Can Aut2Exe write its error messages to the console?

[tremolux66]

Is there a way to have Aut2Exe write its error messages to the console (stdout/stderr) instead of popping up a message window?

We build our project software using Bash scripts that compile AutoIt scripts, compile C programs, install data files, etc. If Aut2Exe encounters an error when compiling an AutoIt script it pops-up a message window, which is problematic when running from a Bash script. It's worse when part or all of the build is executed remotely via SSH: if you're watching the build, you can kill the local script if it gets stuck (i.e., is waiting for Aut2Exe to exit), but the Aut2Exe process is still running on the remote machine and has to be killed there.

A local Aut2Exe already exits with a non-zero status once the window is closed (which is only a minor problem; see below). The big snag is the remote processing; cleaner local processing would be a plus.

Note: For use in repetitive compilation testing, I created an AutoIt script that waits for Aut2Exe error windows to appear and closes them. In a Bash test-script, this error monitoring script is started in the background at the beginning of the test and killed at the end. This could be used with local builds, but I doubt it can be adapted to work on a remote machine since the remote SSH processes run in Windows Session 0 (including the login shell). Session 0 doesn't seem to be an issue if Aut2Exe exits normally, however.

Any suggestions?

(Abandoning remote compilation is not an option at the moment; we're trying to work our way out of that.)

[Jos]

Sure, That is what I use in AutoIt3Wrapper and for that purpose the parameter /ErrorStdOut was implemented a long time ago,

Jos

[tremolux66]

@Jos Thanks.

Apparently /ErrorStdOut wasn't implemented yet in AutoIt 3.3.14.2, and we're stuck there for the time being. When I tested it just now, I got a command-line syntax error, and the option wasn't in the usage message.

We did test-build our software w/AutoIt 3.3.14.5 and SQLite 3.24.0.0. This was to demonstrate to corporate IT that a version change wouldn't resolve an anti-malware/compiler issue with a particular script, and to persuade them to configure an exclusion for Aut2Exe.exe (which in fact fixes it). After modifying our code to minimally accommodate 3.3.14.5, we saw the same compilation error but with other scripts, and on a machine where it shouldn't have occurred (less stringent AV config). The IT organization is unlikely to grant an exception, and we'll probably have to do some redesign to get around the issue. But we still have a general concern about handling compilation errors with AutoIt 3.3.14.2 when building from Bash scripts.

Any additional suggestions would be appreciated.

[Jos]

1 hour ago, tremolux66 said:

Apparently /ErrorStdOut wasn't implemented yet in AutoIt 3.3.14.2,

You are right! It was implemented in AutoIt3.exe, not aut2exe.exe.

Sorry about that.

Jos

[tremolux66]

@Jos Sounds like an enhancement request to me.

Correction: I misspoke when I said we'd run 3.3.14.5 compilation tests in a relaxed anti-malware environment. While we weren't looking, a removable media and file protection module was installed on the test computer, and its policies included prohibiting self-extraction. So we in fact demonstrated more conclusively that changing AutoIt versions didn't improve anything, and now our "problem script" consistently fails to compile. Not sure whether to be happy or sad.

It will be interesting to see how this issue gets resolved. Maybe we'll be lucky.