broken to bare-bones scene:
I have a program in c# that calls a .exe inside cmd(using process.start), passing some required arguments.
What i'm trying to do: Include the exe into the project so that i don't have to call cmd.
Any idea?
If you just want to include so you don't have to ship two files then just include it into the project as "embedded resource" (see project item options) and then you can call ResourceManager.GetStream and write it to file and call Process.Start.
If you want integrate the functions of that exe so that the exe is not needed anymore (no Process.Start) then you need the source code...
EDIT:
the "write to file" is not necessary if the exe is .NET - then you can directly load it from the resource stream as Assembly/AppDomin and execute it.
You can add an exe as an embedded resource (just right click on a folder in the Solution explorer, Add Existing Item, then get properties on it and set it to be Embedded Resource). However, you may not be able to easily execute it in place - you'll need to save it to disk and then execute it (which doesn't solve your stated problem of having to ShellExecute the .exe file, but does solve the problem of having to ship more than one file to the end user).
If you have the source code, then you'll be able to repackage the exe as a dll, or integrate it directly into your program code.
If the exe is a .NET assembly, you could use ILMerge to merge the exe into your main assembly. You can then invoke the code in the exe directly.
Related
I am working on a POC, Where we need to "Extract" an EXE out of another EXE resources,
But before we extract that exe file, we need to assign some values to it so it would work successfully, or to take actions based on this "seeded" value.
for the child exe, I have tried using "Resources" and/or "Settings".
In a nutshell.. how to edit another exe file resources value!
Please see the attached image for better understanding:
I have tried using Cecil library, but it doesn't seem to see/explore the child exe (Resources) instead it's showing the forms with in the child exe
I am new to C#, and I have a project which I have a built as a class library to check for updates before the app starts.
For the program to run this dll file should be in the same directory where the main app is, I want to change the directory of this dll file to be in a sub folder.
I have tried to change app.config file, but it started to cause runtime errors.
Is this possible?
If you import Updater Project into your main project, MsBuild compiles both of them together. And you won't need to deal with such complexities.
Honestly, ı couldn't understand what you tried to do. But above approach would solve your issue.
I finished my app and now I want to create a update system. I have the installer so I can install the application in other machines, it was made with InnoSetup (I don't know if it is the best way, but it worked). I know the basics, I have to compare the current version with a string stored in a in a web server, if it is greater, download the files. Now, what files? Because the InnoSetup gives me these files:
Where are the .xaml (design) files? And the .cs files? Are they compressed in the .exe? For example If I add a few lines to a class, I want to download this class, no the full installer again. Because the final size of my application is 30Mb, if I change some things of a class, I do not want the user to have to download the 30Mb again
In the most basic of terms, when you compile your program the compiler turns your cs and xaml files into machine readable code and puts it all into an exe file.
Yes, if you add a few lines to a class and recompile it, it will rebuild your exe (assuming the class is part of it, and not an external library).
You still have dependency dll files that you need to include, and any other external content that you've included. But once you have all the external files installed, you wouldn't theoretically need to download them again on an update. Only the files that you've updated, ie the exe.
Assuming i have an executable called mainprogram.exe and another called Update.exe. What I want to acheive is: when Update.exe is started, it replaces mainprogram.exe with, for example, C:\Program Files\MyProgram\mainprogram.exe. The point is to include the executable that needs to be replaced in Update.exe so it would be an all-in-one solution.
Also note that I can't create Update.exe that will download the mainprogram.exe from internet, it has to be already included in Update.exe.
In building:
copy UPDATE.EXE to be embedded into the MAIN.EXE as a resource
At runtime (update time)
drop UPDATE.EXE from resource to the hard drive
start UPDATE.EXE with appropriate parameters (command line arguments, depending on the situation)
have UPDATE.EXE try to delete common file that MAIN.EXE will create and leave it opened
when MAIN.EXE exits, handle to the file will be released, allowing UPDATE.EXE to continue doing what it should - replace the MAIN.EXE with new version
start MAIN.EXE from UPDATE.EXE
(optional) delete UPDATE.EXE from MAIN.EXE, as you don't need it for now.
You can use .NET resources and access them via Properties.Resources. If you want to copy the content of a resource to the hard disk you can use System.IO.File.WriteAllBytes.
Adding and Editing Resources (Visual C#)
What you want is called a "Setup Project". This will allow you to bundle any files necessary for such an update to be deployed in such a manner.
Here is the MSDN link for doing this.
In a nutshell, you are creating an installer package, but you can limit the functionality of the installer to replace the designated files only.
You could just use an SFX archive - works pretty much like a setup program and "self extracts". Many archiving programs allow it, or you could just write a setup project in .NET which will do the same thing if you're having to include all the files in the updater anyway.
I've created a Windows Forms Application in Visual Studio 2008, .NET 3.5.
Now I want to finalize my project, i.e. to create a single .exe file which I can give to someone and he will be able to run it on his computer.
In my project files I found bin/Debug directory where I see a .exe file.
Can I just use this file as is, or I am missing some important finalizing procedure ?
Thanks !
You can just take the EXE as long as it has no dependencies. If there are any dll files in there, you need to include them (or use the ILMerge command line utility to combine them). You can, however, ignore any generated pdb or xml files.
As a side note, you should be compiling in release if you plan on deploying your project (the output will be in bin/Release)
You are not clear in you question. If your solutions output is just a single exe file, then Yes, you can give away the exe file in bin\debug.
But instead of bin\debug\ exe you must distribute the bin\Release\ exe which is meant for release purpose.
To make the ILMerge easier, use the GUI tool from codeplex at http://ilmergegui.codeplex.com/
If this is a commercial application, several commercial obfuscators allow creating a single exe.
In SetiSeeker response the link http://ilmergegui.codeplex.com/ is not reachable