run sofware for a fixed time - windows

I am creating a batch file which is calling other batch file. Sometimes the second batch file gives an error (because the license for the software I am running is not found). When the error hits, a window pop ups and I need to close manually (undesirable because it needs to run in a loop).
I would like to call the second batch file and if it didn't finish to run after 90seconds, kill it and go to the next line of my first batch file.
Is that possible?

Pause, sleep, timeout, and a few others can help you.
I would suggest timeout.
timeout /t 90
Here's some more info: http://www.wikihow.com/Delay-a-Batch-File
To do exactly what you want you'll have to work in some logic to decide what to do after the timeout, but you will likely use a loop after that. It depends on the structure of your code. Maybe toggle a boolean variable to determine if you want to go to the top of the script.

Related

Waiting for closing of previously started program

I would like to ask you how to specify waiting for closing of specific program which was started before. I am showing here an example with command waitfor but unfortunately I don't know how to write it correctly, therefore I am asking you for help.
system('"C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" &');
waitfor "closing of chrome.exe"
You should follow the advice in this other Q&A to find the PID of the new program right after you start it. Then, in a loop, check to see if that PID is still running (using again the same process as before), and pause(1) to avoid checking too frequently.
I guess you can do something like:
time_in_seconds=60
while ~isfile("output_folder/file.db")
pause(time_in_seconds)
end
Note that this program, as is, requires that file to exist at some point, otherwise infinite loop. Make sure you put safeguards to end it in case the file does not get created (like a time limit).
But I am not sure it makes sense to have MATLAB waiting for 40 minutes for a script to finish...

Trying to wrap CALL function fails [duplicate]

I am using the tool 'HTML Match' to compare two HTML files. As I have to compare many files, I create a batch file like the followion. For example, I give only five sets of files.
cd "C:\Program Files\HTML Match"
HTMLMATCH.EXE "D:\Raj\compare1\a1.html" "D:\Raj\compare2\a1.html" "D:\Raj\compare_res\a1.html"
HTMLMATCH.EXE "D:\Raj\compare1\a2.html" "D:\Raj\compare2\a2.html" "D:\Raj\compare_res\a2.html"
HTMLMATCH.EXE "D:\Raj\compare1\a3.html" "D:\Raj\compare2\a3.html" "D:\Raj\compare_res\a3.html"
HTMLMATCH.EXE "D:\Raj\compare1\a4.html" "D:\Raj\compare2\a4.html" "D:\Raj\compare_res\a4.html"
HTMLMATCH.EXE "D:\Raj\compare1\a5.html" "D:\Raj\compare2\a5.html" "D:\Raj\compare_res\a5.html"
When I execute this batch file in a cmd prompt, only the first line, that is, only 'a1.html', gets compared and produces a result. Then execution stops.
Add call in front of the commands you're running.
You can also change this to a for loop, so:
FOR /L %%i in (1,1,5) DO CALL HTMLMATCH.EXE D:\Raj\compare%%i%%\a%%i%%.html D:\Raj\compare%%i%%\a%%i%%.html D:\Raj\compare_res\a%%i%%.html
The answer to your problem is to write CALL HTMLMATCH.EXE (and the rest of the parameters).
Just use CALL in front of every executable command in the batch file.
I was looking for something really similar and tried, I think, all the replies left here but I finally found the solution to my problem!!
In my script I want to check if one process is running, if not, start it (a .exe) and then check if another process is running, if not, start it too (but leave all the programs opened) and the problem is that the first .exe was started but then not moving to the second one because it was waiting until the process ended.
It´s finally working for me with start and the magic comes with...
/separate
it works for me as:
start "program1" /separate program1.exe
other commands
Before it stopped after starting program1 because it was waiting until it was closed, I think, but this was not going to happen because I wanted to leave it opened.
Now with the start /separate it continues with the other commands.
I found it in another forum but the thing is that it´s the manual, /separate is used to start in another memory space.
You don't have to insert quotation marks where there isn't any space mark between.
Try that:
HTMLMATCH.EXE D:\Raj\compare1\a1.html D:\Raj\compare2\a1.html D:\Raj\compare_res\a1.html
Maybe it will solve your issue.

Using java -jar with loop and insert delay on execution

I am using CMD C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe.
I would like to write a batch file (.bat) or write a command in order to run my java -jar example.jar
and when execution is completed I would like to add a loop to start again and again with the same example.jar until ends but before the loop starts I would like to add delay in milliseconds or minutes etc... between those loops.
PLEASE ADVISE!
Thanks
A
You could write a VBS or Powershell script to handle the pause/sleep/delay aspect, and simply have your batch file call it.
There are also some freeware utilities out there you could find on Google, perhaps search for sleep.exe, etc.
You could code a loop in the batch file but that's a terribly inefficient way to do it. You could record the time before the loop (using environment variable %TIME% or similar approaches), then check the time inside the loop. But if you want a variable amount of hang time, you'll need to code all the conversions and computations yourself -- not the best use of CPU time. But it could be done, if you are constrained against using VBS, PowerShell, or third-party utilities.

VBScript onTimeout then function

I have a VBScript I am working on that uses another object.
Sometimes that Object will get stuck. My VBScript code will hang on that line until it's "done". When it times out, I want to send the .Close command to the Object before the VBScript closes.
How can I tell when my VBScript times out?
I know that I can put WScript.Timeout = 60
Maybe something like..
WScript.Timeout = 5
do while true
loop
sub WScript_timeout()
msgbox("OK")
end sub
By setting the Timeout property you instruct the interpreter to automatically terminate the script when the timer expires. This is the same as running the interpreter with the option //T:xx and can't be caught/handled from within the script. What you want requires the ability to run code asynchronously, and VBScript doesn't really support that.
The real answer (to the question "How can I tell when my VBScript times out?") is that you can't. In common with almost all scripts, if VBScript stops running (because it's timed-out) the running thread ceases to run, so it can't report its status.
But there is a solution. However, it requires some cunning.
If you run a batch script instead, wherever you use that script to launch a new batch script (e.g. batch_1.bat includes this line: CALL batch_2.bat), the 2nd script will run, but the 1st script will wait.
Processing of the 1st script sits and waits (at the CALL) until script 2 stops running: at that point, control is returned to script 1, which continues with any code following the CALL, code which might be used to report the fact that script 2 has ended -
CALL batch_2.bat
ECHO The batch_2.bat script has stopped running && cmd /k
There are ways of launching batch_2.bat without causing batch_1.bat to pause until the 2nd script has finished, but they are not relevent here.
Theoretically, a batch script doesn't support parallel processing. VBScript certainly doesn't either. But the foregoing technique shows one method whereby parallel processing can be achieved, after a fashion, in a batch script -- which makes it one-up on vbScript!
.
One way to be certain that vbScript will time out, if the script hangs, so that the script must either complete successfully or fail (so you are never left with a frozen script due to it "hanging"), is to use a WScript function in your .vbs file and set the Windows Script Host settings to time out after (say) 30 seconds -
A. Open the "Windows Script Host Settings" dialog box:
Go to: Start > Run
In the "Open" box, type: WSCRIPT
Click "OK".
B. Set a timeout, to occur whenever WSH runs:
Select the option: "Stop script after specified
number of seconds".
In the "seconds" box, type the time limit to be
applied to all scripts (default is 10 seconds).
.
Here's a function to find and show what the current WSH/WScript timeout setting is (and if it shows that this setting hasn't been set yet, set it) -
WScript.Echo("WSH timeout: " + WScript.Timeout);
.
The option //T:xx can't be used, because it's a CScript function, which doesn't work in WScript, so can't be used in a .vbs vbScript file.
.

How to execute and manage ruby script from ruby?

I have a script named program.rb and would like to write a script named main.rb that would do the following:
system("ruby", "program.rb")
constantly check if program.rb is running until it is done
if program.rb has reached completion
exit main.rb
end
otherwise keep doing this until program.rb reaches completion{
if program.rb is not running and stopped before completing
restart program.rb from where it left off
end}
I've looked into Pidify but could not find a way to apply it to fit this exactly the right way...
Any help in how to approach this script would be greatly appreciated!
Update:
I could figure out how to resume running the script from where it left off in program.rb if there's no way to do it in main.rb
It's impossible to "restart script from where it left off" without full cooperation from the program.rb. That is, it should be able to advertise its progress (by writing current state to a file, maybe?) and be able to start correctly from a step specified in ARGV. There's no external ruby magic that can replace this functionality.
Also, if a program terminated abnormally, it means one of two things:
the error is (semi-)permanent (disk is full, no appropriate access rights to a file, etc). In this case, simply restarting the program would cause it to fail again. And again. Infinite fail loop.
the error is temporary (shaky internet connection). In this case, program should do better job with exception handling and retry on its own (instead of terminating).
In either case, there's no need for restarting, IMHO.
Well, here is one way.
Modify program.rb to take an optional flag argument --restart or something.
When program.rb starts up without this argument it will initialize a file to record its current state. Periodically, it will write whatever it needs into this file to record some kind of checkpoint.
When program.rb starts up with the restart flag, it will read its checkpoint file and start processing at that point. For this to work, it must either checkpoint all state changes or arrange for all processing between checkpoints to be idempotent so it can be repeated without ill effect.
There are lots of ways to monitor the health of program.rb. The best way is with some sort of ping, perhaps something like GET /health_check or a dummy message via a socket or pipe. You could just have a locked file to detect if the lock is still held, or you could record the PID on startup and check that it still exists.

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