Read Command Line Output

[Steve]

How can I read the output from a command line utility such as ping,
nslookup, etc, from within my app??? I know that it is possible to
output the results to a text file using the > function in a command
window and then read the file, but doing this for 1000+ files will
cause a lot of unnecessary read/writes to the disc and affect
performance...

I am not asking for a .NET way to ping or do a DNS lookup, I am
interested in the concept of reading the output from a command line
utility...

Thanks

[Tom Shelton]

In article <7a**************************@posting.google.com >, Steve wrote:

How can I read the output from a command line utility such as ping,
nslookup, etc, from within my app??? I know that it is possible to
output the results to a text file using the > function in a command
window and then read the file, but doing this for 1000+ files will
cause a lot of unnecessary read/writes to the disc and affect
performance...

I am not asking for a .NET way to ping or do a DNS lookup, I am
interested in the concept of reading the output from a command line
utility...

Thanks

You use System.Diagnostics.Process to start the application, and then
you redirect it's standard output by making sure the startinfo objects'
useshellexecute is set to false and the redirectstandardoutput is set to
true. Then you can use the processes StandardOutput property to read
the text....

--
Tom Shelton [MVP]

[Cor Ligthert]

Hi Steve,

Roughly copied from a program and changed

I hope this helps?

Cor
\\\
Dim p As New Process
p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = False
p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = True
p.StartInfo.Arguments = myargumentstring
p.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = myworkdirectorystring
p.StartInfo.FileName =C:\myprogram
p.Start()
Dim sr As IO.StreamReader = p.StandardOutput
Dim sb As New System.Text.StringBuilder("")
Dim input As Integer = sr.Read
Do Until input = -1
sb.Append(ChrW(input))
input = sr.Read
Loop
///

[Steve]

Perfect, thanks... I have created a function if anyone is interested
(watch for line breaks)...

Friend Function ReadCmdOutput(ByVal applicationName As String,
Optional ByVal applicationArgs As String = "", Optional ByVal
workingDirectory As String = "", Optional ByVal showWindow As Boolean
= False) As String
Try
Dim processObj As New Process

processObj.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = False
processObj.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = True
processObj.StartInfo.FileName = applicationName
processObj.StartInfo.Arguments = applicationArgs
processObj.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = workingDirectory

If showWindow = True Then
processObj.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = False
Else
processObj.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = True
End If

processObj.Start()
processObj.WaitForExit()

Return processObj.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd
Catch ex As Exception
Return ""
End Try
End Function
"Cor Ligthert" <no**********@planet.nl> wrote in message news:<eR**************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl>...

Hi Steve,

Roughly copied from a program and changed

I hope this helps?

Cor
\\\
Dim p As New Process
p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = False
p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = True
p.StartInfo.Arguments = myargumentstring
p.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = myworkdirectorystring
p.StartInfo.FileName =C:\myprogram
p.Start()
Dim sr As IO.StreamReader = p.StandardOutput
Dim sb As New System.Text.StringBuilder("")
Dim input As Integer = sr.Read
Do Until input = -1
sb.Append(ChrW(input))
input = sr.Read
Loop
///