prakashjv
30th November 2011 14:18 UTC

Getting to know if a process is running or not using the application name
  Hello,

I have a case where I am running some exe in silent mode so basically I do not have a UI but it will show up under Applications tab in Task manager. Is there a way to know if that process is running or is it completed using this Application name.

I found so many answers reagrding using Process name to check if it is still running or not. But in my case the process name is not unique and I may end up checking any other process with the same name, which is not correct.

I know the application what I will be running, hence wanted to use the same to check if it is running.

P.S: Here application name is nothing but the executable exe name.

How this can be accomplished?

MSG
30th November 2011 15:13 UTC

Easy solution: Rename your exe to something unique, before you execute it.

demiller9
30th November 2011 15:30 UTC

A unique name is not such an easy thing to create - what if the user runs the setup two times (back to back or simultaneously)?

Maybe prakashjv can get the process id since he says he is running the process. That will be unique, and can be checked later to see if it is still running.

Yathosho
30th November 2011 15:42 UTC

Originally posted by demiller9
A unique name is not such an easy thing to create - what if the user runs the setup two times (back to back or simultaneously)?

demiller9
30th November 2011 16:21 UTC

Tempfilenames are unique within a particular directory, not necessarily unique on the whole system. Running the installer twice might be done from different directories, and could theoretically result in identical filenames.

GUIDs are system unique, but won't necessarily give a unique process name; on Windows 2000 the process names are 15 characters or shorter. Longer names (like a GUID) are truncated.

Lloigor
1st December 2011 03:28 UTC

I made some functions for that..

If the exe in question is made with nsis, you can use the mutex method to prevent multiple instances, by puting this in it:

;; return: 0=succes, 183=failed to create handle (mutex already exists)

!define CreateMutex "!insertmacro _CreateMutex" 

>!macro _CreateMutex _RetVal_ _MutexName_

   System::Call /nounload 'kernel32::CreateMutexA(i 0, i 0, t "${_MutexName_}") ?e'

  Pop ${_RetVal_}

!macroend 

>

OnInit

  ${CreateMutex} $0 "SomeUniqueMutexName"

  IntCmp $0 0 +2

      Quit


>/* some code... */


>FunctionEnd 

>

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

;; Gets the parent folder

>;; P1 :out: Folder containing file or dir (parent folder)

;;P2 :in:  File/Dir

>;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

!define PathPath "!insertmacro _PathPath"

>!macro _PathPath _RetVal_ _Path_

   Push "${_Path_}"

   Call PathPath

   Pop "${_RetVal_}"

>!macroend

>Function PathPath

   Exch$0  ;; Path

   Push$1  ;; Strlen / Counter

   Push$2  ;; Curchar


   StrLen$1 '$0'

  IntCmp $1 0 +6

      IntOp$1 $1 - 1

      StrCpy$2 "$0" 1 $1

      StrCmp "$2" "\" +3

      StrCmp "$2" ":" 0 -4

         IntOp $1 $1 + 1


   StrCpy $0 "$0" $1 0


   Pop $2

   Pop $1

   Exch $0

FunctionEnd


;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

;; Executes files with ShellExecuteEx Api

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

;; P1 :out: Return value, depends on the mode (P5)

;; P2 :in:  Verb. if="" then open with default associated app 

;; P3 :in:  File

;; P4 :in:  File parameters

;; P5 :in:  Working directory. if="" then its set to the same dir as the file

;; P6 :in:  Show flag. if="" then SH_SHOW is used (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb762153(v=VS.85).aspx )

;; P7 :in:  Mode: 1=Nowait, Returns Process Id

;;                2=Nowait, Returns Process Handle (must close the handle yourself)

;;                3=Wait, Returns Process Exit Code

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

!define ShellExecEx "!insertmacro _ShellExecEx"

!macro _ShellExecEx _RetVal_ _Verb_ _File_ _Params_ _WorkDir_ _Show_ _Mode_  

   Push `${_Mode_}`

   Push `${_Show_}`

   Push `${_WorkDir_}`

   Push `${_Params_}`

   Push `${_File_}`

   Push `${_Verb_}`

   Call ShellExecEx

   Pop ${_RetVal_}

!macroend

Function ShellExecEx

   Exch $0

   Exch

   Exch $1

   Exch 2

   Exch $2

   Exch 3

   Exch $3

   Exch 4

   Exch $4

   Exch 5

   Exch $5

   Push "$9"

   

   StrCmpS "" "$3" 0 wdok

      ${PathPath} $3 "$3"

   wdok:

   StrCmpS "" "$4" 0 +2  ;; if show mode is undefined, then

      StrCpy $4 0x05    ; = SH_SHOW

   System::Call /nounload '*(&i60) i .r9' ;; allocate the structure

   System::Call /nounload '*$9(i 60, i 0x140, i $HWNDPARENT, t r0, t r1, t r2, t r3, i r4) i .r9'  ;; assign the values to the struct

   System::Call /nounload 'Shell32::ShellExecuteEx(i r9) i .r1'  ;; execute the file

   StrCmpS 0 $1 0 +4  ;; if there was errors, then

      StrCpy $3 0  ; set return value to 0 and set the error flag

      SetErrors

      Goto end

      

   System::Call /nounload '*$9(i, i, i, i, i, i, i, i, i, i, i, i, i, i, i .r2)'


   IntCmp $5 2 +4 0 +6  ;; 1:nowait-pid, 2:nowait-handle, 3:wait-exitcode

      System::Call /nounload 'kernel32::GetProcessId(i r2) i .r4'

      System::Call /nounload 'kernel32::CloseHandle(i r2)'

      Goto end

;   hmode:

      StrCpy $4 "$2"

      Goto end

;   wmode:

      System::Call /nounload 'kernel32::WaitForSingleObject(i r2, i -1)'

      System::Call /nounload 'kernel32::GetExitCodeProcess(i r2,*i .r4)'

      System::Call /nounload 'kernel32::CloseHandle(i r2)'


   end:

   System::Free /nounload $9

   Pop $9

   Pop $5

   Pop $0

   Pop $1

   Pop $2

   Pop $3

   Exch $4

FunctionEnd 

>

still exists

>!define IfProcExistsH "!insertmacro _IfProcExistsH"

>!macro _IfProcExistsH _ProcHandle_ _GotoIfTrue_ _GotoIfFalse_

   Push "$0"

   ClearErrors

   System::Call /nounload 'kernel32::WaitForSingleObject(i ${_ProcHandle_}, i 0) i .r0'

  IntCmp $0 0 +3

      System::Call /nounload 'kernel32::CloseHandle(i ${_ProcHandle_})'

      SetErrors

   Pop$0

   IfErrors${_GotoIfTrue_} ${_GotoIfFalse_}

!macroend 

>

2

loop:

>/* some code here.. */

>${IfProcExistsH} $0 0 +3

   MessageBox MB_OK "The process still exists."

   Goto loop

MessageBox MB_OK "The process doesn't exists anymore!"