Access to Shelled Applications

[Ian Davies]

Truecrypt is supposed to start a background task at logon, but doesn't.
I manually open and close Truecrypt to start the background task.

I can open Truecrypt using SHELL, but can't take control of it from
there.

What is my best way to open and close Truecrypt.exe with CC5?

[Brian Chirgwin]

Truecrypt is supposed to start a background task at logon, but doesn't.
I manually open and close Truecrypt to start the background task.

I can open Truecrypt using SHELL, but can't take control of it from
there.

What is my best way to open and close Truecrypt.exe with CC5?

http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=command-line-usage

In the example, unless you have a c:\volumename, truecrypt file created it will fail with an error.

#COMPILE EXE
#DIM ALL
#REGISTER NONE

FUNCTION PBMAIN () AS LONG
    ' replace c:\volumename with the path and name to a valid truecrypt volume (file or device) 
    SHELL "c:\program files\truecrypt\truecrypt /q /v c:\volumename /d r:"

END FUNCTION

[Michael Mattias]

>.. can open Truecrypt using SHELL, but can't take control of it from there

What do you mean by, "take control?"

BTW, you can test SHELL for success, and you can get the return code (when it ends) if that launch succeeds.

MCM

[Ian Davies]

Thank you Brian, also for pointing out the Truecrypt command line
arguments (which I should have looked at first!).

I guess it leaves only the theoretical question of how to access a
programme you've opened. Probably a bit beyond my skill level.

[Ian Davies]

Michael, by "taking control" I merely want to close the newly opened
application. (But I suspect that involves getting a bit out of my
depth).

[Ian Davies]

The following line works, solving my immediate problem:

ID = SHELL ("c:\program files\truecrypt\truecrypt.exe /q background")

[Michael Mattias]

Michael, by "taking control" I merely want to close the newly opened
application. (But I suspect that involves getting a bit out of my
depth

Maybe not.....Quite often programs which are designed to "run forever" have some kind of command line option to "quit"... in which case you just Shell (or Shellexecute) the program with the correct command line to quit.

However, if the program is not designed to "quit" in an orderly fashion, your best bet is to just let it run. Forcing termination ("TerminateProcess") is a BAD idea except in an emergency.

MCM

[Ian Davies]

Michael: Thanks for your comments. Fortunately the application I
am interested in has command line switches to place it in the
tray and exit quietly.

It also has a setting to do this on windows startup, but
doesn't. Something else is interfering with it. But my little
app will run at startup and do the same thing so all is well.

In my next reincarnation I may come back as a programmer, but a
bit late for that now in this lifetime, alas.