C++ Executing CMD Commands

JP29 picture JP29 · Jul 19, 2012 · Viewed 48.5k times · Source

I'm having a serious problem here. I need to execute a CMD command line via C++ without the console window displaying. Therefore I cannot use system(cmd), since the window will display.

I have tried winExec(cmd, SW_HIDE), but this does not work either. CreateProcess is another one I tried. However, this is for running programs or batch files.

I have ended up trying ShellExecute:

ShellExecute( NULL, "open",
    "cmd.exe",
    "ipconfig > myfile.txt",
    "c:\projects\b",
    SW_SHOWNORMAL
);

Can anyone see anything wrong with the above code? I have used SW_SHOWNORMAL until I know this works.

I really need some help with this. Nothing has come to light, and I have been trying for quite a while. Any advice anyone could give would be great :)

Answer

arx picture arx · Jul 19, 2012

Redirecting the output to your own pipe is a tidier solution because it avoids creating the output file, but this works fine:

ShellExecute(0, "open", "cmd.exe", "/C ipconfig > out.txt", 0, SW_HIDE);

You don't see the cmd window and the output is redirected as expected.

Your code is probably failing (apart from the /C thing) because you specify the path as "c:\projects\b" rather than "c:\\projects\\b".