WPF display command line options

Question

I need to add command line options to my WPF project, what I currently have sort of works but its not very nice. I need a more professional looking solution.

To write start and stop i do the following:

AttachConsole(-1);
Console.WriteLine("Start");
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);
Console.WriteLine("Stop");

Which produces the output:

C:\Work>TestWriteCLI.exe -h

C:\Work>Start
Stop

There are several things wrong with this:

1. After i run the exe a new line is created with C:\\Work> in it, I don't want this, i want it to print "Start" directly to the console.
2. After "Stop" is displayed, the program just waits there, waiting for "Enter" to be pressed, I don't want that either, i just want it to exit.

This is the output I am trying to achieve:

C:\Work>TestWriteCLI.exe -h
Start
Stop
C:\Work>

Other similar questions here have provided solutions I don't like, for example, I don't want to be creating new console windows. I have a console, i want it to run it that console not open a new one, display things, then close it and be back in my original console.

I also don't want to change my project to be a command line project.

My project is a WPF project, it should handle command line options in the normal way a command line project can, using WPF methods if possible.

Your help in this is greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Answer 1

You should use AllocConsole() from Kernel32 assembly and to close console you can use FreeConsole() .

Import methods in your class

[DllImport("Kernel32")]
public static extern void AllocConsole();

[DllImport("Kernel32")]
public static extern void FreeConsole();

and use them this way -

AllocConsole();
Console.WriteLine("Start");
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);
Console.WriteLine("Stop");
FreeConsole();

Answer 2

For your first problem, just run the executable with the start command with /W or /Wait as option, as documented here :

C:\Work>start /W TestWriteCLI.exe -h

For the second problem, add following line at the end of your code:

    System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys.SendWait("{ENTER}");