sending dos commands to a dos prompt

[zaff]

hi guys,

is there anyway of sending dos commands to a dos prompt using vb? i don't want to execue a batch file using the shell function...this is not what i want. All i want is to send dos commands to the same dos session. plz help.

thanks,
zaf

[Dave Sell]

Once a Dos Shell is up and running Im not sure how you would pull that off, but I know you can call the command shell 1 time with another DOS command as an argument and it will run it for you once.

[BrianB]

Easy enough. This works to do a CD and DIR and waits for an Enter to exit:-

Sub test()
    Enter = "~"
    retval = Shell("c:\winnt\system32\cmd.exe", vbNormalFocus)
    SendKeys "CD C:\TEMP" & Enter, True ' change folder
    SendKeys "DIR" & Enter, True        ' dir
    SendKeys "EXIT". True
End Sub

[zaff]

Thanks guys, "sendkey" seems to have done the trick.

zaf

[Dave Sell]

Originally posted by BrianB
Easy enough. This works to do a CD and DIR and waits for an Enter to exit:-

Sub test()
    Enter = "~"
    retval = Shell("c:\winnt\system32\cmd.exe", vbNormalFocus)
    SendKeys "CD C:\TEMP" & Enter, True ' change folder
    SendKeys "DIR" & Enter, True        ' dir
    SendKeys "EXIT". True
End Sub

This is not DOS. Does this also work on a DOS prompt? DOS is run from Win9x like "Command.com", not "Cmd.exe".

[zaff]

i'm using command.com.

[Dave Sell]

Cool, thanks. Can this work with the DOS window minimized?

[zaff]

the command prompt must have focus, else the text will not get printed in the dos prompt:

AppActivate "command.com" 'Command Prompt title bar

zaf

[RobDog888]

SendKeys - Arrrg! SendKeys is so flakey that if the user
accidentally changes the active application or presses a key, it
will throw SendKeys out of sync.

ShellExecute CDM.exe with parameters of what you want to pass or
execute in the DOS window.
Ex. this will create a text file of your c drive contents and close the
command window. This is very fast, better than using vb commands
to iterate through all the directories and out to a text file.

Option Explicit
 
Private Declare Function ShellExecute Lib "shell32.dll" Alias "ShellExecuteA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, _
ByVal lpOperation As String, ByVal lpFile As String, ByVal lpParameters As String, ByVal lpDirectory As String, _
ByVal nShowCmd As Long) As Long
 
Private Const SW_SHOWNORMAL As Long = 1
Private Const SW_SHOWMINIMIZED As Long = 2
Private Const SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED As Long = 3
 
Private Sub Command1_Click()
    Dim lRet As Long
    lRet = ShellExecute(0, "OPEN", "c:\winnt\system32\cmd.exe", "/C Dir >> C:\Dir_C.txt", "C:\", SW_SHOWNORMAL)
End Sub

HTH