I need to start an exe from a cmd (wrap the exe so I can supply some command-line options). The problem is that just calling the exe from the cmd does not make the wrapping completely transparent: if the .exe hangs, killing the cmd won't kill the exe. I need it to kill the exe too. Can I do that in plain Windows (from XP up), without adding any dependencies?
In Bash you have exec which replaces the shell process with the supplied command. This is handy for writing wrapper scripts, making the wrapping process completely transparent. I know Windows lacks execve() to make this possible, but I'm only interested in the parent-killing-its-children part.
CLARIFICATION: I'm not looking for ways to kill the exe, I am looking for ways to wrap (start) the exe so that killing it using standard ways (eg. Ctrl+C or from task manager) works. For instance, I could create a lnk file (Windows shortcut) and get this behavior, but I want to do it from a script (for one, lnks only work with absolute paths, I can't deploy that).
Thanks.
Taskkill can be used to match certain criteria. By entering Taskkill/? you get the manual and can read up on how to filter using common properties. I assume that all your children share a common portion in their name. You could use taskkill to math the name with wildcards and close all children that matched that name.
EDIT (taken from the comments section):
As IInspectable points out you can kill all child processes using the /T flag.
EDIT starting from a batch you could use START (reference here) to launch the exe parallel to the batch and have your abort in the batch.
Edit i wrote and tested this mini example:
#echo off
echo starting %1
start %1
echo Any key to kill execution
pause >> NUL
taskkill /IM %1 /t
taskkill /F /IM iexplore.exe
/F to force kill.
Which can kill subprocesses
e.g. https://www.windows-commandline.com/taskkill-kill-process/
Related
I have the following script which launches multiple sessions of RDP connection files at once (colleted from a folder which only contains rdp files).
If I launch this from cmd prompt, it launches all sessions in parallel (which is what I want)
for /r %i in (*.rdp) do (mstsc %~nxi /f)
**while **if i run this script, it just launches the first session then waits for the relative process to end before running the second connection and so on.
for /r %%i in (*.rdp) do (mstsc %%~nxi /f)
What I'm doing wrong? Shouldn't it be the default behavior of batch to run all commands in parallel?
I've checked this but it doesn't address my exact scenario and it doesn't work anyhow as expected (e.g. START myBatchScript.bat doens't change the "waiting for process" behavior)
EDIT
Added answer based on comments (Thanks to #Compo and #Modi)
The coding solution to replicate the cmd behavior as a batch script is using the "start" command (as below, thanks to #Compo)
#for /r %i in (*.rdp) do #(start "" mstsc "%~nxi" /f)
for the reason why this happens refer to #Mofi comments.
I use batch files between my PLC and computer. PLC sending some commands to PC via batch files. For example I open a program or close. It works well done. But when I close the program It does not save anything.
I use command below:
taskkill /F /IM myprogram.exe
How can I close the program with saving?
That command kills the process, not allowing it to perform any actions when it closes. It just shuts down and exits.
You could try to omit the /F option, and save all data when your program gets the command to exit.
Thank you, for those whom took the time to read my question. I am a gamer and would like to execute a few things. First, I would like to Trigger a batch file when I click a program, how do you do that or is it even possible? Basically, activating a game, triggers the batch file.
NOw for the batch file problem, I want to execute Xpadder when I activate games (this is an mmo) and when I close the game I want Xpadder's process/service to close. Ultimately, it's auto trigger,activate,wait,terminate.
That's kind of the process I want it to go if all can be done.
Batch File:
#echo off
start "Blade" "C:\Users\user\Documents\Blade.xpadderprofile" Blade.xpadderprofile
ECHO Blade.xpadderprofile STARTED
start /w "C:\Program Files (x86)\game\games.exe" games.exe
ECHO games STARTED
taskkill /f /im Xpadder.exe
This actually works but the problem is there are two ".exe" files with mmo's. I'll start the game and it would close Xpadder too early because one launcher starts another launcher/client. Xpadder works for the first launcher but the first launcher closes so the game will start. I hope I am explaining myself clear enough.
Reference link: How to automatically close App_A when I close App_B using batchfile
Essentially, this is the same question I have but it's not very clear. What is the batch code to get Xpadder to stay on until the second launcher/client is closed not the first one?
P.S
The game has to open through the launcher then into the second launcher/client or it will not work.
here is the other clients name and path i think:
C:\Program Files (x86)\game\gamer\bin\gam.exe
How about the use of the PsExec, a small MS ulility? Using it, your batch should work:
cmd /c psexec -d "Blade" "C:\Users\user\Documents\Blade.xpadderprofile" Blade.xpadderprofile
start /w "C:\Program Files (x86)\game\games.exe" games.exe
taskkill /f /im Xpadder.exe
The file psexec.exe must be placed in folder enlisted in the system variable WINDIR or PATH, or, otherwise, you should call it with its full path, eg. *C:\Program Files\Others\pstools.exe".
You can add #echo off, salt, pepper or some green Tabasco if you have mon€y for this :D
I'm starting a Java background process (Solr) from a batch file with
start /b java -jar ...
The problem is that start /b will shield the process from SIGINT signals, see help start. This means that taskkill /pid ... won't work and taskkill /f /pid ... will kill the process without letting it execute shutdown hooks first.
Is there another way to start the background process on Windows from a .bat file without opening a window and without shielding it from SIGINT? Or is there another way of sending a signal to the java VM so that Solr shuts down gracefully when running from start /b?
I'd like to use a normal batch script rather than VBScript or similar if possible as this is what most our users probably know best.
Not sure how to do it in a .bat file, but with Powershell you can do this:
Start-Process java -ArgumentList "-jar start.jar <args>" -WindowStyle Hidden
Then you can stop the process normally.
Run get-help Start-Process -detailed for more info on options - you can also easily run the process as a different user and other things that the old start won't let you do.
Have you tested that? I ran:
START /B notepad.exe
and then closed it using
TASKKILL /PID 123456
I found a workaround for my specific case (solr + jetty), see http://alaminsumon.blogspot.com.br/2009/06/how-to-stop-and-start-jetty-server-from.html
Is there a way for a batch file (in this case, running on Windows XP) to determine whether it was launched from a command line (i.e. inside a console window) or launched via the shell (e.g. by double-clicking)?
I have a script which I'd like to have pause at certain points when run via the shell, but not when run at a command line. I've seen a similar question on SO, but am unable to use the same solution for two reasons: first, whether or not it pauses needs to be dependent on multiple factors, only one of which is whether it was double-clicked. Second, I'll be distributing this script to others on my team and I can't realistically ask all of them to make registry changes which will affect all scripts.
Is this possible?
Found one :-) – After desperately thinking of what cmd might do when run interactively but not when launching a batch file directly ... I finally found one.
The pseudo-variable %cmdcmdline% contains the command line that was used to launch cmd. In case cmd was started normally this contains something akin to the following:
"C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe"
However, when launching a batch file it looks like this:
cmd /c ""C:\Users\Me\test.cmd" "
Small demo:
#echo off
for %%x in (%cmdcmdline%) do if /i "%%~x"=="/c" set DOUBLECLICKED=1
if defined DOUBLECLICKED pause
This way of checking might not be the most robust, though, but /c should only be present as an argument if a batch file was launched directly.
Tested here on Windows 7 x64. It may or may not work, break, do something weird, eat children (might be a good thing) or bite you in the nose.
A consolidated answer, derived from much of the information found on this page (and some other stack overflow pages with similar questions). This one does not rely on detecting /c, but actually checks for the name of the script in the command line. As a result this solution will not pause if you double-clicked on another batch and then called this one; you had to double-click on this particular batch file.
:pauseIfDoubleClicked
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
set testl=%cmdcmdline:"=%
set testr=!testl:%~nx0=!
if not "%testl%" == "%testr%" pause
The variable "testl" gets the full line of the cmd processor call, stripping out all of the pesky double quotes.
The variable "testr" takes "testl" and further strips outs the name of the current batch file name if present (which it will be if the batch file was invoked with a double-click).
The if statement sees if "testl" and "testr" are different. If yes, batch was double-clicked, so pause; if no, batch was typed in on command line (or called from another batch file), go on.
Edit: The same can be done in a single line:
echo %cmdcmdline% | findstr /i /c:"%~nx0" && set standalone=1
In plain English, this
pipes the value of %cmdcmdline% to findstr, which then searches for the current script name
%0 contains the current script name, of course only if shift has not been called beforehand
%~nx0 extracts file name and extension from %0
>NUL 2>&1 mutes findstr by redirecting any output to NUL
findstr sets a non-zero errorlevel if it can't find the substring in question
&& only executes if the preceding command returned without error
as a consequence, standalone will not be defined if the script was started from the command line
Later in the script we can do:
if defined standalone pause
One approach might be to create an autoexec.nt file in the root of c:\ that looks something like:
#set nested=%nested%Z
In your batch file, check if %nested% is "Z" - if it is "Z" then you've been double-clicked, so pause. If it's not "Z" - its going to be "ZZ" or "ZZZ" etc as CMD inherits the environment block of the parent process.
-Oisin
A little more information...
I start with a batch-file (test.cmd) that contains:
#echo %cmdcmdline%
If I double-click the "test.cmd" batch-file from within Windows Explorer, the display of echo %cmdcmdline% is:
cmd /c ""D:\Path\test.cmd" "
When executing the "test.cmd" batch-file from within a Command Prompt window, the display of
echo %cmdcmdline% depends on how the command window was started...
If I start "cmd.exe" by clicking the "Start-Orb" and "Command Prompt" or if I click "Start-Orb" and execute "cmd.exe" from the search/run box. Then I execute the "test.cmd" batch-file, the display of echo %cmdcmdline% is:
"C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe"
Also, for me, if I click "Command Prompt" from the desktop shortcut, then execute the "test.cmd" batch-file, the display of echo %cmdcmdline% is also:
"C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe"
But, if I "Right-Click" inside a Windows Explorer window and select "Open Command Prompt Here", then execute the "test.cmd" batch-file, the display of echo %cmdcmdline% is:
"C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe" /k ver
So, just be careful, if you start "cmd.exe" from a shortcut that contains a "/c" in the "Target" field (unlikely), then the test in the previous example will fail to test this case properly.