We are trying to automate some procedures using corFlags.exe and dumpbin.exe. Trying to capture the output from either of these programs has been impossible so far. In detail, executing
corFlags.exe yourfavorite.dll
in cmd.exe or in powershell.exe (with appropriate change of syntax) produces output just fine, but as soon as one attempts to capture the output, either through re-direction or piping, e.g.
corflags.exe yourFavorite.dll >>out.txt
or
$l_result = &corflags yourFavorite.dll | select-string -pattern "32BIT"
and the output of corflags is lost. There is a similar problem with dumpbin.
This is occuring on a Windows 7 sp1 machine (6.1.7601 sp1 build 7601).
I am guessing they suffer from the flaw of not flushing their output streams before exiting. See Output shows up in console, but disappears when redirected to file for example.
We have found no way of working around this problem so far (executing in sub-process/batch process/etc. etc.) Does anyone know of a work-around to this problem? Thanks.
A nice, simple demonstration of the problem is as follows. Open the PowerShell ISE and try to run "corFlags.exe some.dll" within the console window. You will not be able to get any output from it!
Related
I'm trying to automate a workflow. The automation script is mainly written in Powershell It consists of these steps: 1) Opening a program 2) Communicating with the API, reading values, etc. 3) Closing the program. This script will be run many times a day, it would suffice to not close the program every time the script is finishing, but rather check at the beginning of the script whether the program is already opened, and if not, open it. I'd like to implement both, then decide which solution to use later on.
The code for opening the program is completed, but it's not enough to just run an .exe file to open the program, as I have to load the correct settings and GUI, for this while opening the .exe file from the command line, additionally, I have to use -s, also -c. I concluded all this in runProgram.cmd, so in the Powershell script, I only run this file to open the program. However, I am unsure how the already opened program can be detected (that it's opened), and how can I close it. I believe a solution might use processes, with the help of Get-Process, but I'm unsure of its capabilities and limitations (how do I check if my program's process is not amongst the list of running processes?), and whether there is a better way of dealing with this problem.
I have found the solution:
Open the program and open Powershell, and type Get-Process (this will list all the currently running processes)
Search yours (by name). If you don't know which process is the one you're looking for, you can close your program, then type Get-Process again, and look for the process that disappeared from the list, since you closed it. Let's assume the name of it is "yourprocess".
In the code, type $val = Get-Process -Name yourprocess. If it is running, $val should equal some data about the process, if it is not running, then $val is 0. Therefore, if you want to check whether it's opened, you should use:
if($null -ne $val){...}
Finally, stopping the process: Stop-Process -Name yourprocess.
There is an old command line tool my company uses to deploy log files to various servers.... whoever wrote it made it very very repetitive.
There is a lot of prompting that happens and I want to automate this process. We have a long term goal of replacing this .exe file down the line but for now automation works for the short term..
Example
./logdeploy.exe
Enter the destination folder:
I would like the powershell script to just automatically enter the folder, since its literally the same folder. because this exe is going to ask for it at least 20 times throughout this process, so copy paste just gets anyoing.
Is this even possible to do?
If there really is no way around simulating interactive user input in order to automate your external program, a solution is possible under the following assumption:
Your external program reads interactive responses from stdin (the standard input stream).
While doing so is typical, it's conceivable that a given program's security-sensitive prompts such as for passwords deliberately accept input from the terminal only, as so to expressly prevent automating responses.
If the first assumption holds, the specific method that must be used to send the response strings via stdin depends on whether the external program clears the keyboard buffer before each prompt.
(a) If it does not, you can simply send all strings in a single operation.
(b) If it does, you need to insert delays between sending the individual strings, so as to ensure that input is only sent when the external program is actively prompting for input.
This approach is inherently brittle, because in the absence of being able to detect when the external program is read to read a prompt response, you have to guess how much time needs to elapse between sending responses - and that time may vary based on many runtime conditions.
It's best to use longer delays for better reliability, which, however, results in increased runtime overall.
Implementation of (a):
As zett42 and Mathias R. Jessen suggest, use the following to send strings C:\foo and somepass 20 times to your external program's stdin stream:
('C:\foo', 'somepass') * 20 | ./logdeploy.exe
Again, this assumes that ./logdeploy.exe buffers keyboard input it receives before it puts up the next prompt.
Implementation of (b):
Note: The following works in PowerShell (Core) 7+ only, because only there is command output being sent to an external program properly streamed (sent line by line, as it becomes available); unfortunately, Windows PowerShell collects all output first.
# PowerShell 7+ only
# Adjust the Start-Sleep intervals as needed.
1..20 | ForEach-Object {
Start-Sleep 1
'C:\foo'
Start-Sleep 2
'somepass'
} | ./logdeploy.exe
I'm using DBeaver to execute a large script file which produces a lot of output (via PostgreSQLs RAISE NOTICE statement). I can see the output in the server output tab, however, the buffer size seems to be limited so a lot of output is lost at the end of the execution.
Is it somehow possible to either increase the server output tab buffer size or redirect the server output directly to a file?
I was experiencing the same issue as you, and I have been unable to find any setting which limits the output length.
In my case, what I eventually discovered was that there was an error in my script which was causing it to fail silently. It looks like part of the output is missing, however it was just the script terminating prematurely.
I encourage you to consider this option, and check your script for errors. Be aware that errors in the script don't appear in the output log.
So I'm using PowerShell to manipulate a SharePoint 2010 library. I am uploading, downloading, and deleting files in a script using a custom module I made. My errors are so odd I can't understand them.I am using PowerGUI, Windows PowerShell ISE, and PowerShell Management Shell all in admin mode.
PowerGUI:
I sometimes can't get an spWeb object, sometimes I can. The URL string is being pulled from a CSV file so it never changes and neither does the code before I call Get-SPWeb -Identity $correctURL
Sometimes when I call a list RootFolder it returns $false for the Exists property, using management shell I can get past this. Otherwise I can touch it by calling $ListName.RootFolder.Files and it will magically return and hold the $true for Exists in future executions of my script.
Then when I call an XML file full of file properties(for uploaded files) it will return file property names for $fileFieldsXML.row.Attributes | foreach {$_} and values for $fileFieldsXML.row.Attributes | foreach {$_.ToString()}. This is, unless I set them to variables. When two very distinct vars are set to these two differentish calls they both are set to the array of property names! Why??
Windows PowerShell ISE and PowerShell Management Shell
I think these are just outdated somehow. I can call Get-SPWeb in Management Shell but I can't in ISE due to I guess outdated versions. Lately the management shell will act as if I haven't been doing anything to the files unless I close it out and reopen it. Does the management shell just hold a copy of all files when it starts or something? Can I make it update these files?
Can anyone suggest a better way to debug? Also why does a module seem to severely increase runtime? When everything was in the same script it was quick but my long functions take several times longer to execute now.
I also have been using PowerShell and SharePoint for almost two months now, so I am a beginner and intern. Perhaps that is really the cause of my problems :)
Here I have a problem to read user inputs from Command prompt or windows powershell through scriptcs.I tried with Console.ReadLine(),Console.Read() or Console.ReadKey() wrapped it around Convert.ToString() to get user response but none of them gives result.Do I need any special package to handle the user input. Any help is appreciated.
I got the solution I was previously executing through Windows power shell and so I don't get the response as desired while using Console.ReadLine() or Console.Read().It appears as if it got hanged and processing instruction indefinitely. But when I work the scriptcs code in command prompt it reads the input and works as expected.