SHELL / CreateProcess inconsistent

[George Deluca]

I'm not sure how to takle debugging this. I have a largish program which as one of its functions will accept a users command and issue it via SHELL. What I am seeing is that it is only working while running in the PowerBasic IDE, it does NOT run from the compiled EXE file.

So I extract the small bit of code which does the shell to a test program. It functions perfectly within the IDE, but it ALSO runs fine as a compiled EXE.

What I see when it fails is the briefest flash of a DOS window for just an instant.
Here's the small test pgm.

#COMPILE EXE
#DIM ALL
#INCLUDE "Win32Api.inc"

FUNCTION PBMAIN () AS LONG
LOCAL lclCmd AS ASCIZ * 100
LOCAL rcProcess AS PROCESS_INFORMATION
LOCAL rcStart AS STARTUPINFO
LOCAL RetC AS LONG
   lclCmd = ENVIRON$("COMSPEC") + " /C " + "TestBatch.BAT Operand1 Operand2"    ' Setup command
   rcStart.cb = LEN(rcStart)                             ' Initialize the STARTUPINFO structure:
' Try using the SHELL function
   RetC = SHELL(lclCmd,1)
' Try using CreateProcess
   RetC = CreateProcess(BYVAL %NULL, BYCOPY lclCmd, BYVAL %NULL, BYVAL %NULL, 1&, _
                        %CREATE_NEW_CONSOLE OR %NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS, BYVAL %NULL, _
                        BYVAL %NULL, rcStart, rcProcess)
   CALL CloseHandle(rcProcess.hThread)
   CALL CloseHandle(rcProcess.hProcess)
END FUNCTION

and here's the tiny BAT file I'm testing with.

@echo off
Echo Starting batch file
echo Parameter One is %1
echo Parameter Two is %2
echo End of batch file
pause

So -- the test program works both IN the IDE and as a compiled EXE.

The same code in the main program works fine in the IDE, but not in the compiled EXE.

Any ideas what the difference is? The main program does have 1 dialog window open when it does the SHELL, the little test program does not.

Displaying ERR always shows no error occurred. Note the test program has both SHELL and CreateProcess. They BOTH work fine.

They also both work fine in the full program within the IDE, but not from the EXE.

????? I've gotta be missing something real simple here.

George

[Fred Buffington]

Try
SHELL lclCmd,1
instead which will not return to the program until the child process is finished.

I understand this may not be desirable but at least for testing you may be
able to pinpoint some problem.

[Michael Mattias]

Does EXE program 'start in' the same directory as does the IDE? Won't find batch file if it doesn't.

[Cliff Nichols]

Guess the "Brief-est" flash is the Dos Window opening and closing

[George Deluca]

Michael:
All programs, source, IDE, EXE, BAT are in the same directory. Both the test pgm and the large main pgm have everything here.

Cliff: Right, I wish it could be kept open to see if it says anything useful.

Fred: I'll give your suggestion a try.

George

[Edwin Knoppert]

The 'best':

AllocConsole()
Shell "My.bat"
FreeConsole()

[Fred Buffington]

George if it does the same thing using the shell statement id have to agree with Cliff as to the 'flash' and that michael is probably correct that it is probably not finding the bat file.

[Michael Mattias]

Displaying ERR always shows no error occurred. Note the test program has both SHELL and CreateProcess. They BOTH work fine.

That means the CMD shell was succesfully launched; but not necessarily whatever you asked CMD to do.

>All programs, source, IDE, EXE, BAT are in the same directo

So what? That is not the same as "current directory." You could always display CURDIR$ to see where you really are.

> Cliff: Right, I wish it could be kept open to see if it says anything useful.

Try using "/K" instead of /C." That should leave the command-shell console open; maybe you will find those useful messages.

Or, while I'm sure the CMD file in real life does something more than display the passed parameters, maybe you could get the cmd file 'out of the loop' by executing Shell/CreateProcess for each task the cmd file does, or just replacing command-line utilties with in-line code.

[George Deluca]

OK Guys,

I originally said

????? I've gotta be missing something real simple here.

and it was true!

I had icons on my desktop for the main program and the test program which were created with a normal Right-Click -> Send to desktop (shortcut). These were what I was using to test the compiled EXEs.

Well the main program one was faulty, I'd created it pointing at my distribution directory and not the development one.

So Michael was quite right, it wasn't finding the BAT file.



Sorry for the interruption, but thanks for helping me see over the rut I was in.

George