CreateProcess(NULL,

                         (LPSTR)(LPCSTR)sCmdLine,

                         NULL,

                         NULL,

                         TRUE,

                         CREATE_NEW_CONSOLE

                         | NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS ,

                         NULL,

                         (LPCSTR)sRunningDir ,

                         &stInfo,

                         &prInfo);

 *nRetValue = nError = GetLastError();
 // Don’t write these two lines if you need

 CloseHandle(prInfo.hThread);
 // to use these handles

 CloseHandle(prInfo.hProcess);
 if (!bResult) return FALSE;

  return TRUE;

}