How to run command prompt commands from a c program?

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I want to run a command prompt command from within a c program. That command should take inputs from a text file or it should take those inputs from a for loop...I am m new to c programming..
eg:
To run a command color
This command color should take inputs from a text file ...text file contains inputs like a b c d each in a single line...

Posted 1-Apr-14 5:45am

Member 10715106

Updated 1-Apr-14 6:26am

Rage

v2

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Rage 1-Apr-14 12:27pm

Do you need to call the command from within the c-code, or do you want to create a C application that, once compiled, is a command that you can call from the command line ?

[no name] 1-Apr-14 19:29pm

Why - what can a command line command do that can't be done in code? There are batch files for running scripts in the command interpreter. There may be some confusion here about what your actual requirement is.

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Steve44 · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-01T06:07:00

Unfortunately you did not mention which OS you are running on.
I'll try with Windows anyway:

The function you are looking for is CreateProcess()

C++

BOOL WINAPI CreateProcess(
 TEXT("<path and filename of your application>"),
 TEXT("<CommandLine parameters>"),
...
);

You pass the name, path and command lines to your program to run.
The redirection of the console input and output is done by setting the flag STARTF_USESTDHANDLES in dwFlags and filling the appropriate members in the STARTUPINFO structure (underlined below).

C++

typedef struct _STARTUPINFO {
  DWORD  cb;
  LPTSTR lpReserved;
  LPTSTR lpDesktop;
  LPTSTR lpTitle;
  DWORD  dwX;
  DWORD  dwY;
  DWORD  dwXSize;
  DWORD  dwYSize;
  DWORD  dwXCountChars;
  DWORD  dwYCountChars;
  DWORD  dwFillAttribute;
  DWORD  dwFlags;
  WORD   wShowWindow;
  WORD   cbReserved2;
  LPBYTE lpReserved2;
  HANDLE hStdInput;
  HANDLE hStdOutput;
  HANDLE hStdError;
} STARTUPINFO, *LPSTARTUPINFO;

Here the links to the MSDN documentation for more details:
CreateProcess():
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms682425(v=vs.85).aspx[^]

The STARTUPINFO structure:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms686331(v=vs.85).aspx[^]

If this is not the intended OS, please let us know.

Good luck with your project!
Steve

Rage · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-01T06:24:00

Solution 2

You may want to ShellExecute "cmd.exe".
Here the doc[^]

Posted 1-Apr-14 6:24am

Rage

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Member 10715106 2-Apr-14 1:18am

Thank you for your reply...i dont know to use functions also im not good in programming...im using windows 7..i have a command which is used to unlock a file with a password..i have more than 100 passwords in a text file each line by line..my problem is that command should fetch each password at a time and execute it on command prompt to check whether it can unlock the file..can u please send me the complete program to do this operation..im using code blocks to run c,c++ programs...

bling · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-01T11:18:00

Solution 3

This will work on Posix systems (including Windows).

Example:

C++

#include <stdlib.h>

system("cmd.exe");
system("bash");
</stdlib.h>

http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/system.html[^]

Posted 1-Apr-14 11:18am

bling

User 59241 · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-01T14:32:00

Solution 4

Invoke the command processor using system()

C++

#include <conio.h>
#include <string>

using namespace std;

void main(void)
{
	string strcommand = "color "; // Command
	string strcolor = "5B";       // Parameter - read from text file.

	system( (strcommand + strcolor).c_str() );

	getch();
}

Posted 1-Apr-14 14:32pm

User 59241

Updated 1-Apr-14 14:33pm

v2

Comments

Member 10715106 2-Apr-14 1:18am

Thank you for your reply...i dont know to use functions also im not good in programming...im using windows 7..i have a command which is used to unlock a file with a password..i have more than 100 passwords in a text file each line by line..my problem is that command should fetch each password at a time and execute it on command prompt to check whether it can unlock the file..can u please send me the complete program to do this operation..im using code blocks to run c,c++ programs...

[no name] 2-Apr-14 1:37am

Sorry - not how it works here. You must take the next step.

How to run command prompt commands from a c program?

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