[REBOL] Re: Starting and killing a process
From: greggirwin:mindspring at: 19-Dec-2002 10:14
Hi Maarten,
MK> I need to start and later on kill a process on windows. I can start
MK> using call and I know the name of the process, but how to kill it?
MK> And I also like to trap a "kill" using the system port so I can kill the
MK> subprocess.
CALL probably isn't going to work, as it doesn't return you a process
ID. You'll likely want to use API calls to launch it (WinExec or
CreateProcess) rather than walking lists to find the process you want
(i.e. with EnumProcesses) after using CALL.
Then you can use OpenProcess with the TaskID returned by WinExec,
which gives you a process ID. You can use that with TerminateProcess,
but that's not always the best way to do things; it depends on the app
and what you need to do, or how risky it might be based on what
resources the process has allocated and such. Under W2K/XP, you're
much safer of course.
You can use GetExitCodeProcess to find out if a process is still
active, or you can use something like WaitForSingleObject - flexible
but the synchronization stuff under Windows has many faces and can be
a bit confusing at times as to what's the most appropirate mechanism
to use. Not really my forte though.
You can also kill processes by finding the handle to their main window
(or any window really) and sending it a WM_CLOSE or WM_DESTROY
message and handling things appropriately in the receiving app. You
can also pump keystrokes to apps. Some apps are picky, so the best
approach is often based on what app you're talking to and whether you
can modify it to work the way you want.
Lots of options in any case.
-- Gregg
