Debugging C# on the command line: ">"-character

Question

I'm creating a small commandline tool for a customer and trying to verify its output. The output is been written to the commandline itself. Since its rather a huge file that's been used as an input file and thus a huge out to write to the commandline, I wanted the output to redirect to a file. Usually I use use commandline arguments like so to redirect the output to a file:

a.exe ./input.txt > ./ouput.txt

However, in my program, I try to verify the input:

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    if (args.Length != 1)
        throw new ArgumentException();
    ...

And args now is:

args[0] = ./input.txt
args[1] = >
args[2] = ./ouput.txt

Honestly I personally still expect only one argument, since the file is been created and thus the shell does understand what I mean. So... what am I doing wrong? Should I use args or something else? Thank you in advance!

Try to add parenthesis, like this: (a.exe ./input.txt) > ./ouput.txt — Alexandre, Nov 07 '13 at 11:15
For me, it works as expected. May you also try `a.exe ./input.txt>./ouput.txt` (without spaces)? — Alex Filipovici, Nov 07 '13 at 11:18
`args.Length` should be 1 as you expect. How are you invoking your tool? Are you typing the commandline in a shell? — Reda, Nov 07 '13 at 11:27
Dan-o: I thought about using external libraries instead (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/491595/best-way-to-parse-command-line-arguments-in-c) but for such a simple thing I just did not want to bother. It also would not make anything more simple in my case. Alexandre: Can't do that in VS2012, can I? AlexFilipovici: That would have worked if I did not use any quotes around my file names ;-) Thanks anyways! — van Nijnatten, Nov 07 '13 at 11:38

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:03

0

Are you passing the arguments through Visual Studio? It will only work if you untick Enable the Visual Studio hosting process.

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Image and explanation from here.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:03

Community

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answered Nov 07 '13 at 11:19

Ilian

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I did look for an answer, but did not find that article. Thanks! – van Nijnatten Nov 07 '13 at 11:39

Debugging C# on the command line: ">"-character

1 Answers1