system() and no console ?

[Bugs]

I'm very new to C and am having a hard time figuring out how to pass a
command to the underlying OS so as it doesn't keep the console window
open. By double-clicking from Windows Explorer, I want the other
process to just spawn and the console to close.

For example, on Windows XP, I make the following call:

system(my_command);

where my_command = 'my_program.exe'.
But in Windows the console window stays open until my_program.exe exits.
I guess that makes sense but how would I change my_command or is there
an alternative to system() that would spawn a new process and then
immediately return so my application can complete and close the console?
I tried 'my_program.exe &', but that didnt work either.

Thanks!

[Walter Roberson]

In article <bd********************@comcast.com>, Bugs <do**@spam.me> wrote:

I'm very new to C and am having a hard time figuring out how to pass a
command to the underlying OS so as it doesn't keep the console window
open. By double-clicking from Windows Explorer, I want the other
process to just spawn and the console to close.

Anything to do with underlying OS's and console windows is outside the
scope of C itself. You should ask the question in a Windows newsgroup.
--
Look out, there are llamas!

[Bugs]

Walter Roberson wrote:

Anything to do with underlying OS's and console windows is outside the
scope of C itself. You should ask the question in a Windows newsgroup.

My apologies, I'll ask in the Windows newsgroup. I thought the answer
might be an alternative C library call instead of system() ?
Thanks

[Jack Klein]

On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 10:09:28 -0700, Bugs <do**@spam.me> wrote in
comp.lang.c:

Walter Roberson wrote:

Anything to do with underlying OS's and console windows is outside the
scope of C itself. You should ask the question in a Windows newsgroup.

My apologies, I'll ask in the Windows newsgroup. I thought the answer
might be an alternative C library call instead of system() ?
Thanks

Two things.

Try the Windows group news:comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.win32, it is
excellent and has a good traffic level and response rate.

And there is no alternative standard C library call to system(). This
is the one and only function that allows a C program to possibly
interact with other executables. All others are non-standard,
platform specific extensions. The methods you find for Windows will
not work at all on Linux or a Macintosh.

--
Jack Klein
Home: http://JK-Technology.Com
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alt.comp.lang.learn.c-c++
http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~a...FAQ-acllc.html

[Walter Roberson]

In article <ML********************@comcast.com>, Bugs <do**@spam.me> wrote:

Walter Roberson wrote:

Anything to do with underlying OS's and console windows is outside the
scope of C itself. You should ask the question in a Windows newsgroup.

My apologies, I'll ask in the Windows newsgroup. I thought the answer
might be an alternative C library call instead of system() ?

Sorry, doesn't exist.

If it were Unix then there are techniques involving multiple shell levels
and 'nohup' -- or better yet, POSIX extensions such as setsid()
and O_NOCTTY when opening devices. But those are OS (or at least POSIX)
specific, not part of C, and I have idea what the Windows paradigm would be.

--
"This was a Golden Age, a time of high adventure, rich living and
hard dying... but nobody thought so." -- Alfred Bester, TSMD

[Bugs]

Thanks to everyone who responded.
FYI - I found a workaround:
As I'm passing system() a platform-specific WinXP command, I changed the
command from 'myprogram.exe' to 'start myprogram.exe' and that worked
fine. The console still pops up but for just an instant.
Thanks again.

[Keith Thompson]

Bugs <do**@spam.me> writes:

Thanks to everyone who responded.
FYI - I found a workaround:
As I'm passing system() a platform-specific WinXP command, I changed
the command from 'myprogram.exe' to 'start myprogram.exe' and that
worked fine. The console still pops up but for just an instant.

<COMPLETELY_OT>
START /?
prints a usage message that you might find illuminating.
</COMPLETELY_OT>

--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) ks***@mib.org <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
San Diego Supercomputer Center <*> <http://users.sdsc.edu/~kst>
We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this.