Run Command Prompt Commands

Question

Is there any way to run command prompt commands from within a C# application? If so how would I do the following:

copy /b Image1.jpg + Archive.rar Image2.jpg

This basically embeds an RAR file within JPG image. I was just wondering if there was a way to do this automatically in C#.

Answer 1

Though technically this doesn't directly answer question posed, it does answer the question of how to do what the original poster wanted to do: combine files. If anything, this is a post to help newbies understand what Instance Hunter and Konstantin are talking about.

This is the method I use to combine files (in this case a jpg and a zip). Note that I create a buffer that gets filled with the content of the zip file (in small chunks rather than in one big read operation), and then the buffer gets written to the back of the jpg file until the end of the zip file is reached:

private void CombineFiles(string jpgFileName, string zipFileName)
{
    using (Stream original = new FileStream(jpgFileName, FileMode.Append))
    {
        using (Stream extra = new FileStream(zipFileName, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
        {
            var buffer = new byte[32 * 1024];

            int blockSize;
            while ((blockSize = extra.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0)
            {
                original.Write(buffer, 0, blockSize);
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

You can do this using CliWrap in one line:

var stdout = new Cli("cmd")
         .Execute("copy /b Image1.jpg + Archive.rar Image2.jpg")
         .StandardOutput;

Answer 3

var proc1 = new ProcessStartInfo();
string anyCommand; 
proc1.UseShellExecute = true;

proc1.WorkingDirectory = @"C:\Windows\System32";

proc1.FileName = @"C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe";
proc1.Verb = "runas";
proc1.Arguments = "/c "+anyCommand;
proc1.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
Process.Start(proc1);

Answer 4

None of the above answers helped for some reason, it seems like they sweep errors under the rug and make troubleshooting one's command difficult. So I ended up going with something like this, maybe it will help someone else:

var proc = new Process
{
    StartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo
    {
        FileName = @"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\tf.exe",
        Arguments = "checkout AndroidManifest.xml",
        UseShellExecute = false,
        RedirectStandardOutput = true,
        CreateNoWindow = true,
        WorkingDirectory = @"C:\MyAndroidApp\"
    }
};

proc.Start();

Answer 5

You can achieve this by using the following method (as mentioned in other answers):

strCmdText = "'/C some command";
Process.Start("CMD.exe", strCmdText);

When I tried the methods listed above I found that my custom command did not work using the syntax of some of the answers above.

I found out more complex commands need to be encapsulated in quotes to work:

string strCmdText;
strCmdText = "'/C cd " + path + " && composer update && composer install -o'";
Process.Start("CMD.exe", strCmdText);

Answer 6

this is all you have to do run shell commands from C#

string strCmdText;
strCmdText= "/C copy /b Image1.jpg + Archive.rar Image2.jpg";
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("CMD.exe",strCmdText);

EDIT:

This is to hide the cmd window.

System.Diagnostics.Process process = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo();
startInfo.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
startInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
startInfo.Arguments = "/C copy /b Image1.jpg + Archive.rar Image2.jpg";
process.StartInfo = startInfo;
process.Start();

EDIT: 2

Important is that the argument begins with /C otherwise it won't work. How Scott Ferguson said: it "Carries out the command specified by the string and then terminates."