Spawning a legacy app in CMD window in C#

Tom Ratcliffe

I need to run a legacy app that is run from a cmd window using the Process class.
ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
startInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
startInfo.Arguments = "/C \"C:\\UTDSys\\UTD2TCM.exe –r " + Parameters.Candidate + "\"";
startInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
startInfo.UseShellExecute = false;

try
{
// Start the process with the info we specified.
// Call WaitForExit and then the using statement will close.
using (Process exeProcess = Process.Start(startInfo))
{
exeProcess.WaitForExit();
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
string sMsg = "Error copying the files to " + Parameters.FullPath + ".";
HandleErrorMsg(e, sMsg);
return;
}
The process My2Com.exe should run in the background, however, I consistantly get the message that a file, used when run from the cmd line with different flags, is missing. If I run the command as indicated in a cmd window, C:\MySys\My2Com.exe –r FullyQualPath, it works as expected. I have tried several different ways to set up the Process class without success.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Tom R.

2 Replies

Know the answer? Post it — somebody with the same question will find it here.

Tom Ratcliffe14y ago
Thank you for the suggestion. The problem had to do with how the arguments string was constructed.

startInfo.FileName = "C:\\UTDSys\\UTD2TCM.exe";
startInfo.Arguments = "-r " + Parameters.FilePath.ToString();
or
startInfo.FileName = "C:\\UTDSys\\UTD2TCM.exe";
startInfo.Arguments = string.Format("-r {0}", Parameters.FilePath);
Vulpes14y ago
Embedding the command string in quotes may be causing the problem as the whole line could then be treated as though it were an executable name which contains embedded spaces.

If Parameters.Candidate is a single argument which could include embedded spaces, I'd try:

startInfo.Arguments = "/C C:\\UTDSys\\UTD2TCM.exe –r " + "\"" + Parameters.Candidate + "\"";

Otherwise, I'd try:

startInfo.Arguments = "/C C:\\UTDSys\\UTD2TCM.exe –r " + Parameters.Candidate;