embedded console applications in Delphi [duplicate] - delphi

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Closed 11 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
How to read from an external console application?
I have a third party console application
I want to execute it at run time form a delphi application.
on the execution
the console applications window must be hidden.and all the messages of the console application must be printed in a control of my application (Text box , memo etc)
and also using the control user must be able to input text.
Can anyone help me to do this

Answer 1

This will allow you to run and receive info back from a console (DOS-type) application into a TRichEdit. It doesn't allow you to input text once the app is running, but maybe it'll give you a starting point. (The original code is from a newsgroup post written by Dr. Peter Below of TeamB.)
procedure TFMainForm.RunDosInMemo(const App: String; AMemo: TRichEdit);
const
ReadBuffer = 2400;
var
Security : TSecurityAttributes;
StdInPipeR, StdInPipeW : THandle;
StdOutPipeR, StdOutPipeW : THandle;
StartInfo : TStartUpInfo;
ProcessInfo : TProcessInformation;
Buffer : PByte;
BytesAvailable, BytesRead : DWord;
sDosApp: String;
sData: RawByteString;
begin
sDosApp := DosApp;
UniqueString(sDosApp);
with Security do begin
nLength := SizeOf(TSecurityAttributes);
bInheritHandle := True;
lpSecurityDescriptor := nil;
end;
if CreatePipe(StdInPipeR, StdInPipeW, #Security, 0) then
try
SetHandleInformation(StdInPipeW, HANDLE_FLAG_INHERIT, 0);
if CreatePipe(StdOutPipeR, StdOutPipeW, #Security, 0) then
try
SetHandleInformation(StdOutPipeR, HANDLE_FLAG_INHERIT, 0);
GetMem(Buffer, ReadBuffer);
try
ZeroMemory(#StartInfo, SizeOf(StartInfo));
StartInfo.cb := SizeOf(StartInfo);
StartInfo.hStdOutput := StdOutPipeW;
StartInfo.hStdInput := StdInPipeR;
StartInfo.dwFlags := STARTF_USESTDHANDLES or STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW;
StartInfo.wShowWindow := SW_HIDE;
if CreateProcess(nil,
PChar(sDosApp),
nil,
nil,
True,
NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS,
nil,
nil,
StartInfo,
ProcessInfo) then
try
while WaitForSingleObject(ProcessInfo.hProcess, 500) <> WAIT_TIMEOUT do
Application.ProcessMessages;
while PeekNamedPipe(StdOutPipeR, nil, 0, nil, BytesAvailable, nil) do
begin
if BytesAvailable < 1 then
Break;
if BytesAvailable > ReadBuffer then
BytesAvailable := ReadBuffer;
if not ReadFile(StdOutPipeR,
Buffer[0],
BytesAvailable,
BytesRead,
nil) then
Break;
SetString(sData, PAnsiChar(Buffer), BytesRead);
// assign an appropriate codepage for the output data:
// 0 for default Ansi, 1252 or 20157 for ASCII, 1200 for
// Unicode, etc...
SetCodePage(sData, ...);
// this is faster and more efficient than reading/writing the
// Text property directly...
AMemo.SelStart := AMemo.GetTextLen;
AMemo.SelLength := 0;
AMemo.SelText := sData;
end;
finally
CloseHandle(ProcessInfo.hThread);
CloseHandle(ProcessInfo.hProcess);
end;
finally
FreeMem(Buffer);
end;
finally
CloseHandle(StdOutPipeR);
CloseHandle(StdOutPipeW);
end;
finally
CloseHandle(StdInPipeR);
CloseHandle(StdInPipeW);
end;
end;

Answer 2

See this answer and this one.
Zarko wrote about this on Delphi.about.com.
This is a common requirement, for example, in IDEs and build tools, or apps which spawn external command line tools to do version control, for example.
To make the answer two-way, as you ask for it to be, is very complex, and I am not aware of anybody who has implemented a "command shell" or "terminal mode" completely in delphi.
I ported Zlatko's code to Delphi XE (also works in 2010) here.