So i have WCF server running on remote machine.
This server received simple string as argument and i want this argument to execute via command line.
This is the function on the server side that need to execute the command:
public void ExecuteCmdCommand(string arguments)
{
log.Info(arguments);
Process process = new Process();
ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
startInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Maximized;
startInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
startInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
startInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
startInfo.Arguments = arguments;
log.Debug(startInfo.Arguments);
process.StartInfo = startInfo;
process.OutputDataReceived += (sender, args) =>
{
log.Info(args.Data);
};
process.Start();
process.BeginOutputReadLine();
process.WaitForExit();
}
As you can see at the beginning of this function i am print to my console the command that received.
So i try to start notepad by pass the argument notepad, i can see via the console that the command is received on the server side so i am can be sure that the communication works but nothing happened.
What i am doing wrong ? same command on my local machine start notepad.
Update
OK notepad work fine (also without .exe at the end) but when i am send the command appium (i want to start my appium server) i got this error when send the command to the server (but the server received 'appium' command):
System.ServiceModel.FaultException: 'The server was unable to process
the request due to an internal error. For more information about the
error, either turn on IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults (either from
ServiceBehaviorAttribute or from the configuration
behavior) on the server in order to send the exception information
back to the client, or turn on tracing as per the Microsoft .NET
Framework SDK documentation and inspect the server trace logs.'
The FileName of the process is not correct, "cmd.exe". You could try this:
ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo(arguments);
startInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Maximized;
startInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
startInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
and in the arguments pass the following:
notepad.exe
For a detailed overview of ProcessStartInfo class please have look here.
I suggest you think about the case in which you want to pass in arguments also some arguments related with the process you want to start. For instance, you may want to start notepad and open a file. The file should be passed also as an argument. So I think that a rather better approach it would be to make arguments an array of strings and follow the convention that the first element of the array is the program you want to start and the rest elements of the array are program's arguments.
Related
Attempting to run ntdsutil from a C# executable and encountering an error. In case anyone is wondering, this is for a automated auditing process as part of a managed service provider - not trying to create a trojan/malware.
The command is: ntdsutil "ac i ntds" "ifm" "create full c:\audit" q q
This is Windows server specific, am running on Windows 2016.
I am using System.Diagnostics.Process and have tried various combinations of properties but getting same result. The following is an example, there is a standard output redirect so can see results of execution:
Process process = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo();
startInfo.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Normal;
startInfo.FileName = #"C:\Windows\System32\ntdsutil.exe";
startInfo.Arguments = "\"ac i ntds\" \"ifm\" \"create full c:\\audit\" q q";
//Set output of program to be written to process output stream
startInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
startInfo.RedirectStandardError= true;
startInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
process.StartInfo = startInfo;
process.Start();
// Get program output
string strOutput = process.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
//Wait for process to finish
process.WaitForExit();
File.WriteAllText("out.txt", strOutput);
The output looks like this:
C:\Windows\System32\ntdsutil.exe: ifm
ifm: create full c:\audit
error 0x80042302(A Volume Shadow Copy Service component encountered an unexpected error. Check the Application event log for more information.)
ifm: q
C:\Windows\System32\ntdsutil.exe: q
Have checked event logs as mention (nothing obvious) and done various searches on error but nothing useful appears. Running the command on command line works fine.
It is running a Administrator level user. Is it possible related to app.manifest priveleges?
Any help is appreciated.
i have searched and read about issues with psexec.exe from sysinternals not working properly with c# and stdout. i am now trying to figure out how to just call a batch file that has the following instead of using System.Diagnostics.Process to call psexec:
test.bat contains the following line:
psexec.exe \\hostname -u user -p password ipconfig /all >c:\test.txt
test.txt will be saved on the host where i am running my c sharp app and executing psexec.
when i execute the following:
System.Diagnostics.Process psexec_run = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
psexec_run.StartInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
psexec_run.StartInfo.Arguments = #"/c """ + cur_dir + #"\test\test.bat""";
psexec_run.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
psexec_run.Start();
psexec_run.WaitForExit();
i see the cmd window pop up and it runs something but not sure what and goes away.
if i execute the following:
System.Diagnostics.Process psexec_run = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
psexec_run.StartInfo.FileName = cur_dir + "\\test\\psexec.exe";
psexec_run.StartInfo.Arguments = #"\\hostname -u user -p password ipconfig /all";
psexec_run.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
psexec_run.Start();
psexec_run.WaitForExit();
then i see the command window open and it runs psexec which takes quite a few secs and i quickly see my output i need, but i have no way of capturing the output or writing it to a file.
i guess my issue now is since psexec will not work with stdout how can i capture the output from the psexec command to write it to a file???
see the following link for the issues with psexec, the last reply on this url mentioned a way to write the process output to a file without using stdout, i'm newbie to c# i can't figure out how to write process output without use stdout :(
http://forum.sysinternals.com/psexec-fails-to-capture-stdout-when-launched-in-c_topic19333.html
based on response below i tried the following:
ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo(cur_dir + "\\test\\psexec.exe", #"\\hostname -u user -p password ipconfig /all");
psi.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
psi.RedirectStandardError = true;
psi.UseShellExecute = false;
Process p = Process.Start(psi);
StreamReader myStreamReader = p.StandardOutput;
// Read the standard output of the spawned process.
string sOutput = myStreamReader.ReadToEnd();
i did ReadToEnd so i would make sure it got all the output, it DID NOT!! for some reason it only go the first line of ipconfig output that was it. Also the cmd window it opened up never closed for some reason. even with CreateNoWindow=true the code just hangs. so again something is wrong with psexec and stdout i think?? as i can run this code just fine using ipconfig /all command on the local host and not use psexec...
again i am looking to avoid stdout and somehow find a way to get the output from this command or unless there is something else i'm over looking? also, not to make more work for anyone, but if you d/l psexec.exe from sysinternals and test it with a command on a remote host you will see. i have spent 2 days on this one :( trying to figure out how to use psexec or find some other quick method to execute remote command on a host and get ouptput.
UPDATE:
i gave up on psexec in c# code, i saw many posts about psexec eating the output, having a child window process ,etcc
until my head hurt :) so i am trying to run a batch file and output to a file and it's not making sense...
i have a batch file test.bat with the following
psexec.exe \\\hostname -u name -p password ipconfig /all >c:\test.txt
when i run the following code:
ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo(cur_dir + #"\test\test.bat");
psi.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
psi.RedirectStandardError = true;
psi.UseShellExecute = false;
Process p = Process.Start(psi);
p.WaitForExit();
the cmd windows comes and goes really quickly and the test.txt file is created but is 0 bytes no info in it.
so if i run the batch file in a windows cmd line with the psexec command it works perfectly fine!!???
so then to verify psexec was the issue i changed the batch file to:
ipconfig /all >c:\test.txt
i execute my code above and it works fine creates the output in the test.txt file..???!!!!
why is not working with psexec am i missing something? if it's psexec, does anyone have
any recommendations for how i can execute a command on a remote windows host and get me the
output???
I have an answer to this problem that has worked for me.
Hopefully someone else will find it useful.
I have literally just spent the last two hours tearing my hair out with this. The psexec tool runs completely fine using a normal command prompt but when attempting to redirect the streams it truncates the output and you only get half output back.
In the end how I fixed my issue was a little bit of a hack. I piped the output of the command to a text file and read it back in to return it from the function.
I also has to set UseShellExecute to true. Without this it still wouldn't work. This had the unfortunate side effect of showing the console window. To get around that I set the window style to be hidden and hey presto it works!!!
Heres my code:
string ExecutePSExec(string command)
{
string result = "";
try
{
string location = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory;
// append output to file at the end of this string:
string cmdWithFileOutput = string.Format("{0} >{1}temp.log 2>&1", command,location );
// The flag /c tells "cmd" to execute what follows and exit
System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo procStartInfo = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo("cmd", "/c " + cmdWithFileOutput);
procStartInfo.UseShellExecute = true; // have to set shell execute to true to
procStartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
procStartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden; // as a window will be created set the window style to be hiddem
System.Diagnostics.Process proc = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
proc.StartInfo = procStartInfo;
proc.Start();
proc.WaitForExit();
// now read file back.
string filePath = string.Format("{0}temp.log", location);
result = System.IO.File.ReadAllText(filePath);
}
catch (Exception objException)
{
// Log the exception
}
return result;
}
and its usage:
string command = #"psexec.exe -l -u domain\username -p password /accepteula \\192.168.1.3 netstat -a -n";
ExecutePSExec(command);
I had exactly same problem. i was getting "Windows ip config. " as first line when i run with psexec. i tried with paexec it worked well. I used Marius's code.
Note: if you dont use first cmd / c in arguments command runs only on local computer even if you define target as \\remoteserver
ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo("cmd.exe");
psi.Arguments = #"cmd/c C:\paexec.exe \\\192.168.2.5 -s -u test.local\administrator -p Password1 cmd /c ipconfig";
psi.CreateNoWindow = true;
psi.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
psi.RedirectStandardError = true;
psi.UseShellExecute = false;
Process p = Process.Start(psi);
System.IO.StreamReader myStreamReader1 = p.StandardOutput;
p.WaitForExit();
string sOutput = myStreamReader1.ReadToEnd();
Are you sure your sourcecode is correct? that link is quite a bit old.. maybe its fixed!
Heres an example how to redirect the standard-output and put whole output in a string via streamreader:
ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo("tftp.exe");
// preferences for tftp process
psi.CreateNoWindow = true;
psi.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
psi.RedirectStandardError = true;
psi.UseShellExecute = false;
Process p = Process.Start(psi);
StreamReader myStreamReader = p.StandardOutput;
p.WaitForExit();
// Read the standard output of the spawned process.
string sOutput = myStreamReader.ReadToEnd();
i found a solution. apparently psexec is NOT going to work in c sharp. so i came up with some wmi code to connect to a remote host and it's working PERFECTLY!!! :)
i used microsoft's WMICodeCreator.exe to create wmi code for C# for the process method on a remote host, wow that tool is amazing because wmi code is little confusing to me.
psexec's output goes to StandardError and not StandardOutput. I don't know why it is that way. Following code snippet access it.
ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
startInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;
Process process = new Process();
process.StartInfo = startInfo;
process.Start();
process.WaitForExit();
errors = process.StandardError.ReadToEnd();
process.Close();
I've built a webservice for an internal server that I want to send a command to and have it launch a process. So I want to send a command to it like this:
http://machine:999/execute?path=c:\scripts\dostuff.exe&args=-test
The endpoint would then do something like this:
public ActionResult(string path, string args)
{
var proc = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
proc.StartInfo.FileName = path;
proc.StartInfo.Arguments = args;
proc.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
proc.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
proc.StartInfo.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
proc.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
//Hook into all standard output here
//Block until process is returned - Async Controller action
return Content(output.ToString())
}
I want to be able to capture all the error messages and standard output generated by the executable. The executable could be anything like a console application or a powershell script. What's the best approach for doing something like this?
Use proc.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd() to read the redirected output stream to the end, and return that.
You may also want to set RedirectStandardError to True and do the same thing with proc.StandardError to get the error messages. You can spawn a background thread to synchronously read standard error alongside the reading of standard output in the main thread.
Our C# (V3.5) application needs to call another C++ executable which is from another company. we need to pass a raw data file name to it, it will process that raw data (about 7MB) file and generate 16 result files (about 124K for each).
The code to call that executable is this:
ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
startInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
startInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
startInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;
startInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
startInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
startInfo.FileName = exePath;
startInfo.Arguments = rawDataFileName;
try
{
Process correctionProcess = Process.Start(startInfo);
correctionProcess.WaitForExit();
}
catch(nvalidOperationException ex)
{
....
}
catch(...)
...
It works fine. Now we have new raw data. After replace the old raw data with the new raw data file. That executable process never return to us. It will hang forever. If we kill our C# application, those result files will be generated in the target directoy. It looks like the executable does create those result files but has issue to write to the disk and return to us until the process is terminated.
It is NOT like this with the old raw data file.
When we run the executable with the new raw data directly (no from our C# app call), it works fine. This means this executable has no problem with the new raw data.
My question 1: what's the possible causes for this behaviour?
Now I change our code with startInfo.UseShellExecute = true; and add startInfo.WorkingDirectory= ..., and disabled
//startInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;
//startInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
Then it works.
My question 2: why use Windows Shell solve this issue?
My question 3: why it works before without using Shell?
My question 4: when we should use Shell and When shouldn't?
thanks,
Several possibilities:
You are redirecting output and error but not reading it. The process will stall when its stdout or stderr buffer fills up to capacity.
The program might be displaying an error message and waiting for a keypress. You are not redirecting input nor check stderr, that keypress will never come.
Some programs, xcopy.exe is a very good example, require stdin to be redirected when you redirect stdout. Although the failure mode for xcopy.exe is an immediate exit without any diagnostic.
Seeing it fixed when you kill your C# program makes the first bullet the likeliest reason.
I know this, it is a very common problem. I has to do with the output, which must be handled asynchronously. You just can't WaitForExit when output exceeds certain amount of data.
You need to add
myStdErr= correctionProcess.StandardError.ReadToEnd();
Only once usually works, if you want to overkill this works ("P" being my Process)
while (!P.HasExited)
stdErr+= P.StandardError.ReadToEnd();
If you don't need the stdout/stderr, just turn the Redirect* properties to false.
I would like to mimic the Run command in Windows in my program. In other words, I would like to give the user the ability to "run" an arbitrary piece of text exactly as would happen if they typed it into the run box.
While System.Diagnostics.Process.Start() gets me close, I can't seem to get certain things like environment variables such as %AppData% working. I just keep getting the message "Windows cannot find '%AppData%'..."
You can use the Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables method to turn %AppData% into whatever it actually corresponds to.
Depending on what you're trying to do, you could also call CMD.EXE, which will expand your environment variables automatically. The example below will do a DIR of your %appdata% folder, and redirect the stdOut to the debug:
StreamReader stdOut;
Process proc1 = new Process();
ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo("CMD.EXE", "/C dir %appdata%");
psi.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
psi.UseShellExecute = false;
proc1.StartInfo = psi;
proc1.Start();
stdOut = proc1.StandardOutput;
System.Diagnostics.Debug.Write(stdOut.ReadToEnd());