A .NET library that provides functionality for creating child processes. Easier, less error-prone, more flexible than System.Diagnostics.Process at creating and interacting with child processes.
This library can be obtained via NuGet.
See the Wiki for the goals and the roadmap.
- Concentrates on creating a child process and obtaining its output.
- Cannot query status of a process.
- Cannot create a resident process.
- More destinations of redirection:
- NUL
- File (optionally appended)
- Pipe
- Handle
- Less error-prone default values for redirection:
- stdin to NUL
- stdout to the current stdout
- stderr to the current stderr
- Pipes are asynchronous; asynchronous reads and writes will be handled by IO completion ports.
- Ensures termination of child processes
- .NET Core 3.1 or later
RIDs:
win10-x86(not tested)win10-x64(1809 or later; tested on 1809)win10-arm(not tested)win10-arm64(not tested)linux-x64(tested on Ubuntu 18.04)linux-arm(not tested)linux-arm64(not tested)linux-musl-arm64(not tested)linux-musl-x64(tested on Alpine 3.20)osx-x64(macOS 10.15 Catalina or later; tested on 12)osx-arm64(macOS 11.0 Big Sur or later; not tested)
NOTE: On glibc-based Linux, the system must have glibc 2.27 or later and libstdc++ 3.4.25 or later.
- On Windows prior to Windows 11 24H2, each
ChildProcess.Startexecution leaks one process handle toconhost.exe(except when the child process is successfully attached to the current console usingChildProcessFlags.AttachToCurrentConsole).- This is due to a Kernel32 issue.
- On Windows 10 1809 (including Windows Server 2019),
SignalTerminationjust forcibly kills the process tree (the same operation asKill).- This is due to a Windows pseudoconsole bug where
ClosePseudoConsoledoes not terminate applications attached to the pseudoconsole.
- This is due to a Windows pseudoconsole bug where
- On macOS prior to 11.0,
ExitCodefor processes killed by a signal will always be-1.- This is due to a
waitidbug where it returns0insiginfo_t.si_statusfor such processes.
- This is due to a
- When completely rewriting environment variables with
ChildProcessCreationContextorChildProcessFlags.DisableEnvironmentVariableInheritance, it is recommended that you include basic environment variables such asSystemRoot, etc.
- More than 2^63 processes cannot be created.
This library assumes that the underlying runtime has the following characteristics:
- Windows
- The inner value of a
SafeFileHandleis a file handle. - The inner value of a
SafeWaitHandleis a handle thatWaitForSingleObjectcan wait for. - The inner value of a
SafeProcessHandleis a process handle.
- The inner value of a
- *nix
- The inner value of a
SafeFileHandleis a file descriptor. - The inner value of a
SafeProcessHandleis a process id. Socket.Handlereturns a socket file descriptor.
- The inner value of a
Open ChildProcessExample.sln or see ChildProcess.Example for more examples.
You can read the output of a child, optionally combining stdout and stderr.
var si = new ChildProcessStartInfo("cmd", "/C", "echo", "foo") { StdOutputRedirection = OutputRedirection.OutputPipe, // Works like 2>&1 StdErrorRedirection = OutputRedirection.OutputPipe, // DisableArgumentQuoting: See ChildProcessExamplesWindows.cs for details Flags = ChildProcessFlags.DisableArgumentQuoting, }; using (var p = ChildProcess.Start(si)) { using (var sr = new StreamReader(p.StandardOutput)) { // "foo" Console.Write(await sr.ReadToEndAsync()); } await p.WaitForExitAsync(); // ExitCode: 0 Console.WriteLine("ExitCode: {0}", p.ExitCode); }You can redirect the output of a child into a file without ever reading the output.
var tempFile = Path.GetTempFileName(); var si = new ChildProcessStartInfo("cmd", "/C", "set") { ExtraEnvironmentVariables = new Dictionary<string, string> { { "A", "A" } }, StdOutputRedirection = OutputRedirection.File, StdErrorRedirection = OutputRedirection.File, StdOutputFile = tempFile, StdErrorFile = tempFile, // DisableArgumentQuoting: See ChildProcessExamplesWindows.cs for details Flags = ChildProcessFlags.UseCustomCodePage | ChildProcessFlags.DisableArgumentQuoting, CodePage = Encoding.Default.CodePage, // UTF-8 on .NET Core }; using (var p = ChildProcess.Start(si)) { await p.WaitForExitAsync(); } // A=A // ALLUSERSPROFILE=C:\ProgramData // ... Console.WriteLine(File.ReadAllText(tempFile)); File.Delete(tempFile);You can pipe the output of a child into another child without ever reading the output.
// Create an anonymous pipe. using var inPipe = new AnonymousPipeServerStream(PipeDirection.In); var si1 = new ChildProcessStartInfo("cmd", "/C", "set") { // Connect the output to writer side of the pipe. StdOutputRedirection = OutputRedirection.Handle, StdErrorRedirection = OutputRedirection.Handle, StdOutputHandle = inPipe.ClientSafePipeHandle, StdErrorHandle = inPipe.ClientSafePipeHandle, // DisableArgumentQuoting: See ChildProcessExamplesWindows.cs for details Flags = ChildProcessFlags.UseCustomCodePage | ChildProcessFlags.DisableArgumentQuoting, CodePage = Encoding.Default.CodePage, // UTF-8 on .NET Core }; var si2 = new ChildProcessStartInfo("findstr", "Windows") { // Connect the input to the reader side of the pipe. StdInputRedirection = InputRedirection.Handle, StdInputHandle = inPipe.SafePipeHandle, StdOutputRedirection = OutputRedirection.OutputPipe, StdErrorRedirection = OutputRedirection.OutputPipe, Flags = ChildProcessFlags.UseCustomCodePage, CodePage = Encoding.Default.CodePage, // UTF-8 on .NET Core }; using var p1 = ChildProcess.Start(si1); using var p2 = ChildProcess.Start(si2); // Close our copy of the pipe handles. (Otherwise p2 will get stuck while reading from the pipe.) inPipe.DisposeLocalCopyOfClientHandle(); inPipe.Close(); using (var sr = new StreamReader(p2.StandardOutput)) { // ... // OS=Windows_NT // ... Console.Write(await sr.ReadToEndAsync()); } await p1.WaitForExitAsync(); await p2.WaitForExitAsync();