Run Bash Commands from Mono C#

Question

I am trying to make a directory using this code to see if the code is executing but for some reason it executes with no error but the directory is never made. Is there and error in my code somewhere?

var startInfo = new 

var startinfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
startinfo.WorkingDirectory = "/home";

proc.StartInfo.FileName = "/bin/bash";
proc.StartInfo.Arguments = "-c cd Desktop && mkdir hey";
proc.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
proc.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
proc.Start ();

Console.WriteLine ("Shell has been executed!");
Console.ReadLine();

My solution i stored on a thumb drive in a folder called projects if thats what you meant. — Brandon Williams, Apr 12 '14 at 10:40
I assume that you're really trying to do something else (other than create a directory) in the end. Otherwise, it would seem that Directory.CreateDirectory(string) would be the better choice than going through the shell. — KevinS, Apr 12 '14 at 11:25
Does Desktop exist under the /home directory? If so, why didn't you just set the WorkingDirectory to "/home/Desktop" and only execute the mkdir command? I feel like this is the XY problem: http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/66377/what-is-the-xy-problem — KevinS, Apr 12 '14 at 11:28
I would like to execute a shell script that is saved on my desktop. — Brandon Williams, Apr 12 '14 at 11:34

score 16 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 04 '17 at 18:07

This works best for me because now I do not have to worry about escaping quotes etc...

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;

class HelloWorld
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // lets say we want to run this command:    
        //  t=$(echo 'this is a test'); echo "$t" | grep -o 'is a'
        var output = ExecuteBashCommand("t=$(echo 'this is a test'); echo \"$t\" | grep -o 'is a'");

        // output the result
        Console.WriteLine(output);
    }

    static string ExecuteBashCommand(string command)
    {
        // according to: https://stackoverflow.com/a/15262019/637142
        // thans to this we will pass everything as one command
        command = command.Replace("\"","\"\"");

        var proc = new Process
        {
            StartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo
            {
                FileName = "/bin/bash",
                Arguments = "-c \""+ command + "\"",
                UseShellExecute = false,
                RedirectStandardOutput = true,
                CreateNoWindow = true
            }
        };

        proc.Start();
        proc.WaitForExit();

        return proc.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
    }
}

Thanks, providing a sample that already includes passing back the output helped me a lot! — friday, Dec 02 '19 at 16:32
I found I needed to use `command = command.Replace("\"", "\\\"");` to get escaped quotes working properly. Besides that, though, this was an exceptionally helpful answer. Thank you kind human. — McHobbes, Jan 14 '20 at 23:04

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 18 '17 at 19:38

7

This works for me:

Process.Start("/bin/bash", "-c \"echo 'Hello World!'\"");

answered Apr 18 '17 at 19:38

Alex Erygin

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score 1 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:46

1

My guess is that your working directory is not where you expect it to be.

See here for more information on the working directory of Process.Start()

also your command seems wrong, use && to execute multiple commands:

  proc.StartInfo.Arguments = "-c cd Desktop && mkdir hey";

Thirdly you are setting your working directory wrongly:

 proc.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = "/home";

edited May 23 '17 at 11:46

Community

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answered Apr 12 '14 at 10:50

thumbmunkeys

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would you happen to know of an alternative way to execute this command? – Brandon Williams Apr 12 '14 at 10:56
Still having an issue for some reason. Ill post the code that im using now as an update. – Brandon Williams Apr 12 '14 at 11:09

Run Bash Commands from Mono C#

3 Answers3

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