I would like to make a bat script that performs an action only if fewer than 2 occurrences of cmd.exe are running. I managed to find a solution that stores the occurrence count in a temporary file, but I find it very inelegant. So my question is how to do the same as below without a temporary file, but rather by storing the occurence count given by #TASKLIST | FIND /I /C "%_process%" in a variable. I saw that there may be a solution with a for loop, but I couldn’t get it to work and anyway I would really prefer a solution based on SET (if this is possible).
#SET _process=cmd.exe
#SET _temp_file=tempfiletodelete.txt
#TASKLIST | FIND /I /C "%_process%" > %_temp_file%
#SET /p _count=<%_temp_file%
#DEL /f %_temp_file%
#IF %_count% LSS 2 (
#ECHO action 1
) ELSE (
#ECHO action 2
)
Edit: This question is similar to Save output from FIND command to variable, but I wasn’t able to apply the solution to my problem and I wanted to know if a solution without a for loop is possible.
The command FOR with option /F and the command or command line specified as set (string inside parentheses) additionally enclosed by ' can be used for processing the output of a command or a command line with multiple commands on one line.
You can use this batch file:
#ECHO OFF
SET "_process=cmd.exe"
FOR /F %%I IN ('%SystemRoot%\System32\tasklist.exe /FI "IMAGENAME eq %_process%" ^| %SystemRoot%\System32\find.exe /I /C "%_process%"') DO SET "_count=%%I"
IF /I "%_process%" == "cmd.exe" SET /A _count-=1
IF %_count% LSS 2 (
ECHO action 1
) ELSE (
ECHO action 2
)
The command FOR runs in background without a visible console window cmd.exe /C with the command line:
C:\Windows\System32\tasklist.exe /FI "IMAGENAME eq cmd.exe" | C:\Windows\System32\find.exe /I /C "cmd.exe"
TASKLIST option /FI "IMAGENAME eq cmd.exe" filters the output of TASKLIST already to processes with image name (= name of executable) cmd.exe. This makes further processing faster and avoids that a running process with file name totalcmd.exe is counted as cmd.exe as the command line in question does.
The output of TASKLIST written to handle STDOUT is redirected to handle STDIN of command FIND which processes the lines and counts the lines containing cmd.exe anywhere in line. FIND outputs finally the number of lines containing searched string to handle STDOUT of command process running in background.
The redirection operator | must be escaped with caret character ^ on FOR command line to be interpreted as literal character when Windows command interpreter processes this command line before executing command FOR which executes the embedded command line with using a separate command process started in background.
FOR with option /F captures everything written to handle STDOUT of executed command process and processes each line. In this case just one line is captured by FOR containing just a number. Therefore no additional options are needed to assign the number assigned to loop variable I by FOR to environment variable _count using command SET.
The goal of this batch file is counting the number of cmd.exe processes already running. As the command line with TASKLIST and FIND is executed by FOR in background with using one more cmd.exe process, it is necessary to subtract the count by one to get the correct result using an arithmetic expression evaluated with SET /A _count-=1. This decrement by one is needed only for counting right the number of cmd.exe processes. It is not necessary for any other process.
For understanding the used commands and how they work, open a command prompt window, execute there the following commands, and read entirely all help pages displayed for each command very carefully.
echo /?
find /?
for /?
if /?
set /?
tasklist /?
You would do it like this, using TaskList in a For loop:
#Set "_process=cmd.exe"
#For /F %%A In ('TaskList^|Find /C /I "%_process%"'
) Do #If %%A Lss 2 (Echo Action 1) Else Echo Action 2
#Pause
You can also perform a similar thing using WMIC too:
#Set "_process=cmd.exe"
#For /F %%A In ('WMIC Process Get Name^|Find /C "%_process%"'
) Do #If %%A Lss 2 (Echo Action 1) Else Echo Action 2
#Pause
These could be refined further to ensure processes containing the string as opposed to matching it aren't counted:
#Set "_process=cmd.exe"
#For /F %%A In ('TaskList /FI "ImageName Eq "%_Process%""^|Find /C "."'
) Do #If %%A Lss 2 (Echo Action 1) Else Echo Action 2
#Pause
#Set "_process=cmd.exe"
#For /F %%A In (
'WMIC Process Where "Name='%_process%'" Get Name^|Find /C "."'
) Do #If %%A Lss 2 (Echo Action 1) Else Echo Action 2
#Pause
Note:If you're really checking the cmd.exe process, be aware that an the command inside the For loop parentheses is spawned within a new cmd.exe instance, (thereby increasing your count by 1)
Related
I would like to make a bat script that performs an action only if fewer than 2 occurrences of cmd.exe are running. I managed to find a solution that stores the occurrence count in a temporary file, but I find it very inelegant. So my question is how to do the same as below without a temporary file, but rather by storing the occurence count given by #TASKLIST | FIND /I /C "%_process%" in a variable. I saw that there may be a solution with a for loop, but I couldn’t get it to work and anyway I would really prefer a solution based on SET (if this is possible).
#SET _process=cmd.exe
#SET _temp_file=tempfiletodelete.txt
#TASKLIST | FIND /I /C "%_process%" > %_temp_file%
#SET /p _count=<%_temp_file%
#DEL /f %_temp_file%
#IF %_count% LSS 2 (
#ECHO action 1
) ELSE (
#ECHO action 2
)
Edit: This question is similar to Save output from FIND command to variable, but I wasn’t able to apply the solution to my problem and I wanted to know if a solution without a for loop is possible.
The command FOR with option /F and the command or command line specified as set (string inside parentheses) additionally enclosed by ' can be used for processing the output of a command or a command line with multiple commands on one line.
You can use this batch file:
#ECHO OFF
SET "_process=cmd.exe"
FOR /F %%I IN ('%SystemRoot%\System32\tasklist.exe /FI "IMAGENAME eq %_process%" ^| %SystemRoot%\System32\find.exe /I /C "%_process%"') DO SET "_count=%%I"
IF /I "%_process%" == "cmd.exe" SET /A _count-=1
IF %_count% LSS 2 (
ECHO action 1
) ELSE (
ECHO action 2
)
The command FOR runs in background without a visible console window cmd.exe /C with the command line:
C:\Windows\System32\tasklist.exe /FI "IMAGENAME eq cmd.exe" | C:\Windows\System32\find.exe /I /C "cmd.exe"
TASKLIST option /FI "IMAGENAME eq cmd.exe" filters the output of TASKLIST already to processes with image name (= name of executable) cmd.exe. This makes further processing faster and avoids that a running process with file name totalcmd.exe is counted as cmd.exe as the command line in question does.
The output of TASKLIST written to handle STDOUT is redirected to handle STDIN of command FIND which processes the lines and counts the lines containing cmd.exe anywhere in line. FIND outputs finally the number of lines containing searched string to handle STDOUT of command process running in background.
The redirection operator | must be escaped with caret character ^ on FOR command line to be interpreted as literal character when Windows command interpreter processes this command line before executing command FOR which executes the embedded command line with using a separate command process started in background.
FOR with option /F captures everything written to handle STDOUT of executed command process and processes each line. In this case just one line is captured by FOR containing just a number. Therefore no additional options are needed to assign the number assigned to loop variable I by FOR to environment variable _count using command SET.
The goal of this batch file is counting the number of cmd.exe processes already running. As the command line with TASKLIST and FIND is executed by FOR in background with using one more cmd.exe process, it is necessary to subtract the count by one to get the correct result using an arithmetic expression evaluated with SET /A _count-=1. This decrement by one is needed only for counting right the number of cmd.exe processes. It is not necessary for any other process.
For understanding the used commands and how they work, open a command prompt window, execute there the following commands, and read entirely all help pages displayed for each command very carefully.
echo /?
find /?
for /?
if /?
set /?
tasklist /?
You would do it like this, using TaskList in a For loop:
#Set "_process=cmd.exe"
#For /F %%A In ('TaskList^|Find /C /I "%_process%"'
) Do #If %%A Lss 2 (Echo Action 1) Else Echo Action 2
#Pause
You can also perform a similar thing using WMIC too:
#Set "_process=cmd.exe"
#For /F %%A In ('WMIC Process Get Name^|Find /C "%_process%"'
) Do #If %%A Lss 2 (Echo Action 1) Else Echo Action 2
#Pause
These could be refined further to ensure processes containing the string as opposed to matching it aren't counted:
#Set "_process=cmd.exe"
#For /F %%A In ('TaskList /FI "ImageName Eq "%_Process%""^|Find /C "."'
) Do #If %%A Lss 2 (Echo Action 1) Else Echo Action 2
#Pause
#Set "_process=cmd.exe"
#For /F %%A In (
'WMIC Process Where "Name='%_process%'" Get Name^|Find /C "."'
) Do #If %%A Lss 2 (Echo Action 1) Else Echo Action 2
#Pause
Note:If you're really checking the cmd.exe process, be aware that an the command inside the For loop parentheses is spawned within a new cmd.exe instance, (thereby increasing your count by 1)
I need to find how many times a string exists in a file. If it is not equal to 0 then return error status:
set "file=C:\output\summary.txt"
for /f %%F in (findstr /I "FAIL" %file% | find /I /C "FAIL") do (
set count=%%F
)
if count neq 0 exit /B 1
exit /B 0
But when I run the batch I get error:
| was unexpected at this time.
How can I fix the issue and achieve the expected?
It looks like it does not really matter how often the searched string exists in file. It looks like you want to know only if the file contains the string or not. In this case it is enough to evaluate the exit code of find.exe or findstr.exe which can be both used to search for a string in a file. Both exit with 1 if there is no match for searched string and with 0 on at least one occurrence found.
#echo off
%SystemRoot%\System32\findstr.exe /L /I /M /C:FAIL "C:\output\summary.txt" >nul
if errorlevel 1 exit /B 0
exit /B 1
Same as above as single command line using conditional execution:
#%SystemRoot%\System32\findstr.exe /L /I /M /C:FAIL "C:\output\summary.txt" >nul && exit /B 1 || exit /B 0
find.exe executed with /C outputs the number of lines containing the searched string which can be assigned to an environment variable:
#echo off
set Count=
for /F "tokens=3 delims=:" %%I in ('%SystemRoot%\System32\find.exe /I /C "FAIL" "C:\output\summary.txt" 2^>nul') do set /A "Count=%%I"
if defined Count if %Count% == 0 exit /B 0
exit /B 1
set /A is used here to eliminate the space character between : after file name output by find and the number of lines containing the searched string one or more times. The string after set /A inside the double quotes is interpreted as arithmetic expression which results in interpreting the space character as delimiter and so after converting the number assigned to loop variable I with leading space character from string to integer, the number assigned without the space character is assigned as string to environment variable Count.
Read the Microsoft article about Using Command Redirection Operators for an explanation of 2>nul. The redirection operator > must be escaped with caret character ^ on FOR command line to be interpreted as literal character when Windows command interpreter processes this command line before executing command FOR which executes the embedded find command line with using a separate command process started in background.
For understanding the used commands and how they work, open a command prompt window, execute there the following commands, and read entirely all help pages displayed for each command very carefully.
echo /?
exit /?
find /?
findstr /?
for /?
if /?
set /?
I suggest reading also:
Where does GOTO :EOF return to?
Single line with multiple commands using Windows batch file
Symbol equivalent to NEQ, LSS, GTR, etc. in Windows batch files
I strongly recommend not using:
if %ERRORLEVEL% == 0
if %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0
if "%ERRORLEVEL%" == "0"
if "%ERRORLEVEL%" EQU "0"
Why?
Well, see what happens on embedding such an exit code evaluation in a command block like copying and pasting into a batch file:
(
set "file=C:\output\summary.txt"
find /C "FAIL" %file%
if "%ERRORLEVEL%"=="0" (
exit /B 1
) else (
exit /B 0
)
)
Run this batch file from within a command prompt window. Is the result right (by chance)? Yes, run it once again without any modification of C:\output\summary.txt and the batch file. Now the result is the opposite as before although nothing changed. Look on the lines output by Windows command processor and you know why. %ERRORLEVEL% was replaced by current value of ERRORLEVEL before find was executed at all because of cmd.exe always replaces all environment variable references using syntax %variable% on parsing entire command block before executing any command left to the command block or inside the command block.
That seems very complicated when the find command does what you need (it sets %ERRORLEVEL% to 1 if it doesn't find the string):
set "file=C:\output\summary.txt"
find /C "FAIL" %file%
if "%ERRORLEVEL%"=="0" (
exit /B 1
) else (
exit /B 0
)
How can I check if an application is running from a batch (well cmd) file?
I need to not launch another instance if a program is already running. (I can't change the app to make it single instance only.)
Also the application could be running as any user.
Another possibility I came up with, which does not require to save a file, inspired by using grep is:
tasklist /fi "ImageName eq MyApp.exe" /fo csv 2>NUL | find /I "myapp.exe">NUL
if "%ERRORLEVEL%"=="0" echo Program is running
/fi "" defines a filter of apps to find, in our case it's the *.exe name
/fo csv defines the output format, csv is required because by default the name of the executable may be truncated if it is too long and thus wouldn't be matched by find later.
find /I means case-insensitive matching and may be omitted
See the man page of the tasklist command for the whole syntax.
Here's how I've worked it out:
tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq notepad.exe" /FO CSV > search.log
FOR /F %%A IN (search.log) DO IF %%~zA EQU 0 GOTO end
start notepad.exe
:end
del search.log
The above will open Notepad if it is not already running.
Edit: Note that this won't find applications hidden from the tasklist. This will include any scheduled tasks running as a different user, as these are automatically hidden.
I like Chaosmaster's solution! But I looked for a solution which does not start another external program (like find.exe or findstr.exe). So I added the idea from Matt Lacey's solution, which creates an also avoidable temp file. At the end I could find a fairly simple solution, so I share it...
SETLOCAL EnableExtensions
set EXE=MyProg.exe
FOR /F %%x IN ('tasklist /NH /FI "IMAGENAME eq %EXE%"') DO IF NOT %%x == %EXE% (
echo %EXE% is Not Running
)
This is working for me nicely...
The above is an edit. The original code apparently had a GOTO in it, which someone in the comments thought uncouth.
Spaces
If you are concerned that the program name may have spaces in it then you need to complicate the code very slightly:
SETLOCAL EnableExtensions
set EXE=My Prog.exe
FOR /F %%x IN ("%EXE%") do set EXE_=%%x
FOR /F %%x IN ('tasklist /NH /FI "IMAGENAME eq %EXE%"') DO IF NOT %%x == %EXE_% (
echo %EXE% is Not Running
)
The original code will work fine whether or not other running processes have spaces in their names. The only concern is whether or not the process we are targeting has space(s).
ELSE
Keep in mind that if you add an ELSE clause then it will be executed once for every instance of the application that is already running. There is no guarantee that there be only a single instance running when you run this script.
Should you want one anyway, either a GOTO or a flag variable is indicated.
Ideally the targeted application should already mutex itself to prevent multiple instances, but that is a topic for another SO question and is not necessarily applicable to the subject of this question.
GOTO again
I do agree with the "ELSE" comment. The problem with the GOTO-less solution, that is may run the condition part (and the ELSE part) multiple times, so it is a bit messy as it has to quit the loop anyway. (Sorry, but I do not deal with the SPACE issue here, as it seems to be pretty rare and a solution is shown for it)
SETLOCAL EnableExtensions
SET EXE=MyProg.exe
REM for testing
REM SET EXE=svchost.exe
FOR /F %%x IN ('tasklist /NH /FI "IMAGENAME eq %EXE%"') DO IF NOT %%x == %EXE% (
ECHO %EXE% is Not Running
REM This GOTO may be not necessary
GOTO notRunning
) ELSE (
ECHO %EXE is running
GOTO Running
)
...
:Running
REM If Running label not exists, it will loop over all found tasks
The suggestion of npocmaka to use QPROCESS instead of TASKLIST is great but, its answer is so big and complex that I feel obligated to post a quite simplified version of it which, I guess, will solve the problem of most non-advanced users:
QPROCESS "myprocess.exe">NUL
IF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 ECHO "Process running"
The code above was tested in Windows 7, with a user with administrator rigths.
TASKLIST | FINDSTR ProgramName || START "" "Path\ProgramName.exe"
Under Windows you can use Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to ensure that no apps with the specified command line is launched, for example:
wmic process where (name="nmake.exe") get commandline | findstr /i /c:"/f load.mak" /c:"/f build.mak" > NUL && (echo THE BUILD HAS BEEN STARTED ALREADY! > %ALREADY_STARTED% & exit /b 1)
TrueY's answer seemed the most elegant solution, however, I had to do some messing around because I didn't understand what exactly was going on. Let me clear things up to hopefully save some time for the next person.
TrueY's modified Answer:
::Change the name of notepad.exe to the process .exe that you're trying to track
::Process names are CASE SENSITIVE, so notepad.exe works but Notepad.exe does NOT
::Do not change IMAGENAME
::You can Copy and Paste this into an empty batch file and change the name of
::notepad.exe to the process you'd like to track
::Also, some large programs take a while to no longer show as not running, so
::give this batch a few seconds timer to avoid a false result!!
#echo off
SETLOCAL EnableExtensions
set EXE=notepad.exe
FOR /F %%x IN ('tasklist /NH /FI "IMAGENAME eq %EXE%"') DO IF %%x == %EXE% goto ProcessFound
goto ProcessNotFound
:ProcessFound
echo %EXE% is running
goto END
:ProcessNotFound
echo %EXE% is not running
goto END
:END
echo Finished!
Anyway, I hope that helps. I know sometimes reading batch/command-line can be kind of confusing sometimes if you're kind of a newbie, like me.
I use PV.exe from http://www.teamcti.com/pview/prcview.htm installed in Program Files\PV with a batch file like this:
#echo off
PATH=%PATH%;%PROGRAMFILES%\PV;%PROGRAMFILES%\YourProgram
PV.EXE YourProgram.exe >nul
if ERRORLEVEL 1 goto Process_NotFound
:Process_Found
echo YourProgram is running
goto END
:Process_NotFound
echo YourProgram is not running
YourProgram.exe
goto END
:END
The answer provided by Matt Lacey works for Windows XP. However, in Windows Server 2003 the line
tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq notepad.exe" /FO CSV > search.log
returns
INFO: No tasks are running which match the specified criteria.
which is then read as the process is running.
I don't have a heap of batch scripting experience, so my soulution is to then search for the process name in the search.log file and pump the results into another file and search that for any output.
tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq notepad.exe" /FO CSV > search.log
FINDSTR notepad.exe search.log > found.log
FOR /F %%A IN (found.log) DO IF %%~zA EQU 0 GOTO end
start notepad.exe
:end
del search.log
del found.log
I hope this helps someone else.
I like the WMIC and TASKLIST tools but they are not available in home/basic editions of windows.Another way is to use QPROCESS command available on almost every windows machine (for the ones that have terminal services - I think only win XP without SP2 , so practialy every windows machine):
#echo off
:check_process
setlocal
if "%~1" equ "" echo pass the process name as forst argument && exit /b 1
:: first argument is the process you want to check if running
set process_to_check=%~1
:: QPROCESS can display only the first 12 symbols of the running process
:: If other tool is used the line bellow could be deleted
set process_to_check=%process_to_check:~0,12%
QPROCESS * | find /i "%process_to_check%" >nul 2>&1 && (
echo process %process_to_check% is running
) || (
echo process %process_to_check% is not running
)
endlocal
QPROCESS command is not so powerful as TASKLIST and is limited in showing only 12 symbols of process name but should be taken into consideration if TASKLIST is not available.
More simple usage where it uses the name if the process as an argument (the .exe suffix is mandatory in this case where you pass the executable name):
#echo off
:check_process
setlocal
if "%~1" equ "" echo pass the process name as forst argument && exit /b 1
:: first argument is the process you want to check if running
:: .exe suffix is mandatory
set "process_to_check=%~1"
QPROCESS "%process_to_check%" >nul 2>&1 && (
echo process %process_to_check% is running
) || (
echo process %process_to_check% is not running
)
endlocal
The difference between two ways of QPROCESS usage is that the QPROCESS * will list all processes while QPROCESS some.exe will filter only the processes for the current user.
Using WMI objects through windows script host exe instead of WMIC is also an option.It should on run also on every windows machine (excluding the ones where the WSH is turned off but this is a rare case).Here bat file that lists all processes through WMI classes and can be used instead of QPROCESS in the script above (it is a jscript/bat hybrid and should be saved as .bat):
#if (#X)==(#Y) #end /* JSCRIPT COMMENT **
#echo off
cscript //E:JScript //nologo "%~f0"
exit /b
************** end of JSCRIPT COMMENT **/
var winmgmts = GetObject("winmgmts:\\\\.\\root\\cimv2");
var colProcess = winmgmts.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_Process");
var processes = new Enumerator(colProcess);
for (;!processes.atEnd();processes.moveNext()) {
var process=processes.item();
WScript.Echo( process.processID + " " + process.Name );
}
And a modification that will check if a process is running:
#if (#X)==(#Y) #end /* JSCRIPT COMMENT **
#echo off
if "%~1" equ "" echo pass the process name as forst argument && exit /b 1
:: first argument is the process you want to check if running
set process_to_check=%~1
cscript //E:JScript //nologo "%~f0" | find /i "%process_to_check%" >nul 2>&1 && (
echo process %process_to_check% is running
) || (
echo process %process_to_check% is not running
)
exit /b
************** end of JSCRIPT COMMENT **/
var winmgmts = GetObject("winmgmts:\\\\.\\root\\cimv2");
var colProcess = winmgmts.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_Process");
var processes = new Enumerator(colProcess);
for (;!processes.atEnd();processes.moveNext()) {
var process=processes.item();
WScript.Echo( process.processID + " " + process.Name );
}
The two options could be used on machines that have no TASKLIST.
The ultimate technique is using MSHTA . This will run on every windows machine from XP and above and does not depend on windows script host settings. the call of MSHTA could reduce a little bit the performance though (again should be saved as bat):
#if (#X)==(#Y) #end /* JSCRIPT COMMENT **
#echo off
setlocal
if "%~1" equ "" echo pass the process name as forst argument && exit /b 1
:: first argument is the process you want to check if running
set process_to_check=%~1
mshta "about:<script language='javascript' src='file://%~dpnxf0'></script>" | find /i "%process_to_check%" >nul 2>&1 && (
echo process %process_to_check% is running
) || (
echo process %process_to_check% is not running
)
endlocal
exit /b
************** end of JSCRIPT COMMENT **/
var fso= new ActiveXObject('Scripting.FileSystemObject').GetStandardStream(1);
var winmgmts = GetObject("winmgmts:\\\\.\\root\\cimv2");
var colProcess = winmgmts.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_Process");
var processes = new Enumerator(colProcess);
for (;!processes.atEnd();processes.moveNext()) {
var process=processes.item();
fso.Write( process.processID + " " + process.Name + "\n");
}
close();
I don't know how to do so with built in CMD but if you have grep you can try the following:
tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq myApp.exe" | grep myApp.exe
if ERRORLEVEL 1 echo "myApp is not running"
Just mentioning, if your task name is really long then it won't appear in its entirety in the tasklist result, so it might be safer (other than localization) to check for the opposite.
Variation of this answer:
:: in case your task name is really long, check for the 'opposite' and find the message when it's not there
tasklist /fi "imagename eq yourreallylongtasknamethatwontfitinthelist.exe" 2>NUL | find /I /N "no tasks are running">NUL
if "%errorlevel%"=="0" (
echo Task Found
) else (
echo Not Found Task
)
If you have more than one .exe-file with the same name and you only want to check one of them (e.g. you care about C:\MyProject\bin\release\MyApplication.exe but not C:\MyProject\bin\debug\MyApplication.exe) then you can use the following:
#echo off
set "workdir=C:\MyProject\bin\release"
set "workdir=%workdir:\=\\%"
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
for /f "usebackq tokens=* delims=" %%a in (`
wmic process where 'CommandLine like "%%!workdir!%%" and not CommandLine like "%%RuntimeBroker%%"' get CommandLine^,ProcessId /format:value
`) do (
for /f "tokens=* delims=" %%G in ("%%a") do (
if "%%G" neq "" (
rem echo %%G
set "%%G"
rem echo !ProcessId!
goto :TheApplicationIsRunning
)
)
)
echo The application is not running
exit /B
:TheApplicationIsRunning
echo The application is running
exit /B
I needed a solution with a retry. This code will run until the process is found and then kill it. You can set a timeout or anything if you like.
Notes:
The ".exe" is mandatory
You could make a file runnable with parameters, version below
:: Set programm you want to kill
:: Fileextension is mandatory
SET KillProg=explorer.exe
:: Set waiting time between 2 requests in seconds
SET /A "_wait=3"
:ProcessNotFound
tasklist /NH /FI "IMAGENAME eq %KillProg%" | FIND /I "%KillProg%"
IF "%ERRORLEVEL%"=="0" (
TASKKILL.EXE /F /T /IM %KillProg%
) ELSE (
timeout /t %_wait%
GOTO :ProcessNotFound
)
taskkill.bat:
:: Get program name from argumentlist
IF NOT "%~1"=="" (
SET "KillProg=%~1"
) ELSE (
ECHO Usage: "%~nx0" ProgramToKill.exe & EXIT /B
)
:: Set waiting time between 2 requests in seconds
SET /A "_wait=3"
:ProcessNotFound
tasklist /NH /FI "IMAGENAME eq %KillProg%" | FIND /I "%KillProg%"
IF "%ERRORLEVEL%"=="0" (
TASKKILL.EXE /F /T /IM %KillProg%
) ELSE (
timeout /t %_wait%
GOTO :ProcessNotFound
)
Run with .\taskkill.bat ProgramToKill.exe
I'm assuming windows here. So, you'll need to use WMI to get that information. Check out The Scripting Guy's archives for a lot of examples on how to use WMI from a script.
I used the script provided by Matt (2008-10-02). The only thing I had trouble with was that it wouldn't delete the search.log file. I expect because I had to cd to another location to start my program. I cd'd back to where the BAT file and search.log are, but it still wouldn't delete. So I resolved that by deleting the search.log file first instead of last.
del search.log
tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq myprog.exe" /FO CSV > search.log
FOR /F %%A IN (search.log) DO IF %%-zA EQU 0 GOTO end
cd "C:\Program Files\MyLoc\bin"
myprog.exe myuser mypwd
:end
Building on vtrz's answer and Samuel Renkert's answer on an other topic, I came up with the following script that only runs %EXEC_CMD% if it isn't already running:
#echo off
set EXEC_CMD="rsync.exe"
wmic process where (name=%EXEC_CMD%) get commandline | findstr /i %EXEC_CMD%> NUL
if errorlevel 1 (
%EXEC_CMD% ...
) else (
#echo not starting %EXEC_CMD%: already running.
)
As was said before, this requires administrative privileges.
I usually execute following command in cmd prompt to check if my program.exe is running or not:
tasklist | grep program
You should check the parent process name, see The Code Project article about a .NET based solution**.
A non-programmatic way to check:
Launch Cmd.exe
Launch an application (for instance, c:\windows\notepad.exe)
Check properties of the Notepad.exe process in Process Explorer
Check for parent process (This shows cmd.exe)
The same can be checked by getting the parent process name.
I tried building a batch file using the commands after searching the site. I am trying to find the number/count of a process running, and then use if to execute another command if the number of such processes is more than 5 at any instance.
When I run the statements line by line in the CMD prompt, it works fine.
However, when I run it through a bat file it gives an error saying- a was unexpected at this time.
Here is the script. Also I am not sure if am using the correct If statement (I did search and use before coming to you, but still just incase):
for /f "tokens=1,*" %a in ('tasklist ^| find /I /C "iexplore.exe" ') do
#set var=%a
echo %var%
if %var% <= 5
::echo "hi"
::end if
Also, have one more syntax to do so:
wmic process where name="iexplore.exe" | find "iexplore.exe" /c
but I am not sure how to assign the output of this command to any variable and go on to compare the value of this command to 5.
You need to use double % for FOR command when used in a batch file.
#echo off
set var=0
for /f "tokens=1,*" %%a in ('tasklist ^| find /I /C "explorer.exe" ') do set var=%%a
echo %var%
if %var% leq 5 (
echo less or equal to 5
) else (
echo 5 or more
)
How can I check if an application is running from a batch (well cmd) file?
I need to not launch another instance if a program is already running. (I can't change the app to make it single instance only.)
Also the application could be running as any user.
Another possibility I came up with, which does not require to save a file, inspired by using grep is:
tasklist /fi "ImageName eq MyApp.exe" /fo csv 2>NUL | find /I "myapp.exe">NUL
if "%ERRORLEVEL%"=="0" echo Program is running
/fi "" defines a filter of apps to find, in our case it's the *.exe name
/fo csv defines the output format, csv is required because by default the name of the executable may be truncated if it is too long and thus wouldn't be matched by find later.
find /I means case-insensitive matching and may be omitted
See the man page of the tasklist command for the whole syntax.
Here's how I've worked it out:
tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq notepad.exe" /FO CSV > search.log
FOR /F %%A IN (search.log) DO IF %%~zA EQU 0 GOTO end
start notepad.exe
:end
del search.log
The above will open Notepad if it is not already running.
Edit: Note that this won't find applications hidden from the tasklist. This will include any scheduled tasks running as a different user, as these are automatically hidden.
I like Chaosmaster's solution! But I looked for a solution which does not start another external program (like find.exe or findstr.exe). So I added the idea from Matt Lacey's solution, which creates an also avoidable temp file. At the end I could find a fairly simple solution, so I share it...
SETLOCAL EnableExtensions
set EXE=MyProg.exe
FOR /F %%x IN ('tasklist /NH /FI "IMAGENAME eq %EXE%"') DO IF NOT %%x == %EXE% (
echo %EXE% is Not Running
)
This is working for me nicely...
The above is an edit. The original code apparently had a GOTO in it, which someone in the comments thought uncouth.
Spaces
If you are concerned that the program name may have spaces in it then you need to complicate the code very slightly:
SETLOCAL EnableExtensions
set EXE=My Prog.exe
FOR /F %%x IN ("%EXE%") do set EXE_=%%x
FOR /F %%x IN ('tasklist /NH /FI "IMAGENAME eq %EXE%"') DO IF NOT %%x == %EXE_% (
echo %EXE% is Not Running
)
The original code will work fine whether or not other running processes have spaces in their names. The only concern is whether or not the process we are targeting has space(s).
ELSE
Keep in mind that if you add an ELSE clause then it will be executed once for every instance of the application that is already running. There is no guarantee that there be only a single instance running when you run this script.
Should you want one anyway, either a GOTO or a flag variable is indicated.
Ideally the targeted application should already mutex itself to prevent multiple instances, but that is a topic for another SO question and is not necessarily applicable to the subject of this question.
GOTO again
I do agree with the "ELSE" comment. The problem with the GOTO-less solution, that is may run the condition part (and the ELSE part) multiple times, so it is a bit messy as it has to quit the loop anyway. (Sorry, but I do not deal with the SPACE issue here, as it seems to be pretty rare and a solution is shown for it)
SETLOCAL EnableExtensions
SET EXE=MyProg.exe
REM for testing
REM SET EXE=svchost.exe
FOR /F %%x IN ('tasklist /NH /FI "IMAGENAME eq %EXE%"') DO IF NOT %%x == %EXE% (
ECHO %EXE% is Not Running
REM This GOTO may be not necessary
GOTO notRunning
) ELSE (
ECHO %EXE is running
GOTO Running
)
...
:Running
REM If Running label not exists, it will loop over all found tasks
The suggestion of npocmaka to use QPROCESS instead of TASKLIST is great but, its answer is so big and complex that I feel obligated to post a quite simplified version of it which, I guess, will solve the problem of most non-advanced users:
QPROCESS "myprocess.exe">NUL
IF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 ECHO "Process running"
The code above was tested in Windows 7, with a user with administrator rigths.
TASKLIST | FINDSTR ProgramName || START "" "Path\ProgramName.exe"
Under Windows you can use Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to ensure that no apps with the specified command line is launched, for example:
wmic process where (name="nmake.exe") get commandline | findstr /i /c:"/f load.mak" /c:"/f build.mak" > NUL && (echo THE BUILD HAS BEEN STARTED ALREADY! > %ALREADY_STARTED% & exit /b 1)
TrueY's answer seemed the most elegant solution, however, I had to do some messing around because I didn't understand what exactly was going on. Let me clear things up to hopefully save some time for the next person.
TrueY's modified Answer:
::Change the name of notepad.exe to the process .exe that you're trying to track
::Process names are CASE SENSITIVE, so notepad.exe works but Notepad.exe does NOT
::Do not change IMAGENAME
::You can Copy and Paste this into an empty batch file and change the name of
::notepad.exe to the process you'd like to track
::Also, some large programs take a while to no longer show as not running, so
::give this batch a few seconds timer to avoid a false result!!
#echo off
SETLOCAL EnableExtensions
set EXE=notepad.exe
FOR /F %%x IN ('tasklist /NH /FI "IMAGENAME eq %EXE%"') DO IF %%x == %EXE% goto ProcessFound
goto ProcessNotFound
:ProcessFound
echo %EXE% is running
goto END
:ProcessNotFound
echo %EXE% is not running
goto END
:END
echo Finished!
Anyway, I hope that helps. I know sometimes reading batch/command-line can be kind of confusing sometimes if you're kind of a newbie, like me.
I use PV.exe from http://www.teamcti.com/pview/prcview.htm installed in Program Files\PV with a batch file like this:
#echo off
PATH=%PATH%;%PROGRAMFILES%\PV;%PROGRAMFILES%\YourProgram
PV.EXE YourProgram.exe >nul
if ERRORLEVEL 1 goto Process_NotFound
:Process_Found
echo YourProgram is running
goto END
:Process_NotFound
echo YourProgram is not running
YourProgram.exe
goto END
:END
The answer provided by Matt Lacey works for Windows XP. However, in Windows Server 2003 the line
tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq notepad.exe" /FO CSV > search.log
returns
INFO: No tasks are running which match the specified criteria.
which is then read as the process is running.
I don't have a heap of batch scripting experience, so my soulution is to then search for the process name in the search.log file and pump the results into another file and search that for any output.
tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq notepad.exe" /FO CSV > search.log
FINDSTR notepad.exe search.log > found.log
FOR /F %%A IN (found.log) DO IF %%~zA EQU 0 GOTO end
start notepad.exe
:end
del search.log
del found.log
I hope this helps someone else.
I like the WMIC and TASKLIST tools but they are not available in home/basic editions of windows.Another way is to use QPROCESS command available on almost every windows machine (for the ones that have terminal services - I think only win XP without SP2 , so practialy every windows machine):
#echo off
:check_process
setlocal
if "%~1" equ "" echo pass the process name as forst argument && exit /b 1
:: first argument is the process you want to check if running
set process_to_check=%~1
:: QPROCESS can display only the first 12 symbols of the running process
:: If other tool is used the line bellow could be deleted
set process_to_check=%process_to_check:~0,12%
QPROCESS * | find /i "%process_to_check%" >nul 2>&1 && (
echo process %process_to_check% is running
) || (
echo process %process_to_check% is not running
)
endlocal
QPROCESS command is not so powerful as TASKLIST and is limited in showing only 12 symbols of process name but should be taken into consideration if TASKLIST is not available.
More simple usage where it uses the name if the process as an argument (the .exe suffix is mandatory in this case where you pass the executable name):
#echo off
:check_process
setlocal
if "%~1" equ "" echo pass the process name as forst argument && exit /b 1
:: first argument is the process you want to check if running
:: .exe suffix is mandatory
set "process_to_check=%~1"
QPROCESS "%process_to_check%" >nul 2>&1 && (
echo process %process_to_check% is running
) || (
echo process %process_to_check% is not running
)
endlocal
The difference between two ways of QPROCESS usage is that the QPROCESS * will list all processes while QPROCESS some.exe will filter only the processes for the current user.
Using WMI objects through windows script host exe instead of WMIC is also an option.It should on run also on every windows machine (excluding the ones where the WSH is turned off but this is a rare case).Here bat file that lists all processes through WMI classes and can be used instead of QPROCESS in the script above (it is a jscript/bat hybrid and should be saved as .bat):
#if (#X)==(#Y) #end /* JSCRIPT COMMENT **
#echo off
cscript //E:JScript //nologo "%~f0"
exit /b
************** end of JSCRIPT COMMENT **/
var winmgmts = GetObject("winmgmts:\\\\.\\root\\cimv2");
var colProcess = winmgmts.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_Process");
var processes = new Enumerator(colProcess);
for (;!processes.atEnd();processes.moveNext()) {
var process=processes.item();
WScript.Echo( process.processID + " " + process.Name );
}
And a modification that will check if a process is running:
#if (#X)==(#Y) #end /* JSCRIPT COMMENT **
#echo off
if "%~1" equ "" echo pass the process name as forst argument && exit /b 1
:: first argument is the process you want to check if running
set process_to_check=%~1
cscript //E:JScript //nologo "%~f0" | find /i "%process_to_check%" >nul 2>&1 && (
echo process %process_to_check% is running
) || (
echo process %process_to_check% is not running
)
exit /b
************** end of JSCRIPT COMMENT **/
var winmgmts = GetObject("winmgmts:\\\\.\\root\\cimv2");
var colProcess = winmgmts.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_Process");
var processes = new Enumerator(colProcess);
for (;!processes.atEnd();processes.moveNext()) {
var process=processes.item();
WScript.Echo( process.processID + " " + process.Name );
}
The two options could be used on machines that have no TASKLIST.
The ultimate technique is using MSHTA . This will run on every windows machine from XP and above and does not depend on windows script host settings. the call of MSHTA could reduce a little bit the performance though (again should be saved as bat):
#if (#X)==(#Y) #end /* JSCRIPT COMMENT **
#echo off
setlocal
if "%~1" equ "" echo pass the process name as forst argument && exit /b 1
:: first argument is the process you want to check if running
set process_to_check=%~1
mshta "about:<script language='javascript' src='file://%~dpnxf0'></script>" | find /i "%process_to_check%" >nul 2>&1 && (
echo process %process_to_check% is running
) || (
echo process %process_to_check% is not running
)
endlocal
exit /b
************** end of JSCRIPT COMMENT **/
var fso= new ActiveXObject('Scripting.FileSystemObject').GetStandardStream(1);
var winmgmts = GetObject("winmgmts:\\\\.\\root\\cimv2");
var colProcess = winmgmts.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_Process");
var processes = new Enumerator(colProcess);
for (;!processes.atEnd();processes.moveNext()) {
var process=processes.item();
fso.Write( process.processID + " " + process.Name + "\n");
}
close();
I don't know how to do so with built in CMD but if you have grep you can try the following:
tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq myApp.exe" | grep myApp.exe
if ERRORLEVEL 1 echo "myApp is not running"
Just mentioning, if your task name is really long then it won't appear in its entirety in the tasklist result, so it might be safer (other than localization) to check for the opposite.
Variation of this answer:
:: in case your task name is really long, check for the 'opposite' and find the message when it's not there
tasklist /fi "imagename eq yourreallylongtasknamethatwontfitinthelist.exe" 2>NUL | find /I /N "no tasks are running">NUL
if "%errorlevel%"=="0" (
echo Task Found
) else (
echo Not Found Task
)
If you have more than one .exe-file with the same name and you only want to check one of them (e.g. you care about C:\MyProject\bin\release\MyApplication.exe but not C:\MyProject\bin\debug\MyApplication.exe) then you can use the following:
#echo off
set "workdir=C:\MyProject\bin\release"
set "workdir=%workdir:\=\\%"
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
for /f "usebackq tokens=* delims=" %%a in (`
wmic process where 'CommandLine like "%%!workdir!%%" and not CommandLine like "%%RuntimeBroker%%"' get CommandLine^,ProcessId /format:value
`) do (
for /f "tokens=* delims=" %%G in ("%%a") do (
if "%%G" neq "" (
rem echo %%G
set "%%G"
rem echo !ProcessId!
goto :TheApplicationIsRunning
)
)
)
echo The application is not running
exit /B
:TheApplicationIsRunning
echo The application is running
exit /B
I needed a solution with a retry. This code will run until the process is found and then kill it. You can set a timeout or anything if you like.
Notes:
The ".exe" is mandatory
You could make a file runnable with parameters, version below
:: Set programm you want to kill
:: Fileextension is mandatory
SET KillProg=explorer.exe
:: Set waiting time between 2 requests in seconds
SET /A "_wait=3"
:ProcessNotFound
tasklist /NH /FI "IMAGENAME eq %KillProg%" | FIND /I "%KillProg%"
IF "%ERRORLEVEL%"=="0" (
TASKKILL.EXE /F /T /IM %KillProg%
) ELSE (
timeout /t %_wait%
GOTO :ProcessNotFound
)
taskkill.bat:
:: Get program name from argumentlist
IF NOT "%~1"=="" (
SET "KillProg=%~1"
) ELSE (
ECHO Usage: "%~nx0" ProgramToKill.exe & EXIT /B
)
:: Set waiting time between 2 requests in seconds
SET /A "_wait=3"
:ProcessNotFound
tasklist /NH /FI "IMAGENAME eq %KillProg%" | FIND /I "%KillProg%"
IF "%ERRORLEVEL%"=="0" (
TASKKILL.EXE /F /T /IM %KillProg%
) ELSE (
timeout /t %_wait%
GOTO :ProcessNotFound
)
Run with .\taskkill.bat ProgramToKill.exe
I'm assuming windows here. So, you'll need to use WMI to get that information. Check out The Scripting Guy's archives for a lot of examples on how to use WMI from a script.
I used the script provided by Matt (2008-10-02). The only thing I had trouble with was that it wouldn't delete the search.log file. I expect because I had to cd to another location to start my program. I cd'd back to where the BAT file and search.log are, but it still wouldn't delete. So I resolved that by deleting the search.log file first instead of last.
del search.log
tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq myprog.exe" /FO CSV > search.log
FOR /F %%A IN (search.log) DO IF %%-zA EQU 0 GOTO end
cd "C:\Program Files\MyLoc\bin"
myprog.exe myuser mypwd
:end
Building on vtrz's answer and Samuel Renkert's answer on an other topic, I came up with the following script that only runs %EXEC_CMD% if it isn't already running:
#echo off
set EXEC_CMD="rsync.exe"
wmic process where (name=%EXEC_CMD%) get commandline | findstr /i %EXEC_CMD%> NUL
if errorlevel 1 (
%EXEC_CMD% ...
) else (
#echo not starting %EXEC_CMD%: already running.
)
As was said before, this requires administrative privileges.
I usually execute following command in cmd prompt to check if my program.exe is running or not:
tasklist | grep program
You should check the parent process name, see The Code Project article about a .NET based solution**.
A non-programmatic way to check:
Launch Cmd.exe
Launch an application (for instance, c:\windows\notepad.exe)
Check properties of the Notepad.exe process in Process Explorer
Check for parent process (This shows cmd.exe)
The same can be checked by getting the parent process name.