ShellExecute is not performing as expected

[madeuxls]

Good Morning,

I am a newbie to Visual C++ programming. I have been trying to extract files from a CAB by use of the ShellExecute command. I have made a batch file (CABTest.bat) that does the following:

expand Test.cab -f:*.* C:\Temp\CABStuff

I have converted the CABTest.bat into an exe file called CABTest.exe
I am then using the ShellExecute(...) as follows and nothing happens:

void CInstallerDlg::OnBnClickedShell()
{
// TODO: Add your control notification handler code here
HINSTANCE hInst = ShellExecute(0, L"open", L"c:\\Temp\\CABTest.exe", NULL, 0, SW_SHOW);
}

If I double-click the CABTest.exe file from my browser, the file are extracted. The path is correct because I've tried this out with notepad.exe from the same directory.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I done wrong?

Thanks,
Lee...

[Skizmo]

Where is test.cab located ?

[hoxsiew]

What do you mean by:

I have converted the CABTest.bat into an exe file called CABTest.exe

Did you just rename it to .EXE?

[madeuxls]

Hi,

The CAB is located in:

C:\Temp\CABStuff

Thanks...

[madeuxls]

No,

I did not rename the file to *.exe. There is a Convert_batch_to_exe tool that converts a batch to an exe. It looks as if the ShellExecute requires an exe file.

Thanks

[Skizmo]

Your are probably running your own program from another directory. Use SetCurrentDirectory to change to c:\temp instead of adding the path to the shellexecute.

It looks as if the ShellExecute requires an exe file.

Nope. It can run everything. If you run a mp3 file it will automagically start your mp3 player based on the mp3 extension.

[madeuxls]

Thanks Skizmo,

Your reply prompted me to look at my path to the CAB file. I made an absolute path, converted the batch file to an exe file, ran it and it worked.

I still could not get it to run a bat file though.

Anyways, thanks a bunch!!!

Lee...

[streamer]

You don't need to set current path because shellexecute have one parameter which is counted as current dir for executed program

ShellExecute(NULL, "open", "c:/mydir/myprg.exe", "", "c:/mydir/", SW_SHOWNORMAL);

you can also call batch files with this function:

ShellExecute(NULL, "open", "c:/mydir/extract.bat", "", "c:/mydir/", SW_SHOWNORMAL);

[neo_the_1]

you can use CreateProcess (comment the WaitForSingleObject if you dont need it):

bool execute_wait( char* file )
{
	STARTUPINFO si;
    PROCESS_INFORMATION pi;

    ZeroMemory( &si, sizeof(si) );
    si.cb = sizeof(si);
    ZeroMemory( &pi, sizeof(pi) );

    // Start the child process. 
    if( !CreateProcess( NULL,				// No module name (use command line). 
						file,				// Command line. 
						NULL,				// Process handle not inheritable. 
						NULL,				// Thread handle not inheritable. 
						FALSE,				// Set handle inheritance to FALSE. 
						0,					// No creation flags. 
						NULL,				// Use parent's environment block. 
						NULL,				// Use parent's starting directory. 
						&si,				// Pointer to STARTUPINFO structure.
						&pi )				// Pointer to PROCESS_INFORMATION structure.
							) 
    {
		return false;
    }

    // Wait until child process exits.
    WaitForSingleObject( pi.hProcess, INFINITE );

    // Close process and thread handles. 
    CloseHandle( pi.hProcess );
    CloseHandle( pi.hThread );

	return true;
}