I have this GUI application developed in Delphi 5.0 which needs an extra
feature:

the application needs to be enabled to start console applications, batch
files and
commands. In addition the stdin and stdout should be redirected, in a way
that
the GUI app can 'see' what the console app is doing and that the GUI app
also
can send some keystrokes to the console app.

Can anyone give me some hints on solving this problem?

Many thanks in advance !!
Kris Verhoeven

Currently I'm able to start an application and redirect it's output to a
TStringList.
The procedure hangs when I start a batch file (even when I put an 'exit'
command
in the batch)...
See the code beneath...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------

unit consoleoutput;

interface

uses
  Controls, Windows, SysUtils, Forms;

function GetDosOutput(const CommandLine:string): string;

implementation

function GetDosOutput(const CommandLine:string): string;
var
  SA: TSecurityAttributes;
  SI: TStartupInfo;
  PI: TProcessInformation;
  StdOutPipeRead, StdOutPipeWrite: THandle;
  WasOK: Boolean;
  Buffer: array[0..255] of Char;
  BytesRead: Cardinal;
  WorkDir, Line: String;
begin
  Application.ProcessMessages;
  with SA do
  begin
    nLength := SizeOf(SA);
    bInheritHandle := True;
    lpSecurityDescriptor := nil;
  end;
  // create pipe for standard output redirection
  CreatePipe(StdOutPipeRead,  // read handle
             StdOutPipeWrite, // write handle
             @SA,             // security attributes
             0                // number of bytes reserved for pipe - 0
default
             );
  try
    // Make child process use StdOutPipeWrite as standard out,
    // and make sure it does not show on screen.
    with SI do
    begin
      FillChar(SI, SizeOf(SI), 0);
      cb := SizeOf(SI);
      dwFlags := STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW or STARTF_USESTDHANDLES;
      wShowWindow := SW_HIDE;
      hStdInput := GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE); // don't redirect std
input
      hStdOutput := StdOutPipeWrite;
      hStdError := StdOutPipeWrite;
    end;

    // launch the command line compiler
    WorkDir := ExtractFilePath(CommandLine);
    WasOK := CreateProcess(nil, PChar(CommandLine), nil, nil, True, 0, nil,
PChar(WorkDir), SI, PI);

    // Now that the handle has been inherited, close write to be safe.
    // We don't want to read or write to it accidentally.
    CloseHandle(StdOutPipeWrite);
    // if process could be created then handle its output
    if not WasOK then
      raise Exception.Create('Could not execute command line!')
    else
      try
        // get all output until dos app finishes
        Line := '';
        repeat
          // read block of characters (might contain carriage returns and
line feeds)
          WasOK := ReadFile(StdOutPipeRead, Buffer, 255, BytesRead, nil);

          // has anything been read?
          if BytesRead > 0 then
          begin
            // finish buffer to PChar
            Buffer[BytesRead] := #0;
            // combine the buffer with the rest of the last run
            Line := Line + Buffer;
          end;
        until not WasOK or (BytesRead = 0);
        // wait for console app to finish (should be already at this point)
        WaitForSingleObject(PI.hProcess, INFINITE);
      finally
        // Close all remaining handles
        CloseHandle(PI.hThread);
        CloseHandle(PI.hProcess);
      end;
  finally
      result:=Line;
      CloseHandle(StdOutPipeRead);
  end;
end;

end.