I know that if you want to run a program in the background from a unix command line, you simply add & to the end of the command, but is there an equivalent in windows in order to run something in the background?
A low-budget way of doing this is:
start /min some.exe
This starts the program in a minimised console window, and doesn't wait for the second program to finish.
You can:
Use Windows Scheduler.
Run the exe as a Windows service.
I don't really know of a way to manually start something and have it run in the background like you can do in Unix.
Although not a definitive answer to your question there was a similar question on serverfault here:
https://serverfault.com/questions/121979/tools-to-run-a-background-process-command-line-in-windows
The closest thing in windows to the Linux & is described here from what I can tell:
http://blog.commandlinekungfu.com/2009/04/episode-23-job-control.html
Related
I have a supervision tool that can deploy scripts on customers end devices.
I'm trying to make two powershell scripts.
The first one is supposed to launch a "chkdsk disk_name: /f /r".
The second one is supposed to extract the result of the chkdsk after the reboot from the event viewer.
The second script is operational. My problem is with the first one.
I think that when I'm launching my job from my administration tool, the script is launched on the end device, but when you type "chkdsk disk_name: /f /r" on a command prompt, it asks if you want to do the chkdsk at the start of the machine because the disk is actually in use. I think that the letter "Y" that you have to type to confirm, is blocking the execution of the command (and my script by consequence).
I didn't find in the documentation of the command any method to launch it with a "default confirmation".
Do you have any idea of what I can do to automate this?
Sorry for my English, it's not my native language.
Thank you all!
I tried to launch the script (it's in admin mode when my administration tool launch it's job) but the result was that my job was running indefinitely and at the restart of the machine, the check disk is not performed.
My question is whether it is possible to edit the crontab of a WSL2-based instance of Ubuntu with my Windows VSCode that is connected via WSL remote SSH.
If I type export EDITOR=code inside my WSL instance and then crontab -e, I am able to see a /tmp/crontab.sygFAU file load inside my VSCode instance.
The problem is that once I make edits to this file, it will save the file to /tmp/crontab.sysFAU but it doesn't actually take the next step of replacing the the real crontab file in /var/spool/cron/crontabs.
So once I re-open the crontab, it will just show what I had previously, and not my saved edits.
It would be nice to know if this is not possible or if there are any alternative ways to run a GUI editor because using nano is a pain!
An interesting question that I haven't considered before, myself. Here's what's happening:
You set your editor to code
You crontab -e, which properly loads VSCode with the temporary crontab.
However, because this is a Windows GUI application, it returns control to the parent Linux application (crontab) immediately after starting VSCode. You can see the same result if you just start notepad.exe from your shell in WSL -- Once Notepad starts (rather than exits) control is returned to the shell.
If you switch back to your terminal at this point, you'll see that crontab detected that the editor that it launched exited (returned), and so it has already tried to copy the temporary file to the permanent location.
However, since the temporary files doesn't yet have any changes, crontab decides there's nothing to do.
Editing the file in VSCode and saving it has no effect, other than to leave a dangling /tmp/... file hanging around (since crontab isn't there to clean up).
So what's the solution? We need a way to launch a Windows GUI application and prevent it from returning control to crontab until you are done editing.
I originally thought something from this question might work, but the problem is that the actual command that launches the Windows process is embedded in a shell script, which you can see with less "$(which code)" (or code "$(which code)"), but it's probably not a great idea to edit this.
So the next-best thing I came up with is a simple "wrapper" script around the (already-a-wrapper) code command. Create ~/.local/bin/code_no_fork.sh (could be anywhere) with:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
code $* > /dev/null
echo Press Spacebar to continue
read -r -s -d ' '
Credit: This answer for the Spacebar approach
Then:
EDITOR=~/.local/bin/code_no_fork crontab -e
After you make your edits in VSCode, simply press Space to allow the script to continue/exit, at which point crontab will (assuming no errors were detected) install the new Crontab.
Alternatives
This is should typically only be a problem with Windows GUI applications, so the other possible avenue is to simply use any Linux editor that doesn't fork. If you want a GUI editor, that's entirely possible as long as you are running a WSL release that includes WSLg support (now available for Windows 10 and 11).
I won't offer any individual editor suggestions since that would get into "opinion" and "software recommendation" territory, which is off-topic here.
I need a way to open a file in a Metro app from command line.
So far I've figured out how to start the app from command line without any third-party scripts
explorer shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.Reader_8wekyb3d8bbwe!Microsoft.Reader
but I haven't been able to figure out how to include a file name yet.
Launching
explorer shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.Reader_8wekyb3d8bbwe!Microsoft.Reader example.pdf
just opens up a default explorer window.
Any idea from Windows 8 experts on how to accomplish this without any third-party tools/cmdlets/etc.?
Note: In fact I'm using Windows 10 but I guess if there's a Windows 8 / 8.1 way to do it, it'll work for 10, too.
If you're still looking for the answer, the best way to open a file in a metro app is to use an execution string like a normal app protocol does. The execution string looks like this:
bingnews:[arguments, can be left blank.]
microsoftvideo:[arguments, can be left blank.]
netflix:[arguments, can be left blank.]
So, to start up netflix, it's as simple as typing in Start netflix: into the command line.
To find the execution string for an app, go here: Control Panel\Programs\Default Programs\Set Associations
More info and examples can be found here.
http://windowsitpro.com/windows-8/opening-windows-8-apps-command-prompt-or-script
http://www.itsjustwhatever.com/2012/10/28/launch-windows-8-metro-apps-from-a-desktop-shortcut-or-command-line/
PLEASE NOTE: To open an app WITHOUT A PROTOCOL (One not listed in the registry or under "Set Associations") use OP's method:
explorer shell:AppsFolder\[appuid]![appfullname]
The app UID is the folder name without the version number. For example,
4DF9E0F8.Netflix_2.11.0.8_x64__mcm4njqhnhss8
becomes
4DF9E0F8.Netflix_mcm4njqhnhss8
The app fullname is the [App author].[App name] For example, 4DF9E0F8.Netflix. 4DF9E0F8 is the author, and Netflix is the name.
Put it all together to get
explorer shell:AppsFolder\4DF9E0F8.Netflix_mcm4njqhnhss8!4DF9E0F8.Netflix
Store Apps can only be started by the shell. So try this:
explorer.exe shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.WindowsAlarms_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App
Or from run (Win+R):
shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.WindowsAlarms_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App
If the app is the default handler then you can just launch the file or protocol. There isn't a good in-box way to launch a file into a non-default handler from the command line.
Windows Store apps aren't designed to run from the command line and there isn't a straightforward way to launch them from the command line. Apps which handle specific files or protocols receive them through FileActivatedEventArgs or ProtocolActivatedEventArgs rather than command line arguments
You could write a launcher app which uses CLSID_ApplicationActivationManager's IApplicationActivationManager to ActivateForFile a specific app.
The best way I've found to pass command-line arguments to the executable targeted by the shell command is via the Windows start command.
Using your example, you would end up with this:
start "" shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.Reader_8wekyb3d8bbwe!Microsoft.Reader example.pdf
I don't have Microsoft.Reader installed, so I can't test that. However, I can verify that this pattern works with Windows Terminal. In this case, I pass it a command-line argument to tell it which profile I want to open.
start "" shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App new-tab -p "GitBash"
The first argument to the start command here — the empty string — is just the title of the window.
You can also pair this with cmd /c, which I've found is necessary for some launcher applications, such as my personal favorite, SlickRun:
cmd /c start "" shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App new-tab -p "GitBash"
I have a blog post with more info on running Modern apps from the command line, which you might find helpful in constructing these ridiculously obtuse commands.
Not sure if it works on Windows 8, but on Windows 10 I use this:
cmd /C start <app-name>:
For example, to start Slack:
cmd /C start slack:
I use Matlab remotely via ssh, and would like to execute regions of code from an m-file in Emacs without having to cut and paste. How do I configure Emacs to do this?
I tried to follow the solution offered here: I wrote a script that connects to the server and opens Matlab. The script works when I run it in a terminal. I edited matlab.el as explained on that page. Now, if I'm editing my m-file in Emacs and try to start Matlab, I get a message that it can't execute my remoteMatlab.sh file, and that M-shell exited abnormally with code 1.
Thanks in advance for any help.
You can achieve this running a shell from within emacs, starting up your ssh and matlab session in it, and renaming the shell buffer from *term* or whatever to *MATLAB*. You can then use matlab-mode on a script file and run the code.
This is not exactly what you asked for but may achieve the same thing. You can use function dbstop, which allows you to set debug break points through code.
http://www.mathworks.com/help/techdoc/ref/dbstop.html#inputarg_location
I have a windows batch file which I run to start a java application. The problem is that I don't want the command prompt output to be visible after the app starts. And not only that,... I don't event want to see it minimised. I don't want it at all. Any ideas?
Cheers!!
Use
start/b javaw.exe ...
If your program is not a console application, you can use START.EXE in your batch file to actually launch the real app. The initial console used to launch the batch file will be closed when the batch file ends.
You could actually probably launch the .bat file with start /b too in order to avoid all console windows.