C++ Createprocess example.
After seeing so many poor examples of executing an external process I decided to implement a good sample for you here.
Updated Feb 7, 2008
size_t ExecuteProcess(std::wstring FullPathToExe, std::wstring Parameters, size_t SecondsToWait)
{
size_t iMyCounter = 0, iReturnVal = 0, iPos = 0;
DWORD dwExitCode = 0;
std::wstring sTempStr = L"";
/* - NOTE - You should check here to see if the exe even exists */
/* Add a space to the beginning of the Parameters */
if (Parameters.size() != 0)
{
if (Parameters[0] != L' ')
{
Parameters.insert(0,L" ");
}
}
/* The first parameter needs to be the exe itself */
sTempStr = FullPathToExe;
iPos = sTempStr.find_last_of(L"\\");
sTempStr.erase(0, iPos +1);
Parameters = sTempStr.append(Parameters);
/* CreateProcessW can modify Parameters thus we allocate needed memory */
wchar_t * pwszParam = new wchar_t[Parameters.size() + 1];
if (pwszParam == 0)
{
return 1;
}
const wchar_t* pchrTemp = Parameters.c_str();
wcscpy_s(pwszParam, Parameters.size() + 1, pchrTemp);
/* CreateProcess API initialization */
STARTUPINFOW siStartupInfo;
PROCESS_INFORMATION piProcessInfo;
memset(&siStartupInfo, 0, sizeof(siStartupInfo));
memset(&piProcessInfo, 0, sizeof(piProcessInfo));
siStartupInfo.cb = sizeof(siStartupInfo);
if (CreateProcessW(const_cast<LPCWSTR>(FullPathToExe.c_str()),
pwszParam, 0, 0, false,
CREATE_DEFAULT_ERROR_MODE, 0, 0,
&siStartupInfo, &piProcessInfo) != false)
{
/* Watch the process. */
dwExitCode = WaitForSingleObject(piProcessInfo.hProcess, (SecondsToWait * 1000));
}
else
{
/* CreateProcess failed */
iReturnVal = GetLastError();
}
/* Free memory */
delete[]pwszParam;
pwszParam = 0;
/* Release handles */
CloseHandle(piProcessInfo.hProcess);
CloseHandle(piProcessInfo.hThread);
return iReturnVal;
}