I am writing a service program which is expected to run in background. On Windows it will open a console window when run. I want it to go to background directly without that console window, so I used the -ldconf "-H=windowsgui" option, which worked as expected.
However, there is a catch. The program has a command line option -help, which output command line usage in the console. If I use -H=windowsgui, the help text is NOT printed even I start it in cmd.exe prompt.
It seems that the windowsgui option is not what I want. Is there anyway that the -help still works at commant line, and the console window will not persist if the program runs normally. I do not care if there is a console window pops up, provided that it disappears shortly without user intervention. i.e. I want a way on windows which is similar to the & operator on Linux.
P.S. if provided solution uses any other tools, I want that tool to be a Windows component, not any 3rd-party program. Thanks.
Related
My use case:
I kick-off a Python script from a button within Excel to do some data aggregation. The setup currently works nicely, but I would like:
Cmd to never accidentally pause - it's a known feature of the command prompt to pause on any text selection: Avoid pausing tasks when select something on PowerShell and Command Prompt
To let the cmd prompt look more like a pop-up
I have noticed NSIS installers outputs it's commands in a little logging box:
Question:
I would like to know if there are any programs out there that does most of what I want already. E.g. something like RunLikePopup.exe c:\path\to\script.bat, with output like:
Not sure what you are really after. I 'll give it a try.
In case you build an application as 'console'-only than that results in a 'command-line-interface [CLI]' Look-and-feel. Plane and simple. The output of a NSIS script (.nsi file) can not be paused as it is simply the output of the compiler executing the script code. 'Pausing' that would instantly mean pausing the compiler to do its work. I see no reason why you would want that.
Example Unix 'more' command (sending text oriented content to stdout. CLI...)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_(command)
In case you need to 'catch' the output from the NSIS compiler here is what you need to do:
run NSIS from (Windows) CLI:
makensis [ option | script.nsi | - ] [...] > compiler_log.txt
What you appear to want is typically named 'output redirect'. (https://ss64.com/nt/syntax-redirection.html). In case you need to 'catch' the outpout from a NSIS script at compile time, please use NSIS ' CLI and redirect the (compilers) output to any text file (e.g. compiler_output.txt)
PS. In order to ensure receiving good quality answers, try to be as specific as you can in your questions.
I have written a Freeware editor ME "Martins Editor" where you can send text via inpipe:
[C:\]dir /s | me in
"in" always shows the first page (does not scroll), "ins" scrolls and "inp" scrolls page by page. In this context, "me in" is a substitute for "more".
Then you will see the output in the editor. ME is a simple editor with the focus on multiplatform text (different EOL encodings, codepages). It has additional Wordstar ("IDE classic") key setting and HTML/XML highlightning. It is available for Windows, OS/2, Linux and MacOS.
http://www.hypermake.com/english/betatest.html#hd117
The 2016 version is still current. In the next weeks, I publish a new version.
I am working on a cmd.exe window replacement (commandline frontend) "MeShell" based on ME with look-and-feel of a normal commandline window. Because on the lack of a modern comfortable commandline window on the old OS/2 platform which is still alive (http://www.arcanoae.com), I will publish an OS/2 version first. If this version works fine, I will publish a Windows version later. In the context of MeShell, I improve the inpipe functionality of ME which is still buggy and does not support colors in the 2016 version.
This question already has answers here:
Prevent VBscript app from showing Console Window
(1 answer)
How can I run a command silently in VBScript? [duplicate]
(1 answer)
Closed 3 years ago.
I need to run this old telnet scripting client silently in the background. You run it from cmd providing arguments for:
1- a file containing the commands to send
2- a file where to print any output
3- whether to run it minimized to taskbar or not
(note: if it is run without arguments, it displays a help window)
So this is what I type in cmd, and it works like a charm:
TST10.exe /r:mycommands.txt /o:myoutputfile.txt /m
What I can't achieve however, is running it completely hidden in the background. Now, since this program requires arguments, I tried to first achieve this only on the help window that gets spawned (ie: running it without arguments).
I tried with VBScripts using carefully all the answers here. It always starts normally (not hidden). These VBScripts all succeed to hide other programs though.
I also tried with this program that starts processes hidden, oddly enough it only succeeds in hiding the the telnet client from the taskbar. Also, even if it would completely hide it, I still have no idea on how to pass the mentioned arguments.
edit:
How is this even CLOSE to "Prevent VBscript app from showing Console Window" or "How can I run a command silently in VBScript?"? This question VERY clearly asks how to run a normal .exe program in a hidden manner which is not even slightly related to running a VBscript without showing the console or running a command silently in VBScript. + I even stated that the only way to achieve this USING VBScipt (not hiding a VBScript itself) doesn't work. Are the accounts marking this as duplicate bots that simply detect "VBScript" and "hide program" and assume that I want to hide an executing VBScript? Or can they simply not understand English?
Try this... create a run.js or something (make sure you give it a .js extension). Place this line inside the .js:
WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell").Run("notepad.exe", 0);
Run it. You should see notepad.exe running in your task manager, but it's window should be hidden. Now try the same with your app instead.
Probably a very simple question. I just thought, after someone suggested it here, of trying (and installing) Python 3.6 on a Mac - I've been happily using 2.7 since now. I've never used the IDLE before having done everything via the command line + ATOM to write the program.
I see that 'normally' you should be able to write your program in the shell and then run it in the RUN window. However, I don't see a RUN mode in window, just the possibility of using, which you are anyhow, the shell window. I hope that makes sense!
Is this normal, or have I missed something?
p.s. I'm using OS X 10.8, if that's of any importance.
I am not exactly sure what you are asking, and whether it has anything to do with OSX, but I can explain IDLE. IDLE has two types of main window: a single Shell and multiple Editor windows.
Shell simulates python running in the interactive REPL mode that you get when you enter 'python' (or 'python3') in a console or terminal window. (The latter depends on the OS.) You enter statements at the >>> prompt. A single-line statement is run when you hit Enter (or Return). A multi-line statement is run when you hit Enter twice. This is the same as in interactive Python.
Editor windows let you enter a multi-statement program. You run the programs by selecting Run and Run module from the menu or by hitting the shortcut key, which by default is F5 (at least on Windows and Linux). This runs the program much the same as if you enter python -i myprogram.py in a console. Program output and input goes to and is received from the Shell window. When the program ends, Python enters interactive mode and prints an interactive prompt (>>>). One can then interact with the objects created by the program.
You are correct that Run does not appear on the menu bar of the Shell. It is not needed as one runs a statement with the Enter key.
When I use PyCharm I find myself frequently trying out pieces of code interactively. So far, my workflow has been to use pdbfor this and set a breakpoint as pdb.set_trace, which then drops me into the console.
However, for PyCharm the resulting console has no command history - the up arrow instead moves the cursor upwards into the previous output, which is a pain to use.
I realize there's also the built-in debugger that has a console with history, but getting there involves more clicks (run the debugger, switch to Console tab and clicking on "Show Python Prompt").
There is a built-in console that does have a command history (Tools > Python Console), however, unfortunately that's not the console that's being run for pdbbreak points. Is it possible to get PyCharm to use a different console for pdb?
No, it's not possible. PyCharm has no control over what happens when you invoke pdb.set_trace().
I need to write a huge VBscript to automatically run an application and I'm looking for a way to comfortably monitor what I'm actually doing, in other words, to display the values of some/all variables involved in my script.
I'm used to work with Matlab, where I have a comfortable workspace browser. When I run a Matlab script, all variables, their types and their values are accessible in that workspace and can be checked.
The VBscript I write with Notepad++ (it needs to be a free editor) and the only way I found to display variables was echoing them via wscript and cscript.
I set up the shortcuts.xml with the following line to run my script directly from Notepad++:
<Command name="Run with CScript" Ctrl="yes" Alt="no" Shift="yes" Key="116">cmd /K %windir%\system32\cscript.exe "$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)"</Command>
In case I include commands in my script like
Wscript.Echo myVar
Wscript.Echo "Hello World!"
and run it with the newly introduced shortcut, a cmd window pops up and displays the value of myVar and "Hello World!".
But the next time I run the script a new window pops up. So my question is:
Is it possible get a continuously opened output window, displaying all echoed values everytime I run a script? I actually want to put the window on a second screen and keep the values from previous runs. So I can enter a line Wscript.Echo something, run, check, enter something else and so on, without fiddling around with a bunch of opened windows.
Alternatively, is there any open-source/free editor which offers an accessible workspace like the one in Matlab?
The open-source editor SciTE offers what I was looking for.
The default settings in vb.properties enable a similar behavior like in Notepad++
command.build.$(file.patterns.wscript)=cscript "$(FilePath)"
command.build.subsystem.$(file.patterns.wscript)=1
One can change it as follows to get the output into the integrated console.
command.go.$(file.patterns.wscript)=cscript.exe //nologo "$(FilePath)"
command.go.subsystem.$(file.patterns.wscript)=0
F5 runs the script and Shift+F5 cleans the output.
Another option is the NppExec Plugin for Notepad++ suggested by #Ansgar Wiechers, which adds a console. The script can be run with cscript.exe /nologo "$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)" then.
Use a debugger. Start your script with the (meta)option //X. If you are lucky, you already have installed software (MS Office, Visual Studio (Express)) that provides a debugger for VBScript. If not do a bit of research to find an Express version suitable to your OS.
You can almost write native VBScript in the VBA editor, so if you have Excel or whatever you can use this to debug, then go through some steps to convert back to VBScript. That's what I usually do.