Execute shell command in c++

Question

I have a question regarding executing shell commands in c++. I'm building an application in winforms, vs 2008. My application has a button, when clicked should decode a binary file to a .csv file. I can decode files by first going to the right directory (cd Test_Copy2) and then execute a command in the command prompt (java -jar tool.jar -b x.fit x.csv). I tried a lot of different stuff but unfortunately got none to work!

I tried using:

system,  _popen,  ShellExecute(NULL, L"open", L"C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\cmd.exe ", L"java -jar Tool.jar -b x.fit x.csv", L"C:\\Test_Copy2", SW_SHOWNORMAL)

Can anyone please provide me with an example on how to do that? I dont know where I'm going wrong, most of the time the command prompt opens but no command is executed!

Answer 1

If you really want to run the jar in a cmd.exe instance, you need to add one of the correct command line switches to cmd.exe for it to work the way you want it to:

/C      Carries out the command specified by string and then terminates
/K      Carries out the command specified by string but remains

For instance, your command string should be:

C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\cmd.exe /c java -jar Tool.jar -b x.fit x.csv

Answer 2

You can use the system() function to execute shell commands. For example: system("DIR") executes the DIR command in the CMD shell. The default directory at the start is the directory you're .exe file is located. 'system("PAUSE")` executes the PAUSE command. The command/s you wannt to execute should be passed as a constant string to the function.

Edit:

For you paritcular program the syntax (IMO) would be:

system("java -jar Tool.jar -b x.fit x.csv")