How to get Environment.ExitCode value from the Command line

Tulika Kumar

I have a Winform application which can be run in GUI mode as well as in command prompt.

In the command prompt, I basically call appropriate button depending upon the given command line argument. For example: "C:/> MyTool param1" will call Button1_ClickEventHanlder() internally

In this Button1_ClickEventHandler() method, I set Environment.ExitCode to some value depending upon some conditions.

My question is how to get Environment.ExitCode value from the Command line in a winform app?

I tried echo %errorcode% after running my app from command prompt but no luck, it's always giving 0. Even I tried "start /wait MyTool param1" too but it's not giving proper ExitCode value what it's supposed to give as per code logic.

Please help me to resolve this issue.

2 Replies

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Tulika Kumar13y ago
Thanks Vulpes.
Actually I figured it out why "start /wait MyTool param1" was giving random value (non -zero)
This is because a DLL what I was using in my code that was thorwing an UNHANDLED exception (not regular exception). This I could figured it out when I build my Win App as a Console App using your suggestion.

So, final conclusion I got for my Winform app.
- If it's built as a Window application, then using commands "MyTool param1", 'echo %errorlevel%' gives 0 for the ExitCode value.
- If it's built as a Window application, then using commands "start /wait MyTool param1", 'echo %errorlevel%' will give the appropriate Environment.ExitCode value.
- If it's built as a Console application, then using commands "MyTool param1", 'echo %errorlevel%' will give the appropriate Environment.ExitCode value.
Thanks again for your kind suggestions.
Vulpes13y ago
As far as I can see, Environment.ExitCode is ignored in a windows forms application unless you compile it as a console app rather than a winexe.

You can certainly do this even from VS by setting the output type under the Build tab of the project's properties to Console application. It should still work fine except that there will now be a console attached.

Otherwise, I think the only thing you can do is to write the exitcode to a text file and then 'type' that from the command line.