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How to make a registry entry using C# cake?

I need to create a registry entry based on finding of 32/64-bit system from cake script. I can see the File operations reference, Directory operations reference in C# cake site. But i could not find the registry related reference in C# cake. Could anyone please let me know is there any option to make a registry entry using C# cake? If so, please specify the reference link. This will help me a lot to continue in cake script.

An alternative to using C# you could also be using the Reg.exe shipped with all major versions of Windows.
You could use this tool with Cake using StartProcess alias.
An example of doing this below:
DirectoryPath system32Path = Context.Environment
.GetSpecialPath(SpecialPath.Windows)
.Combine("System32");
FilePath regPath = system32Path.CombineWithFilePath("reg.exe");
string keyName = "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Cake";
string valueName = "Rocks";
string valueData = "1";
ProcessSettings regSettings = new ProcessSettings()
.WithArguments(
arguments => arguments
.Append("add")
.AppendQuoted(keyName)
.Append("/f")
.AppendSwitchQuoted("/v", valueName)
.AppendSwitchQuoted("/t", "REG_DWORD")
.AppendSwitchQuoted("/d", valueData)
);
int result = StartProcess(regPath, regSettings);
if (result == 0)
{
Information("Registry value successfully set");
}
else
{
Information("Failed to set registry value");
}

Currently, there are no Cake aliases for working with the registry. Having said that, there is nothing to stop you manipulating the Registry directly using that standard C# types.
An example of one such approach is here:
Writing to registry in a C# application
Cake provides a number of aliases for things that are more complicated to do, however, remember that almost everything that is provided in an alias could be done directly with C# in your main script. The aliases are simply there as a convenience.

c# how to import a powershell module from a string

I'm using c# and I want to use import-module to import a powershell script. However I don't want to have a .psm1 file on disk. I want to have it hardcoded on my code, like in a string and then import it.
Is that possible?
All the example I can find are something like:
pipeline.Commands.Add("Import-Module");
var command = pipeline.Commands[0];
command.Parameters.Add("Name", #"G:\PowerShell\PowerDbg.psm1")
or something like:
var ps = PowerShell.Create(myRS);
ps.Commands.AddCommand("Import-Module").AddArgument(#"g:\...\PowerDbg.psm1")
ps.Invoke()
However as I said above I don't want to read a file from disk. I want it hardcoded to avoid multiple files. I want everything on an exe and that's it. I couldn't find a way, any help is appreciated.
The reason I want to use import-module is because after importing the module I want to do something like:
get-command -module <whatever>
and get a list of all its functions.
Any other way to list functions from a script might be helpful too.
Thanks.

You're looking for New-Module; it does exactly what you're asking for.
From the TechNet page (paraphrased):
New-Module -ScriptBlock {
$SayHelloHelp="Type 'SayHello', a space, and a name."
function SayHello ($name) {
"Hello, $name"
}
Export-ModuleMember -function SayHello -Variable SayHelloHelp
} -Name PowerDbg
C# Example (not tested):
string moduleContents = #"...";
pipeline.Commands.Add("New-Module");
var command = pipeline.Commands[0];
command.Parameters.Add("ScriptBlock", moduleContents);
command.Parameters.Add("Name", "PowerDbg");
pipeline.Invoke();

Windows Shell Automation InvokeVerb based on number instead of command string

Normally shell automation InvokeVerb only accepts a string command, based on the documentation here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms723189(v=vs.85).aspx
However I noticed a cmd line EXE utility that accepts a number instead
http://www.technosys.net/products/utils/pintotaskbar
This is interesting because in Windows 10 "&Pin to taskbar" is removed from shell automation, despite being visible in the UI. ( https://connect.microsoft.com/PowerShell/feedback/details/1609288/pin-to-taskbar-no-longer-working-in-windows-10 )
However with this EXE passing the "number" 5386 as the command works.
I am interested to know what methods can be used to achieve this in either PowerShell/VBScript/.NET language or Win32 C/C++.
I understand this is almost certainly unsupported and likely to break any time as these numbers have changed between OS releases.
An example using the string version in PowerShell
$filepath = "C:\windows\system32\notepad.exe"
$path = Split-Path $FilePath
$shell= New-Object -com "Shell.Application"
$folder=$shell.Namespace($path)
$item = $folder.Parsename((split-path $FilePath -leaf))
$item.InvokeVerb("&Pin to taskbar")

The underlying shell context menu extension system actually works with numeric IDs natively; string verbs are an optional layer on top. However as you observe, command IDs are internal to a context menu extension and are not guaranteed to stay the same between versions (or even between invocations) - the whole point of verbs is that they allow commands to be invoked programatically irrespective of their ID.
In C/C++ you can invoke a command by its ID by casting the numeric ID as a string pointer (the rationale being that since all valid string pointers are higher than 65535, it's "safe" to pass a number as a string pointer as long as it fits into 16 bits, since the receiving API is able to correctly determine whether it is a "real string" or not).
Note that this is different from printing the number as a string, which is not correct. The MAKEINTRESOURCE macro exists for exactly this purpose.
E.g., a command with ID 1234 would be invoked using MAKEINTRESOURCE(1234) as the verb.

I ran into the same problem these days, in a Windows Script Host based script.
Invoking the verb with the localized string didn't work as it used to.
However you can still get the item's "Verbs" collection and then enumerate them until you get the verb you want to invoke. Then you can invoke it using it's "DoIt" method, without the need to pass the verbs name in.
In a WSH JScript it looks like this:
/* workaround for 'item.InvokeVerb("&Delete")' which no longer works */
var verbs = item.Verbs(); // item == return of folder.ParseName(..)
for (var x = 0; x < verbs.Count; x++)
{
var verb = verbs.Item(x);
if (verb.Name == "&Delete") //replace with "&Pin to taskbar"
{
try
{
verb.DoIt();
WSH.Echo ("Deleted:", item.Name);
}
catch(e)
{
WSH.Echo ("Error Deleting:", item.Name + "\r\n\t", e.description, e.number);
}
break;
}
}
}
Likely it also works somehow in PowerShell
ffr:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/shell/folderitem-verbs
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/shell/folderitemverb

P4.NET - How to list user's workspaces?

I am not an expert in P4.NET plugin, but I would like to show the existing workspaces for a user in a combo box, so that I can set the p4.Client to the selected workspace.
using (var p4 = new P4Connection())
{
p4.Connect();
???
}
How do I get the list of existing workspaces?
I think the command line to achieve this would be
p4 clients -m 100 -u username

If P4.Net behaves similar to the official Perforce APIs, then you would likely want to run:
p4.Run("clients", "-m 100 -u username")
or similar. Inspired by the P4Ruby documentation.

Ok I have no choice than answering my own question, because the code would be too much to insert as comments to jhwist answer. Sorry jhwist. I had no choice.
#appinger, I hope you find this answer helpful. Took me hours to figure out this api working. :)
cmbBoxPerforceWorkspaceLocation is just your combobox for your workspaces. I am using Winforms by the way.
I need to extract a shortname from the windows username. Windows username starts usually with xxxx\\username. In my code I extract the username out of the longname and save it as shortname. If your network is set differently this code might have to change accordingly.
Let me know if it worked for you.
using (var p4 = new P4Connection())
{
p4.Connect();
var longName = WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Name;
var shortname = longName.Substring(longName.IndexOf("\\") + 1);
var records = p4.Run("clients", "-u", shortname);
cmbBoxPerforceWorkspaceLocation.Items.Clear();
foreach (P4Record record in records.Records)
{
cmbBoxPerforceWorkspaceLocation.Items.Add(record["client"]);
}
}

P4.Net is designed to be similar to the scripting APIs, which in turn are designed around the command line interface. It definitely does not have a intuitive object-oriented interface... which is off putting at first. But if you start from the command-line (esp -ztag flag) and piece together all data/actions your app needs, you will find it pretty easy to use P4.Net. And since it's similar to all the scripting APIs, you'll find it natural to pickup Python or Ruby if you wish :-)

Perl Script Output Capture Problem using C#

I was following one of the thread to run perl scripts from my c# program.
My c# code is like this:
private void RunScript(ArrayList selectedScriptFileList)
{
foreach (var curScriptFileName in selectedScriptFileList)
{
ProcessStartInfo myProcessStartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("perl.exe");
myProcessStartInfo.Arguments = (string)(curScriptFileName);
myProcessStartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
myProcessStartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
myProcessStartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
myProcessStartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
myProcess.StartInfo = myProcessStartInfo;
myProcess.Start();
myProcess.WaitForExit();
string output = myProcess.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
this.ScriptTestResultTextBox.AppendText(output);
}
}
And my perl script requires XML parsing. I can read the print statement before the XML parsing, but not after the parsing starts. The script runs find on DoS shell.
Here is part of my script:
print("\n");
print("****************** test1.pl ***********************\n");
print("\n");
print("1");
print("2");
my $scriptName = 'test1.pl';
my $file = '../../ScriptParamLib.xml';
my $parser = XML::LibXML->new();
my $tree = $parser->parse_file($file);
my $root = $tree->getDocumentElement;
my #species = $root->getElementsByTagName('test_node');
print("Accessing XML Data Base...\n");
The c# testbox only shows the first three print statement but not the last one.
Does anybody knows why?
Thanks

You could add more debugging print statements (e.g. one between every other line of your code) to see how far the execution gets. However, I'm going to go on a hunch and suggest that adding these three lines to your script will either solve the problem outright or lead you closer to a solution:
use strict;
use warnings;
use XML::LibXML;
Please update your question indicating how far execution gets and what errors you see!

I figured I should roll my comments into an answer since they proved to be helpful:
Since using an absolute path for $file in the Perl script works, the issue most likely has something to do with the working directory of the process that gets spawned from the C# program. You can use the Cwd module in the Perl script to see what the working directory actually is. If it's not what you expect, try setting it via the WorkingDirectory property of ProcessStartInfo in your C# program. Relative paths should work just fine after that.