使用cmd.exe执行DEL命令的代码将永远存在

Question

I want to delete all *.tmp files in a temp folder in my C# application.

The code to execute DEL command using cmd.exe is taking forever. It stays at Process.WaitForExit() forever and Process.HasExited remains false. But the same command runs well if used manually in cmd:

DEL /Q /F "C:\Users\WinUser\AppData\Local\Temp\abc\*.tmp"

Code:

Process Process = new Process();

Process.StartInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
Process.StartInfo.Arguments = " DEL /Q /C /F \"C:\\Users\\WinUser\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\abc\\*.tmp\"";
Process.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
Process.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
Process.StartInfo.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;

Process.Start();

Process.WaitForExit();

while (!Process.HasExited)
{
    MessageBox.Show("Error");
}

**Note: My mistake was that I was using /C after DEL and the correct command line is:

Process.StartInfo.Arguments = " cmd /C DEL /Q /F \"C:\\Users\\WinUser\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\abc\\*.tmp\"";

Though, I will switch to .NET framework based deletion code mentioned below. But I initially selected command line (cmd.exe) based operation because Process.WaitForExit() does not hang program while execution. I have 1000+ files to delete in the delete operation.

Answer 1

You need to add a /C to the arguments:

Process.StartInfo.Arguments = "/C DEL /Q /F \"C:\\Users\\WinUser\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\abc\\*.tmp\"";

Otherwise it will just run cmd.exe and never exit.

Answer 2

Don't use shell out (use the Process object) to do something you could do with native .Net objects.

DirectoryInfo tempDir = new DirectoryInfo("C:\\Users\\WinUser\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\abc\\");

foreach (FileInfo tempFile in tempDir.GetFiles())
{
    tempFile.Delete();
}

See:

• DirectoryInfo.GetFiles()
• FileInfo

Answer 3

I'd rather do:

string[] files = Directory.GetFiles("C:\\Users\\WinUser\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\abc", "*.tmp");

foreach (string filename in files)
    File.Delete(filename);

Because .Net has equivalent functionality

Also with the SearchOption.AllDirectories all sub-directory "*.tmp" files can be deleted also.