How to create a process and wait till it ends in C++

[Saman]

With this function you can launch an executable file and wait until it finishes the operation.

Code: Select all

size_t ExecuteProcess(std::wstring FullPathToExe, std::wstring Parameters, size_t SecondsToWait){

	size_t iMyCounter = 0, iReturnVal = 0, iPos = 0;
	DWORD dwExitCode = 0;
	std::wstring sTempStr = L"";

	/* - NOTE - You should check here to see if the exe even exists */

	/* Add a space to the beginning of the Parameters */
	if (Parameters.size() != 0){
			if (Parameters[0] != L' '){
				Parameters.insert(0,L" ");
			}
	}

	/* The first parameter needs to be the exe itself */
	sTempStr = FullPathToExe;
	iPos = sTempStr.find_last_of(L"\\");
	sTempStr.erase(0, iPos +1);
	Parameters = sTempStr.append(Parameters);

	/* CreateProcessW can modify Parameters thus we allocate needed memory */
	wchar_t * pwszParam = new wchar_t[Parameters.size() + 1];
	if (pwszParam == 0){
		return 1;
	}
	const wchar_t* pchrTemp = Parameters.c_str();
	wcscpy_s(pwszParam, Parameters.size() + 1, pchrTemp);

	/* CreateProcess API initialization */
	STARTUPINFOW siStartupInfo;
	PROCESS_INFORMATION piProcessInfo;
	memset(&siStartupInfo, 0, sizeof(siStartupInfo));
	memset(&piProcessInfo, 0, sizeof(piProcessInfo));
	siStartupInfo.cb = sizeof(siStartupInfo);

	if (CreateProcessW(const_cast<LPCWSTR>(FullPathToExe.c_str()), pwszParam, 0, 0, false, CREATE_DEFAULT_ERROR_MODE, 0, 0, &siStartupInfo, &piProcessInfo) != false){
		/* Watch the process. */
		dwExitCode = WaitForSingleObject(piProcessInfo.hProcess, (SecondsToWait * 1000));
	}
	else{
		/* CreateProcess failed */
		iReturnVal = GetLastError();
	}

	/* Free memory */
	delete[]pwszParam;
	pwszParam = 0;

	/* Release handles */
	CloseHandle(piProcessInfo.hProcess);
	CloseHandle(piProcessInfo.hThread);

	return iReturnVal;
}