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program that starts another program.

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program that starts another program.

Feb 13th, 2009

Is there a simple way to run another program, say IE, FF or just a simple .bat file sith c++? ive searched around a bit but all ive found is rocket science and didn't seem to be what im looking for. i dont wish to run it "trough" my program, just as if i had found the destination and doubleclick'ed it.

Yo god, where do i report a bug?

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Comatose

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Re: program that starts another program.

Feb 13th, 2009

in windows can you use ShellExecute, which is an API call that will allow you to spawn an application.

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Re: program that starts another program.

Feb 13th, 2009

Thanks for the quick answer

Is shellexecute a astandard function? like shellexecute(); or?

EDIT: perhaps i misunderstood, does ShellExecute have anything to do with the c++ language?

Last edited by Bladtman242; Feb 13th, 2009 at 12:33 pm.

Yo god, where do i report a bug?

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Re: program that starts another program.

Feb 13th, 2009

well, it's included in the windows.h, so try this:

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#include <iostream>
#include <windows.h>
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
     ShellExecute(NULL, "open", "C:\\windows\\system32\\calc.exe","", "C:\\", SW_NORMAL);
     return 0;
}
#include <iostream>
#include <windows.h>
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
     ShellExecute(NULL, "open", "C:\\windows\\system32\\calc.exe","", "C:\\", SW_NORMAL);
     return 0;
}

EDIT: Negative. ShellExecute is NOT C++.... ShellExecute is a windows function that can be called from any language with the ability to use windows API's (C++ is such a language). This is windows specific, and won't work in *nix or Mac.... and is not a standard.

Last edited by Comatose; Feb 13th, 2009 at 12:39 pm.

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Re: program that starts another program.

Feb 13th, 2009

Ahh thanks

Now i tryed to look up the parameters (not that i couldn't find them, i just didn't understand ;-) )
Could you please explain the parameters you are using? just briefly, i hope its not too much trouble

Last edited by Bladtman242; Feb 13th, 2009 at 1:00 pm.

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Re: program that starts another program.

Feb 13th, 2009

The first parameter, hWnd (passed NULL) is the window to associate the new process with (NULL means you aren't using this feature).

The second, lpOperation, is what you want to do with the file specified in the next parameter. Here we are "open"ing it.

Speaking of which, the third is lpFile: the file you want to perform the operation on.

The fourth, lpParameters is a string of the arguments you want to pass into the new process. These are not used in this situation.

Next is lpDirectory. This is the path you want the new process to think it was started from.

Finally, we have nShowCommand: this just specifies the starting state of the window for the new process. SW_NORMAL specifies that, what do ya know, it should start in normal mode!

You can look at specifics including other possible arguments at msdn's documentation for this function.

Last edited by death_oclock; Feb 13th, 2009 at 10:34 pm.

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Re: program that starts another program.

Feb 14th, 2009

Or use.. execlp(...)

$.:-cikara21-:.$

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Re: program that starts another program.

Feb 14th, 2009

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Originally Posted by cikara21

Or use.. execlp(...)

Which I believe is *nix only.....

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Re: program that starts another program.

Feb 14th, 2009

Thank you death_oclock, that was really helpfull

Cikara21, could you wxplain that?

Okay, Comatose: i tried it out, made a simple .bat called test.bat located on C:\, containing

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msg * Hi %username% u rule

(rediculus i know)
and then a c++ "program":

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#include <iostream>
#include <windows.h>
 
using namespace std;
 
int main()
{
    ShellExecute(NULL, "open", "C:\\test.bat","", "C:\\", SW_NORMAL);
    return 0;
}
#include <iostream>
#include <windows.h>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
    ShellExecute(NULL, "open", "C:\\test.bat","", "C:\\", SW_NORMAL);
    return 0;
}