Title: Execute an external application and wait its end
Question: How can I execute an external program and wait its end?
Answer:
With this code we can execute an external application and wait its end.
function ExecAndWait(const FileName, Params: ShortString; const WinState: Word): boolean; export;
var
StartInfo: TStartupInfo;
ProcInfo: TProcessInformation;
CmdLine: ShortString;
begin
{ Put the name of file between quotes, due to spaces in names of files in system Win9x }
CmdLine := '"' + Filename + '" ' + Params;
FillChar(StartInfo, SizeOf(StartInfo), #0);
with StartInfo do
begin
cb := SizeOf(SUInfo);
dwFlags := STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW;
wShowWindow := WinState;
end;
Result := CreateProcess(nil, PChar( String( CmdLine ) ), nil, nil, false,
CREATE_NEW_CONSOLE or NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS, nil,
PChar(ExtractFilePath(Filename)),StartInfo,ProcInfo);
{ Wait the finish of program }
if Result then
begin
WaitForSingleObject(ProcInfo.hProcess, INFINITE);
{ Free the Handles }
CloseHandle(ProcInfo.hProcess);
CloseHandle(ProcInfo.hThread);
end;
end;
PS: This code was tested in delphi versions 3, 4 and 5.