How do I 'drive' a command line utility beyond executing a single process / command?

[Calla]

I guess you have to start nslookup with arguments and then parse the output yourself. Just running nsloolup.exe without parameters will only start the application itself (as you have discovered).

[realJSOP]

You can get the output generated by the commandline app (I forget exactly how this is done), and then respond to that.

.45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly
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[Luc Pattyn]

What you want is input/output/error redirection of a process, which is supported by the Process class. Have a look at the following stream-related Process members: properties StandardInput, StandardOutput, StandardError events OutputDataReceived, ErrorDataReceived As an alternative to using events, you could create a few threads, each dealing with one of the streams, based on a loop calling Read() or ReadLine(). Do not use ReadToEnd() on the output/error streams as they would probably block until the process exits. :)

Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles]

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I only read code that is properly formatted, adding PRE tags is the easiest way to obtain that.

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[PIEBALDconsult]

I haven't done that on a local system; only on a remote system -- by telnetting in and using a script to interact with the remote system. It occurred to me today (before I even read your post) that my script engine might be able to work locally. My article on my script engine is nearing completion; I hope to finish it up today.

[PIEBALDconsult]

Veddy intewesting... ... and then I wrap it in an IScriptableCommunicator[^]... :cool:

[Mouldiwarp]

That sounds like it could be interesting :) Look forward to reading it.!!

[PIEBALDconsult]

I have a working example going now. It works with nslookup and at least one utility of my own, but not FTP and TELNET -- they don't prompt when executed in this manner. :mad: How have you progressed in the meantime? P.S. And I did post my script article. I'm just working on the class that wraps a Process so the engine can use it.

[PIEBALDconsult]

This is what I'm playing around with. Except for reading the error stream, and utilities that don't prompt when executed this way, it works pretty well.

[Mouldiwarp]

As a newbie to code writing this one got me really stumped. While I have been contemplating and get help from people here I turned my attention to some other area's that I need to master in order to get to the end of my project. I am now able to churn out windoes services / service installers etc... without much hassle.... all I need to do now is to get my service to drive these cmd line utilities :D I havent looked yet but am looking forward to seeing what you have done and how you did it.

[PIEBALDconsult]

Just got published: ProcessCommunicator[^] Let me know what you think.