Help with batch files

I'm Running a DOS Appl and i am redirecting the output to a file.

RetVal= Shell(BatFile, vbHide) ' run the bat

1) How do i close Dos appl??
2) How colud i know if my bat file is finished executing ?? (i want to read the output).


Regards

I'm not any of those guys you mentioned in the title,
And nowhere near the programmer, But i thought I'd
mention:

You might try setting the PIF for the DOS file to
"Close On Exit".

[Edited by catocom on 07-11-2000 at 12:29 AM]

You can runing your BAT File in this way
Dim ProcessID As Long
Dim ProcessHandle As Long

ProcessID = Shell(BATFile, vbHide)
ProcessHandle = OpenProcess(SYNCHRONIZE, True, ProcessID)

'and you can stop it in this way

TerminateProcess ProcessHandle, 0&
CloseHandle ProcessHandle


'OpenProcess and TerminateProcess and CloseHandle are API function

If you wanna read the output,you can use the "MSDOS WAY" like that: "DIR C:\ >>a.txt".So ,use "DO..LOOP" to exam if the "a.txt" exist(dir(a.txt)<>"") and "a.txt" is what you want!

I'm not one of the people mentioned in the subject and frankly it gets a bit annoying when people think that there are only a handful of people on this bb that can answer questions!!

Try this;

Code:

---

Private Type StartupInfo
  cb As Long
  lpReserved As String
  lpDesktop As String
  lpTitle As String
  dwX As Long
  dwY As Long
  dwXSize As Long
  dwYSize As Long
  dwXCountChars As Long
  dwYCountChars As Long
  dwFillAttribute As Long
  dwFlags As Long
  wShowWindow As Integer
  cbReserved2 As Integer
  lpReserved2 As Long
  hStdInput As Long
  hStdOutput As Long
  hStdError As Long
End Type

Private Type Process_Information
  hProcess As Long
  hThread As Long
  dwProcessID As Long
  dwThreadID As Long
End Type

Private Declare Function CreateProcessA Lib "kernel32" (ByVal lpApplicationName As Long, ByVal lpCommandLine As String, ByVal lpProcessAttributes As Long, ByVal lpThreadAttributes As Long, ByVal bInheritHandles As Long, ByVal dwCreationFlags As Long, ByVal lpEnvironment As Long, ByVal lpCurrentDirectory As Long, lpStartupInfo As StartupInfo, lpProcessInformation As Process_Information) As Long
Private Declare Function WaitForSingleObject Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hHandle As Long, ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetExitCodeProcess Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hProcess As Long, lpExitCode As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function CloseHandle Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hObject As Long) As Long

Public Sub ExecCmd(cmdline$)
    Dim proc As Process_Information
    Dim start As StartupInfo
    Dim ret As Long
    ' Initialize the STARTUPINFO structure:
    start.cb = Len(start)
    ' Start the shelled application:
    ret = CreateProcessA(0&, cmdline$, 0&, 0&, 1&, NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS, 0&, 0&, start, proc)
    ' Wait for the shelled application to finish:
    ret = WaitForSingleObject(proc.hProcess, INFINITE)
    Call GetExitCodeProcess(proc.hProcess, ret&)
    Call CloseHandle(proc.hThread)
    Call CloseHandle(proc.hProcess)
End Sub

---

Then just call..

ExecCmd("MYDOSPROGRAM.EXE")

and VB will not continue executing until the program has finished - in order to make a DOS program close when it has finished (without using the properties);

ExecCmd("COMMAND.COM /C MYEXE.EXE") for Windows '95/'98
ExecCmd("CMD.EXE /C MYEXE.EXE") for Windows NT

Thanks To All Of You...


Best Regards