What's difference between launching a program via command line & via calling c# API?

Question

1.00/5 (3 votes)

See more:

In my opinion, it should have the same result between launching a program from command line as:
<program path=""> <a-parameter>

and launching from another c# program by calling

C#

Process p = new Process();
p.StartInfo.FileName = @"D:\programs\cctv-workstation-sim\Release\CCTV Workstation.exe";
p.StartInfo.Arguments = wksSID;
p.Start();

But the fact is that the two ways of launching causes different result. In the beginning of program execution, the two launching is the same. But, in the latter stage, they act differently.

The launched & launching programs are in c#.

I should trace to understand what's wrong with it. But if anyone tells me the possible cause, it's more efficient.

Posted 30-Jul-15 20:24pm

Stan Huang

Updated 30-Jul-15 21:02pm

v3

Add a Solution

Comments

[no name] 31-Jul-15 2:32am

"Act differently" has no meaning. You will need to provide information on exactly what differences you observe.

Stan Huang 31-Jul-15 2:43am

The launching from command line behaves as I expected. It will pop up a drop list after receiving a packet from network. In command-line launching, it works as expected, as clicking on it by mouse. But in case of launching it by calling c# API, the drop list won't be popped up.

F-ES Sitecore 31-Jul-15 3:54am

I'm going to take a guess that you are calling this code from an asp.net website. If that's the case then the exe is running on the server, not the client, and the account the code is running under doesn't have access to the desktop so can't show pop-ups etc.

Stan Huang 31-Jul-15 4:23am

The caller & callee reside on the same PC. But your concern inspired something. I copied the caller into the same folder as the callee, it runs as expected.

2 solutions

Solution 2

The difference the two programs behave differently is probably because of the parameter you are passing to the program.
Check your parameters in both cases.

Posted 30-Jul-15 20:58pm

Abhinav S

Comments

Stan Huang 31-Jul-15 3:09am

I dumped the parameters and number of them in the beginning of the program, main() at program.cs, they are the same at both cases.

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

Stan Huang · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-30T22:26:00

Solution 3

The possible reason is that the callee's environment is different in the two ways of launching. In case of launching it from another c# program, the callee may think it resides on the folder same as the caller.
I moved the caller into the folder of the callee and then the callee launched and runs as expected.

Posted 30-Jul-15 22:26pm

Stan Huang

Comments

Alan N 31-Jul-15 7:21am

It's good that you have the system working again but I hope that you can see that what you did should have been regarded as diagnosis of the problem and not the solution.

It's likely that the callee is making assumptions about the current directory. If the WorkingDirectory property of ProcessStartInfo is not set then the caller's current directory is used. I've always thought that this was stupid and a more sensible default would be the callee executable's directory.

Stan Huang 31-Jul-15 9:31am

What you said is inspiring. The callee is from others and I wrote the caller to launch it. Maybe I need to pay more attention on issues around to prevent possible fault.