Reading from a command line window

[snbdr02]

Hello all,

First I would like to thank everyone on the forums because with your help I was able to complete 99% of this script that I am working on.

I am building a boot disk using multiple virus scanners. I want to automate the entire process and I have figured most of it out. The only hang up that I am coming across now is that the last program that I run, when the scan starts it opens a command window. I need to be able to read from the command line window, a string that says "Clean completed." before I can move on with the rest of the script. I have been looking into Stdoutread but I cannot get it to work. Any help would be appreciated.

[GEOSoft]

I'm slow today so I need a headstart. How are you calling the Command window or what are you calling to get the command window?

[snbdr02]

I attempted to start the scan using command line parameters but that errors out. So I am starting the scan from the programs GUI. Once I click start (sending key commands to click start) it pops up the command line window.

[Mobius]

Unless this gui tool instantiates the command shell window itself via AllocConsole(), it is likely that it executes a separate binary that performs the scan which happens to be a console app.

If so, find this separate program (TaskManager), find out if it has any commandline parameters, and if possible cut the gui out of the equation and automate the console app.

[semi-related]

If I have a program that I think has commandline parameters but has no documentation, I normally do a string dump of the binary with strings.exe (part of the bloodshed Dev++ compiler distribution), to at least give yourself something to work with.(plus it is faster than using a hex editor or monitoring the app at runtime.)

This won't help you if the program has been packed however, but it is more effective than you might think.

[semi-related]

Vlad

Edited December 2, 2009 by Mobius