Proper way to run PsList.exe from my C# app and get its output (Or why my code doesn't work)?

Question

Why this code only shows cmd window and never reaches the end ? I want to get the output from PsList into my C# app. Execution halts on this line: "int exitCode = proc.ExitCode;"

private static void PsList()
{           
    ProcessStartInfo start = new ProcessStartInfo();            
    start.FileName = @"C:\PsList.exe";
    start.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
    start.CreateNoWindow = true;
    start.UseShellExecute = false;
    start.RedirectStandardOutput = true;

    using (Process proc = Process.Start(start))
    {
        proc.WaitForExit(4000);

        int exitCode = proc.ExitCode;
        string exitMsg = proc.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
    }
}

It is waiting for you to read its output. – Hans Passant Jun 28 '11 at 22:27 — Hans Passant, Jun 28 '11 at 22:27
Thank you very much. I see the error now. – Primoz Jun 29 '11 at 23:01 — Primoz, Jun 29 '11 at 23:01

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:27

3

You might try rearranging things a bit:

using (Process proc = Process.Start(start))
{
    string exitMsg = proc.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
    proc.WaitForExit(4000);

    int exitCode = proc.ExitCode;
}

There are many related questions such as How to get log from Process.Start and ResGen.exe stucks when redirect output

edited May 23 '17 at 12:27

Community

1
1

answered Jun 28 '11 at 22:21

Jim Mischel

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 28 '11 at 22:30

Depending on how exactly the execution halts on the proc.ExitCode line, it may be the process isn't finished by the time the ExitCode property is accessed, and then it will throw a InvalidOperationException.

In that case you could check if the process has already exited with proc.HasExited before trying to access the ExitCode property

Proper way to run PsList.exe from my C# app and get its output (Or why my code doesn't work)?

2 Answers2