How to start c app from desktop with double-click? - c

I have written one very simple app in C. I know how to run it through Visual studio, but i want to start it from desktop with a double-click. If I double-click on a .exe file made in folder, it does not start. How can I do this?

If you do not wish to modify your code so that it will wait for user input before closing (and there are many reasons that might be inappropriate), you could create a batch file wrapper:
myprog.bat
myprog.exe
pause
Then either you can double click the batch file or create a shortcut to the batch file then edit the shortcut to set the path to the batch file and the path from which to run (so it can find the exe).
That pretty much emulates how Visual Studio runs your code without terminating the window.
Another method you might consider is a batch file such as:
runner.bat
%1
pause
Then you can drag-and-drop your executable onto the runner.bat icon to run it. The advantage being that you don't have to create a new batch file and/or shortcut for every new executable.
Really though this is not a C question, or even a programming question - it is most likely off topic. If your code is ever required to run to completion unattended in a batch file for example, you would not necessarily want to add any interactivity to the program itself.

Your problem is that double clicking on a console app will open a new console window, run the program and then close the window.
VS studio does a trick where it runs the app in a new console window but keeps it open till you press a key.
You can add that same thing yourself - put a getchar() call at the end
Or you can make a bat file to run the app as per Cliffords answer

1st open the code with visual studio code
Run or Build the program
then u will find an executable file where u have saved your code
Open that executable file
but you must have installed mingw installed in your environment

you must compile it first with mingw or like compiler. and start it with by code:
cmd> yourdirectory(e.g Desktop)/ gcc yourcodefile.c your question is available also internet => how-to-compile-c-program

Related

How to open project files in devenv

I have a run.bat file that opens my .exe in devenv. In visual studio 2019, hitting the F11 key will break at the first line of the main function. When I do this in the 2022 edition, it just runs the program and doesn't show any of my files so that I can set breakpoints and such. I'm using SDL2 which defines the main function in it's .dll, so F11 probably won't work anyways. Is there a way to just open the files?
I tried using F11, which just ran the program, but that makes sense because SDL2 defines the main function itself. I tried looking in the solution window, but that just showed the .exe file, which, again, makes sense because that's what it has always done.

open appengine file in netbeans

From the appengine launcher on Windows, one of the buttons at the top is 'edit'. You can set the external editor in 'preferences'. The default is Wordpad. I wanted to use netbeans, but I can't figure out how to make GAE open netbeans. I have done many searches but I keep getting hits about creating a .exe file in netbeans, which is not what I want. I see no 'netbeans.exe' file. I tried C:\Program Files\NetBeans 7.3.1\platform\core\core.jar but that does nothing. Thank you.
netbeans is a GUI for java SDK. it is not a text editor. it has a text editor somewhere in it, but it is not obvious where and it may not be possible to call the editor alone from outside.
I suggest you start netbeans, edit the file in it and then either launch the project from the launcher or from the command line. no need to compile, as soon as you save the edit, you can re-load the page.

Remove the close option on a batch file with a command, is it possible?

I was just wondering if there is a code that can remove the "close" button on a batch file. (The minimize and expand buttons isn't important so it is ok if they will be disabled or will stay enabled) That is all. I can't seem to find any answer anywhere.
Thanks.
A batch file is nothing more that a script that another program must execute.
When you double-click a .bat file in Explorer, cmd.exe launches and "opens" the file, running the script. So your question is: can you remove the close button from cmd.exe? Good luck.
You don't want to be doing that. You should make your script NOT show a window to begin with.
If the window is shown, a user can always Ctrl + C to stop the script mid-stream.
There is a number of ways you can make the window hidden (also called "running a script silently"). See the following links:
Run a completely hidden batch file
Solved: HowTo run a batch file without it showing
Eric Helps
Or just google for "batch file silent" or "batch file hide console".
Just a side note: if you have seen this behavior before, chances are that it is not a batch file, but another programming language, and probably not using cmd.exe. C# can let you make a console program app which you can manipulate the title, but even still you cannot change the control buttons on the window. It is simply not within c# or a batch file's scope.

How to launch gvim.exe from cscope-win32 when run from cmd.exe?

For years now my Windows C tagging/scoping solution has almost worked. I can build the filelist, build the tags (via Exuberant Ctags) for vim/gvim navigation, build cscope.out, and tag around within gvim.exe windows I launch by clicking on C source files.
The final piece that eludes me is that I can't seem to get cscope in cmd.exe to launch my editor when I select an item. I made sure gvim.exe is in my Path environment variable. I made sure the CSCOPE_EDITOR environment variable is set (more on that below). But when I select a line item from within cscope the editor is not launched. Instead I get one of the two following failures:
If CSCOPE_EDITOR is either gvim.exe -f or "gvim.exe -f" then I see that printed at the top of the cmd.exe window followed by the line offset and the filename (e.g. "gvim.exe -f +72 myfile.c") and then it quickly returns to cscope without the editor ever popping.
If CSCOPE_EDITOR is gvim.exe (without the -f option) then a gvim.exe process is kicked off (I see it in Windows Task Manager under Processes) but it never comes to the foreground as an application. Furthermore, the cscope window in cmd.exe goes blank and is unresponsive until I manually kill the gvim.exe process that was spawned.
For reference:
cscope -V returns "cscope: version 15.8a" and was downloaded from this site: http://code.google.com/p/cscope-win32/
My version of gvim.exe is 7.3 which the latest available from http://www.vim.org/
Also, I have tagged this post with "C" because, while this is not a C language question, cscope and ctags are primarily used for C programming and thus I think the C tag is relevant. (Thought I'd point that out before someone comes along and removes the tag and says this isn't a C question, since C programmers are the most likely people to have the answer.)
With help from #mattn and #mMontu and a lot of trial-and-error and an ugly but simple hack I finally have this working. Here are the problems I encountered:
cscope-win32 does not handle spaces in the EDITOR or CSCOPE_EDITOR environment variables. I tried every space-escape trick I could think of (single-quotes, double-quotes, backslash escapes) and nothing worked.
When gvim.exe is successfully launched by cscope-win32, if that gvim.exe tries to add the same cscope.out database (via cs add cscope.out) the add command hangs. If the add is part of a vimrc file then the editor will hang during opening (with the gvim.exe and cscope.exe processes starting but the application window never appearing). If the add is done after the editor window opens then the window will hang. This appears related to multiple cscope-win32 processes being attempted in the same process tree, but I have no actual proof of that.
Here's my solution to the problem. Like I said, it is an ugly but simple hack.
Create a wrapper batch file. I named mine gvim_cscope.bat. Make sure it is in a directory that exists in your PATH environment variable. You can verify this in a cmd.exe shell by calling "where gvim_cscope.bat".
Edit the batch file and add your editor command but precede it with the windows start command. For example, my batch file contains the following:
start gvim.exe %*
Create/Update your CSCOPE_EDITOR environment variable to be "gvim_cscope.bat". In case you've never modified a Windows environment variable before, you can get to them (on Windows 7 anyway) via Start -> right-click Computer -> Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> Environment Variables.
That's all I needed to get things working. Open a new cmd.exe window (so the updated environment variable is pulled in) and open cscope.exe and everything works. I am able to pop multiple gvim.exe windows from within cscope.exe, each with its own connection to the cscope.out database. The first problem is avoided by using the wrapper batch file (no more spaces in the command) and the second problem is avoided by using the windows start command so that gvim.exe is started as a separate process.
Thanks for the help #mattn and #mMontu. So nice to have things working right!

Control cmd prompt using C

I'm trying to write a C program to control the windows cmd prompt. For example, opening the cmd prompt, go to a specific directory (ex: C:/Program Files/...), and then run an exe in that folder.
Can this be done with C programming? If so, how? So far, I am only aware of system("cmd.exe") to open up the cmd prompt. How would I further interact with cmd prompt?
Thanks.
This wouldn't be very portable. system calls are often frowned upon, but just to answer your question, the system function does work with the commands you're aiming to use.
For example:
system("notepad.exe my_file.txt");
system("del my_file.txt");
system("pause");
This will open up a file called my_file.txt in notepad, delete it and pause the program.
Again, this is not portable. It's specific to Windows Operating systems.
In fact, I don't even think it's guaranteed to work on all releases of Windows.
(Don't quote me on that.)
On topic: You could start cmd via "CreateProcess" and send key input via window messages ("SendMessage").
I think you should rethink how you want things to be done. The command prompt is not a kind of API base to do things on windows. It's a tool to do things and get information without writing your own program. If you wirte an own program, you should directly use the WinAPI.
To get started you can google "winapi [whatever you want to do]". In your example "winapi start executable" and you will find functions like "CreateProcess" and "ShellExecute".
Perhaps there is a misunderstanding here (if so, I apologize), but the standard way to "further interact with cmd prompt" is via command-line commands, and the standard way "to write a program to control the windows cmd prompt" is via a Batch file. For example, the following Batch file open the cmd prompt (when it is executed via a double click in the Explorer), go to a specific directory (C:/Program Files/) and run an exe in that folder:
#echo off
cd "C:/Program Files/"
nameOfTheProgram.exe

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