Using system(...) to run external applications 1

[perplexd]

I've been told that using system(...) to run external applications is bad practice.

Currently I'm using the following line of code:

system("a:\\Extract.exe /Y/A/E/L "+targetDir+" a:\\TSPDv.cab"

This is supposed to extract a cab file to targetDir. If this really is bad programming practice can someone tell me what I should do??? Otherwise this seems to work fine for my requirements. (I am only writing a small program to extract a number of files to a certain specified directory and a few other minor tasks.)

Thanks

 

[PerFnurt]

>I've been told that using system(...) to run external applications is bad practice.

It is. Use ShellExecute (or ShellExecuteEx) instead.

>system("a:\\Extract.exe /Y/A/E/L "+targetDir+" a:\\TSPDv.cab"

ShellExecute(NULL, //HWND
             "open" // operation
             "a:\\Extract.exe", // file
             "/Y/A/E/L "+targetDir+" a:\\TSPDv.cab" // Parameters
             NULL, // directory
             SW_HIDE // show cmd);

/Per
[sub]Nerdy signatures are as lame as the inconsistent stardates of STTNG.[/sub]

 

[palbano]

If you want the added functionality of blocking on the spawned process use CreateProcess(..) and then WaitForSingleObject(..) using the handle to the process that was obtained from the creation.

-pete