running a batch file through c# console app. Commands get ignored

Question

i'm trying to execute a .bat file through a c# console application using code from here: Service hangs up at WaitForExit after calling batch file

Kevin's solution kinda works, but some commands in my .bat file get ignored for some reason, but when i manually execute the .bat file all commands work just fine.

e.g. xcopy command doesn't work while executing .bat from console app, but start command works fine.

Any idea why this happens?

p.s. recently i found that if the program is being launched from command prompt, it works well. How come? Still i need to put it on autorun, so this doesn't solve the problem.

Also, if launched by clicking on exe file, output shows

xcopy folder1 folder2

but if launched from command prompt, output shows

xcopy folder1 folder2

smth/smth.smth copied

....

5 files copied.

And it actually is being copied.

proc.StartInfo.FileName                 = target;
        proc.StartInfo.RedirectStandardError    = true;
        proc.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput   = true;
        proc.StartInfo.UseShellExecute          = false;

        proc.Start();

        proc.WaitForExit
            (
                (timeout <= 0)
                ? int.MaxValue : timeout * NO_MILLISECONDS_IN_A_SECOND *
                   NO_SECONDS_IN_A_MINUTE
            );

        errorMessage    = proc.StandardError.ReadToEnd();
        proc.WaitForExit();

        outputMessage   = proc.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
        proc.WaitForExit();

Did you set WorkingDir inside your process before running it? If you did not your batch file could not find files defined with partial path... — Marco
– Marco, Commented May 13, 2012 at 13:32
Maybe it's a security issue (the spawned process doesn't have write access to some of your files/paths). An overload of the Start() method lets you provide a username/password. msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/sxf2saat.aspx — Chris Sinclair
– Chris Sinclair, Commented May 13, 2012 at 13:33
You can get console standard output and error output redirected to you program. Maybe xcopy prints an error that might help. — Sascha
– Sascha, Commented May 13, 2012 at 13:38
Marco, i'm using absolute paths, so that shouldn't be the problem. Sascha, yes I looked at that, absolutely no errors, output shows that all commands are executed, but they are not. Chris, no password is used on ANY user, and the programm is run "as administrator" in windows 7. — athe
– athe, Commented May 13, 2012 at 19:39

Hans Passant · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-13 13:58:45Z

2

Batch file commands do not get ignored when you execute the command processor from a service. They however easily fail and can do so unobserved since you cannot see their output. Typical reasons for failure are having the ProcessStartInfo.WorkingDirectory not set correctly so that relative paths no longer work or trouble caused by the service running with a different user account that doesn't have the same rights as the one you use from the desktop.

Diagnose problems by redirecting output to a file, run cmd.exe /c and use the > operator. Append 2>&1 so that the file contains both regular and error output. And by using the %errorlevel% variable and EXIT command judiciously so you can discover that execution failed by using the Process.ExitCode property.

edited May 13, 2012 at 13:58

answered May 13, 2012 at 13:51

Hans Passant

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6 Comments

athe Over a year ago

Hans, there are absolutely no errors, also paths are absolute. Also please see additions above.

Hans Passant Over a year ago

You broke my crystal ball. Great, I wasn't planning to go shopping today.

athe Over a year ago

Sorry, don't get it, English is not my first language.

Hans Passant Over a year ago

As long as you don't tell us exactly what commands you use and exactly how you know they didn't do the job then I have no good guess left what your problem might be.

athe Over a year ago

As i mentioned in comments above, i'm using rmdir and xcopy. I can tell they don't work because they kinda don't work i.e. they don't delete or copy anything. although they work if program is being launched from command prompt.

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