How do I make VB wait for a Shell command to be completed?

I have a vb program that issues a shell command to execute an MS-DOS program. The MS-DOS program may take several minutes to completely process the data. I want vb to wait until this program has completed execution before executing the next line of code. Is this possible?

[smalig]

Look at
http://www.vb-world.net/tips/tip5.html

Best regards.


smalig@hotmail.com
http://smalig.tripod.com

[Chris Eastwood]

This questions been asked several times on this forum - use the search button for 'shell' and 'wait' and you'll find several solutions.

Chris Eastwood

CodeGuru - the website for developers
http://codeguru.developer.com/vb

[Freddie]

Try using this code I wrote from API calls

//{Module}
Option Explicit

Dim DemoDirectory$
Public Const SYNCHRONIZE = &H100000
Public Const INFINITE = &HFFFFFFFF ' Infinite timeout

Public Declare Function OpenProcess Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwDesiredAccess As Long, ByVal bInheritHandle As Long, ByVal dwProcessId As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function CloseHandle Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hObject As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function WaitForSingleObject Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hHandle As Long, ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long) As Long

//{CLASS MODULE}
Option Explicit

Public Sub ShellnWait32(ByVal sEXEname As String)
'Written by: Freddie Hurtado
'Program Name: ShellnWait-32
'Version: 1.0
'Date: 09/02/99
'Description: This program is an ActiveX Dll which accepts one parameter,
' EXEname as a string. It runs the EXE file and exits the
' program gracefully. It waits until the program completes
' execution before it releases itself so it runs well in a loop

Dim pid&
pid = Shell(sEXEname, vbNormalFocus)
If pid <> 0 Then
WaitForTerm1 pid
End If

End Sub

Private Sub WaitForTerm1(pid&)
' This wait routine freezes the application
' It's clearly not a good way to wait for process
' termination - though if you hid the application
' first it could be very effective.
Dim phnd&
phnd = OpenProcess(SYNCHRONIZE, 0, pid)
If phnd <> 0 Then
Call WaitForSingleObject(phnd, INFINITE)
Call CloseHandle(phnd)
End If
End Sub

Compile this code as an activeX DLL. Dont forget to register it and reference it in your application.