detect whether a program is being run via command prompt

Question

Is there a way to detect if a c# xamarin console library is being run or being run via a terminal? this is so i can add

console.read();

if the user is directly running the program so they can see the output of the program

if your app is a library, surely this is the responsibility of the console app that's using it? — Charles Mager, Jun 10 '16 at 18:13
When you say "c# console library" do you mean that this is a "Class Library" project in Visual Studio? If so, you are reading from the console in the wrong place. — Greg Burghardt, Jun 10 '16 at 18:13
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/200163/am-i-running-as-a-service — kayleeFrye_onDeck, Jun 10 '16 at 18:44
@kaylee Not the same thing. That question talks about a Windows service, which is completely different from a console application. — Cody Gray, Jun 12 '16 at 16:53

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 10 '16 at 18:32

0

Something like this should put you in the right direction: (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/z3w4xdc9(v=vs.110).aspx)

var processes = Process.GetProcessesByName("Name");
if(processes.Count > 0)
{
    //do something here
}

answered Jun 10 '16 at 18:32

brettkc

262
1
9

1

That's not a very safe way to determine it. Multiple CMDs may be open at any given time for any given reason. – kayleeFrye_onDeck Jun 10 '16 at 18:45

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 12 '16 at 16:05

0

Using the command

Environment.CommandLine

allows the command that opened the program. if the program is run in command line the Environment.CommandLine will show

ProgramName -parameter

However if it is called via explorer or a debug program it will be called as

 "PathToFile/ProgramName.exe"

This allows the process to see if it is called via explorer or CMD via some if statments

answered Jun 12 '16 at 16:05

AlexanderRD

1,989
2
9
19

Not necessarily. You cannot rely on this to make the distinction. – Cody Gray Jun 12 '16 at 16:54
What can I rely on to make the distinction? – AlexanderRD Jun 12 '16 at 18:23
Well, that is why you asked the question. :-) I can think of a couple of better solutions, but was too lazy to write up an answer to a question tagged C#, complete with p/invoke code. But if you're looking for a pointer in the right direction, you might try calling `GetStdHandle` and checking to see if it has a stdout handle. A standard Windows application will not have one, unless someone has specifically given it one, in which case it is perfectly logical for you to write to it using `Console.Read`. Console applications have these handles available by default, of course. – Cody Gray Jun 13 '16 at 11:19
Or, there might a .NET of doing the same thing. Maybe something like `Console.OpenStandardInput`, which you can check to see if it returns a null stream. Not sure, I've never tried it. I'd look at the reference source code to confirm what it actually does. Another straightforward option in Win32 would be calling the `GetConsoleWindow` function. If there's a console window attached to the process, it will return true; otherwise, it returns NULL. Problem with that is, you can be running as a console app with an invisible console window. In that case, you can still write output to stdout, though – Cody Gray Jun 13 '16 at 11:31
so this may not get you the information you are seeking. You have to be more precise about the question. You probably don't actually want or need to know if you're being run via the command prompt. What you really want to know is if it's legal to read/write to/from the console. Which is a very similar question, but one that can be easily and correctly answered. Anyway, the purpose of my original comment was merely to indicate that *your* answer was wrong and may produce misleading results. And look, now I've written 3 comments. Should have just written an answer... – Cody Gray Jun 13 '16 at 11:32

detect whether a program is being run via command prompt

2 Answers2