Closing a file opened by a process

Narcis Parfene

I run and stop a process with

Process pr = Process.Start("program.exe") ;
pr.WaitForExit(500) ;
if ( ! pr.HasExited )
pr.Kill();

The problem is that "program.exe" opens a file (for example: test.txt) and with "pr.Kill(); " test.txt remains opened. How can I close this file?

4 Replies

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Narcis Parfene16y ago
Yes it is a console program.
I am working to a project that compile C/C++ programs and then execute them for a given time (for example 0,5 seconds). If that time is exceeded, I want to stop running programs.
Anyway, I succeeded to solve the problem.
Sam Hobbs16y ago
Okay, then since you wrote the other program, you don't need to find out why it is not exiting normally; you know why.

The documentation of the Process.Close Method sure is not clear. Look at the sample code for it; note that it calls CloseMainWindow before Close. It is the CloseMainWindow that is the most important.

You need to ensure that the other program processes the WM_CLOSE message such that the program finishes execution when the message is received. If the other program is a console program then you might need to do something different but I think you can process the WM_CLOSE message properly in a console program too. Is it a console program?
Narcis Parfene16y ago
Thanks for advices. Instead of Kill() it is better to use Close() ?

Anyway, I don't want to find out WHY the other program is not exiting normally (I intentionally created it in C++ to run for a long time), I just want to stop it after 0.5 seconds and close the files for late deleting.
Sam Hobbs16y ago
Don't use Kill. It is the type of thing that beginners think is easy to use, but then they have difficulties such as you are. The Process.Kill Method says it "should be used only when necessary". Kill is a bad thing that can cause problems. The documentation does not emphasize that enough. Do whatever you can to avoid using it. Find out why the other program is not exiting and determine what you can do to get it to exit normally.