I'm having a problem with SHELL

[James McNab]

Dale, thanks again for your help.

Of course you don't get the exit return. Doing that would require the SHELL statement, and your program would be blocked till it finished.

I don't get a return code because the 3rd party closes itself and the small CC program that shelled to it, Ithink. At this stage I'm not sure.

Mike, MM and yourself may well be correct. Thanks for the link.

[Dale Yarker]

Okay, one more time. If you use SHELL function, it does not matter what 3rd party program does, the PBCC program will not get a return value.

[Mike Doty]

That is one of the reasons I used CreateProcess

[Mike Doty]

This will maximize a PBWIN program but couldn't get to work with a PBCC program.
If it can be done, Eric Pearson and selected others would know how to do this.

Milliseconds = %INFINITE
sProgram = "c:\sql\bin\dotysql.exe"
result = WaitShell(sProgram, %SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED, Milliseconds,ExitCode) 'result 1=success

[James McNab]

Dale, no need to have a conniption, as I showed in #5, I'm using the SHELL statement.

[John Montenigro]

Doh!

As Dale pointed out, I jumped to a code example that was incorrect. I'll delete it in a moment.

I was recalling that there IS a way to obtain such a code, and it seems Mike has identified it as CreateProcess.

Next time, I'll go back to my actual source code rather than rely on memory (what's left of it...)

-John

[Bob Carver]

Okay, one more time. If you use SHELL function, it does not matter what 3rd party program does, the PBCC program will not get a return value.

Nothing to say you can't go out and get it though. Of course, if you're gonna run through three stages of (s)hell then everybody needs to cooperate to bubble the value of interest back

'
' Returns 0xffffffff on error
' A return of %STILL_ACTIVE means the process is still running
'
FUNCTION GetExitCodeProcessId(BYVAL processId AS DWORD, BYVAL waitForExit AS LONG) AS DWORD

  LOCAL hProcess AS DWORD
  LOCAL exitCode AS DWORD

  hProcess = OpenProcess(%PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION Or %SYNCHRONIZE, 0, processId)
  IF hProcess = 0 THEN
    FUNCTION = &H0FFFFFFFF
    EXIT FUNCTION
  END IF

  IF waitForExit >< 0 THEN
    WaitForSingleObject(hProcess, %INFINITE)
  END IF

  GetExitCodeProcess(hProcess, exitCode)
  CloseHandle(hProcess)

  FUNCTION = exitCode

END FUNCTION

[Steve Hutchesson]

I wonder why I have no problems getting SHELL to work.

caller.bas

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FUNCTION PBmain as LONG

    LOCAL exitval as DWORD

    StdOut "Shell to external app"

    SHELL "called.exe",4, EXIT TO exitval

    Stdout "Returned from external app and the exit code = "+format$(exitval)

    waitkey$

End FUNCTION

' ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

called.bas

' ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

FUNCTION PBmain as LONG

    StdOut "Hi, I am the called application"

    FUNCTION = 1234

End FUNCTION

' ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

Result

Shell to external app
Hi, I am the called application
Returned from external app and the exit code = 1234

[Mike Doty]

The shelled to program may only work correctly if in the current directory.

[Steve Hutchesson]

Using a path is normal when using SHELL. In the above test pieces the called file is in the same directory. SHELL works on any accessible file on the computer.

[Mike Doty]

The shelled to program will start, but it may attempt to access files in the current directory instead of its own folder.
Also, if shelling to a batch file the other commands in the batch file may not execute.unless the batch file changes directory to its own directory.
It is like using a shortcut, but not setting the working folder or Start in folder.
I think he also wanted a return code and to open another window which would mean shelling using the environment.

[Kerry Farmer]

Also, if shelling to a batch file the other commands in the batch file may not execute.unless the batch file changes directory to its own directory.

Absolutely. Definitely a trap. Spent many happy(?) hours discovering and resolving this!

[Steve Hutchesson]

This is not a problem with SHELL, its a problem of code design.

CHDIR "your-path"
SHELL "yourfile.exe",4, ------

[James McNab]

Thanks all for the input, I would have "liked" it all but the board won't let me.

[Michael Mattias]

Okay, one more time. If you use SHELL function, it does not matter what 3rd party program does, the PBCC program will not get a return value

Ok, once only because that is all that should be required:

Sure it will. Of course, the immediate return from the execution of the PB SHELL function is the process ID, not the return code of the launched program.

.... BUT...

You can always use that process ID to get a handle to that process with the WinAPI "OpenProcess()" function, then use that handle to get the exit code of that launched process with the deviously-named "GetExitCodeProcess()" WinAPI function.

Part of the issue in this thread appears to be semantic, in that the return code from a PB statement, the exit code of a launched process and the system variable ERRORLEVEL used by the the third-party program CMD.EXE are being tossed around as though they are interchangeable. News Flash: They Ain't Interchangeable.

MCM