Running external process in C#

Question

4.00/5 (1 vote)

See more:

I have a simple app that extracts the contents of an MSI. The code looks like this

C#

Process process = new Process();
ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
startInfo.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
startInfo.FileName = "msiexec ";
                        
startInfo.Arguments = "/a  \"" + textBox1.Text + "\"  /qb TARGETDIR=\""+ textBox1.Text +".EXT\"";
//MessageBox.Show(startInfo.FileName+startInfo.Arguments);
 
process.StartInfo = startInfo;
process.Start();

the MessageBox displays the correct syntax but the application generates an error stating file specified not found .

If I copy the contest of a messagebox into a batch file and then run the batch file like this

C#

System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("c:\\temp\\mybatchfile.bat");

Then that works fine.
What am I missing? Any help is greatly appreciated

Posted 16-Feb-15 18:54pm

picasso2

Updated 16-Feb-15 19:14pm

StM0n

v2

Add a Solution

Comments

TheRealSteveJudge 17-Feb-15 2:37am

Can you try to set the working directory to "c:\temp"?
startInfo.WorkingDirectory = "c:\\temp"

2 solutions

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

Dave Kreskowiak · Answer 1 · 2015-02-16T19:06:00

Solution 1

Change your Arguments property string to something more readable:

startInfo.Arguments = string.Format("/a \"{0}\" /qb TARGETDIR=\"{1}.EXT\"", textBox1.Text, textBox1.Text);

Without knowing what you input, it's impossible to tell you what's really wrong. Are you providing a COMPLETE path to the target file or are you, foolishly, relying on relative path names?

The only other thing that may be wrong is why are you putting an extension on the path you pass to TARGETDIR?? Does the TARGETDIR directory structure exist before you try and execute this command?

Posted 16-Feb-15 19:06pm

Dave Kreskowiak

Updated 16-Feb-15 19:07pm

v2

Comments

picasso2 17-Feb-15 23:38pm

both your code and my code result in same output
msiexec /a "C:\Temp\MyApplication.msi" /qb TARGETDIR="C:\Temp\MyApplication.msi"

this will not run but if I copy to a batch file and then run , works fine.
-The destination folder is the same name as the msi that is why I added an EXT (extracted)to define is a extracted folder
-No the folder does not exist in the target
-path is complete and correct as you can see by the output

I will try to create the folder target first now

Dave Kreskowiak 18-Feb-15 9:42am

I didn't say it would make your command line work. I just said it's more readable and therefor easier to debug and support.

The problem is that you're passing the path to the MSI file to TARGETDIR. That property requires a path to a directory, not an .MSI. It's OK to use the name of the msi as a folder name, but you cannot have a file and folder with the exact same name in the same parent folder.

picasso2 · Answer 2 · 2015-02-19T05:10:00

Solution 2

CSS

Many thank Dave for taking the time to post your recommendations.  I changed the argument as follows:

startInfo.Arguments = " /a  \"" + textBox1.Text + "\" /qb  TARGETDIR=\"C:\\Temp\\" + trimStrg + ".Ext\"" + "  /L*v  \"c:\\temp\\" + trimStrg + ".log\"";

this did the trick

Posted 19-Feb-15 5:10am

picasso2