CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#.netmultithreadingcommand-lineprocess
Computer User
Computer User

Reputation: 2869

The code to execute DEL command using cmd.exe is taking forever

I want to delete all *.tmp files in a temp folder in my C# application.

The code to execute DEL command using cmd.exe is taking forever. It stays at Process.WaitForExit() forever and Process.HasExited remains false. But the same command runs well if used manually in cmd:

DEL /Q /F "C:\Users\WinUser\AppData\Local\Temp\abc\*.tmp"

Code:

Process Process = new Process();

Process.StartInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
Process.StartInfo.Arguments = " DEL /Q /C /F \"C:\\Users\\WinUser\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\abc\\*.tmp\"";
Process.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
Process.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
Process.StartInfo.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;

Process.Start();

Process.WaitForExit();

while (!Process.HasExited)
{
    MessageBox.Show("Error");
}

**Note: My mistake was that I was using /C after DEL and the correct command line is:

Process.StartInfo.Arguments = " cmd /C DEL /Q /F \"C:\\Users\\WinUser\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\abc\\*.tmp\"";

Though, I will switch to .NET framework based deletion code mentioned below. But I initially selected command line (cmd.exe) based operation because Process.WaitForExit() does not hang program while execution. I have 1000+ files to delete in the delete operation.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 4688

Answers (3)

C. Ross
C. Ross

Reputation: 31848

Don't use shell out (use the Process object) to do something you could do with native .Net objects.

DirectoryInfo tempDir = new DirectoryInfo("C:\\Users\\WinUser\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\abc\\");

foreach (FileInfo tempFile in tempDir.GetFiles())
{
    tempFile.Delete();
}

See:

Upvotes: 4

Jeroen van Langen
Jeroen van Langen

Reputation: 22073

I'd rather do:

string[] files = Directory.GetFiles("C:\\Users\\WinUser\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\abc", "*.tmp");

foreach (string filename in files)
    File.Delete(filename);

Because .Net has equivalent functionality

Also with the SearchOption.AllDirectories all sub-directory "*.tmp" files can be deleted also.

Upvotes: 1

David Arno
David Arno

Reputation: 43254

You need to add a /C to the arguments:

Process.StartInfo.Arguments = "/C DEL /Q /F \"C:\\Users\\WinUser\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\abc\\*.tmp\"";

Otherwise it will just run cmd.exe and never exit.

Upvotes: 8

Related Questions