Something with/in Start.Process() is not working

Question

My console application has a void in it which opens an external console application, to compare 2 text files.

I get no errors, so I assume it's working. But when I look at the output, I see NOTHING. When I open the application that compares the text files, it's working perfectly. So I think there must be something wrong with the void.

Here's my code. I used a combination of examples from MSDN as well as stackoverflow and other websites. But nothing so far. Maybe it's really obvious and I'm just stupid haha

using System.IO;
using System.Security.Permissions;
using System.Diagnostics;

static void Compare()
    {
        Process Compare = new Process();

        try
        {
            Compare.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
            Compare.StartInfo.FileName = @"C:\Path\To\The\File.exe";
            Compare.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
            Compare.Start();
            Compare.Kill();
        }

        catch (Exception)
        {
            Compare.Kill();
        }
    }

If anyone can tell me what is wrong with it, I would appreciate it! :)

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 25 '13 at 13:33

1

First off you seem to kill it staright away after starting it, so unless it can do what its got to do in like nanoseconds it will never output anything

answered Sep 25 '13 at 13:33

Steven Wood

2,675
3
26
51

Carlos Landeras · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-25T13:39:13.127

1

You are killing it right after starting it

Compare.Start();
Compare.Kill();

Remove the Compare.Kill(); line and try again.

In addition, if you want to receive detailed output from the started process you will have to use async events:

 Process process = new Process();
 process.OutputDataReceived += new DataReceivedEventHandler(process_OutputDataReceived);     
 process.Exited += new EventHandler(process_Exited);
 process.ErrorDataReceived += new DataReceivedEventHandler(process_ErrorDataReceived); 
 process.Start();    
 process.BeginOutputReadLine();
 process.BeginErrorReadLine();    
 process.WaitForExit();

edited Sep 25 '13 at 13:39

answered Sep 25 '13 at 13:34

Carlos Landeras

11,025
11
56
82

I know about the Compare.Kill();, I used this because I got an error about an infinite loop. But the error is gone now because of some of your lines :) Thanks – vascomakker Sep 25 '13 at 13:46

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 25 '13 at 13:36

You're killing the Process right after you start it.

If the Process exits on its own, you can do the following:

Compare.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
Compare.StartInfo.FileName = @"C:\Path\To\The\File.exe";
Compare.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
Compare.Start();
Compare.WaitForExit();

If you would only like to give it so much time to execute:

Compare.WaitForExit(5000); //Wait 5 seconds.

Something with/in Start.Process() is not working

3 Answers3