CODEWITHSUNDEEP
processsystem.diagnosticsprocessstartinfo
mattgcon
mattgcon

Reputation: 4848

System.Diagnostics.Process issue with WorkingDirectory

I am using a third party software tool (command line tool) to merge PDF files together. Using C# I am attempting to use System.Diagnostics.Process to run the executable but I am coming up with a few errors depending on the parameter setup.

The code that is running is the following:

Process p = new Process();

p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = false;
p.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\VeryPDF PDF Split-Merge v3.0";
p.StartInfo.FileName = "pdfpg.exe " + strFileNames.Trim() + " " 
                       + D2P_Folder_Converted + "\\" + strOutputFileName;
p.Start();
p.WaitForExit();
p.Close();
p.Dispose();

Can someone help me get around this issue, please?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 9530

Answers (3)

James Holland
James Holland

Reputation: 476

When UseShellExecute is false the WorkingDirectory property changes its meaning!

It becomes the working directory for the new process NOT the path to the executable. You need to specify the full path to the executable in the FileName property instead.

Upvotes: 8

Darin Dimitrov
Darin Dimitrov

Reputation: 1038780

Arguments shouldn't be passed in the FileName property. You should use the Arguments property for this:

p.StartInfo.Arguments = string.Format(
    "{0} {1}", 
    strFileNames.Trim(), 
    Path.Combine(D2P_Folder_Converted, strOutputFileName)
);
p.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = Path.Combine(GetProgramFilesX86(), "VeryPDF PDF Split-Merge v3.0");
p.StartInfo.FileName = "pdfpg.exe";

where the GetProgramFilesX86 function is could be defined like so:

static string GetProgramFilesX86()
{
    var processorArchitecture = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("PROCESSOR_ARCHITEW6432");
    if(IntPtr.Size == sizeof(long) || !string.IsNullOrEmpty(processorArchitecture))
    {
        return Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("ProgramFiles(x86)");
    }
    return Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("ProgramFiles");
}

Upvotes: 3

Kevin Gale
Kevin Gale

Reputation: 4448

I'm no expert using the process API but it looks like you are placing command line arguments into the FileName. Try using Arguments for the command line arguments. And put the full path to the exe in the FileName.

Also using an @ in front of the string gets rid of the need for the doubling of backslashes.

p.StartInfo.FileName = @"C:\Program Files (x86)\VeryPDF PDF Split-Merge\pdfpg.exe"

Upvotes: 0

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