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

Mouldiwarp

Hi, this is my first post so hopefully I get everything in here that I need too. Here is my problem, I have a command line utility that once running accepts commands / input before displaying results. To keep things simple I am starting to build my understanding using nslookup. ALl the threads I have found so far relate to executing a command and capturing output, nothing about actually 'driving' a command line utility through the secondary input of commands / instructions. Can someone help me out here... as mentioned, using nslookup as a sample utility I want to be able to: - Launch the nslookup utility with no arguments or parameters (this I can do). - At the point NSLookup returns the '>' prompt, I want to send some input / issue a command to the utility. For example www.codeproject.com. - I want to capture the results / output of the execution so that I can analyse the text stream within my application, and retain enough control to submit a second instruction to nslookup (i.e. it doesnt exit until I choose to exit). Any help greatly appreciated

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. :)

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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.