Programmatically Launching Windows NT Applications

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;
}