reinitiating a exe program

utpalmtbi has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi Monks..

I have a script.exe prgram that works on many files in a directory and save the output of each file in a different directory. This program shows a minor error message in screen (due to lack of a supporting file, and which cant be fixed) after each file processing.. To remove the error and start the process again I have to press (Tab+Enter) and then (Ctrl+R) + means I have to press those keys simultaneously.. but as I have thousands of input files, I suppose to do it for that many times..

I am wondering if there is any way to put those keys in whenever the program shows the error message ...

Thanks

Comment on reinitiating a exe program

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Re: reinitiating a exe program by marto (Cardinal) on Jun 21, 2013 at 13:41 UTC
You could use Win32::GuiTest to monitor for these error messages (see the `FindWindowLike`/`WaitWindowLike`/`WMGetText` methods) then send the specific key sequences (the `SendKeys` method). See also Win32::GuiTest::Examples Update: mentioned other methods. Added link to Win32::GuiTest::Examples	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: reinitiating a exe program by zork42 (Monk) on Jun 21, 2013 at 15:51 UTC
What platform are you using? Is it a command line script? (Or does it have a command line mode?) = many solutions available, like pipes, etc or does it have a GUI? If Windows + GUI then: what marto said :)	[reply]
Re^2: reinitiating a exe program by utpalmtbi (Acolyte) on Jun 21, 2013 at 16:36 UTC
@zork42 .. I am using a windows 7 machine and the exe script can be run through command line	[reply]
Re^3: reinitiating a exe program by zork42 (Monk) on Jun 22, 2013 at 08:39 UTC
It might be worth ignoring all of the following and instead concentrating on marto's post on using Win32::GuiTest ! I've used Win32::GuiTest and I know it can do the sort of things you want. But the following might be of interest so I've posted it. ================================================================ I'm afraid I have not played with IPC, also Windows does not implement some functions. If you run your script from the command line, do you still need to press (Tab+Enter) and then (Ctrl+R)? Before you try anything complicated you might want to try piping stuff in to and out of the script on the command line to see what you can achieve with dos's < > and \|. eg can you pipe the equivalent of (Tab+Enter) and then (Ctrl+R) into the script somehow? If it turns out that you need to send (Tab+Enter) and then (Ctrl+R) using Win32::GuiTest then it still might be worth monitoring the output of the script to see what it's done, and when to send the keys. (But Win32::GuiTest can do useful related stuff) These might be useful: system() Backquoted string open() command as filehandle for output open() command as filehandle for input After that it gets very complicated, and all I can really offer is a bunch of things to read. And as I said some of this stuff is not implemented under Windows. perlopentut: tutorial on opening things in Perl perlopentut: Pipe-Opens perlipc: Using-open()-for-IPC perlipc: Bidirectional-Communication-with-Another-Process perlfaq8: System Interaction IPC::Open2: open a process for both reading and writing using open2() IPC::Open3: open a process for reading, writing, and error handling using open3() perlport: Writing portable Perl perlport: Writing portable Perl - DOS-and-Derivatives perlfunc "Functions for processes and process groups alarm, exec, fork, getpgrp, getppid, getpriority, kill, pipe, qx//, readpipe, setpgrp, setpriority, sleep, system, times, wait, waitpid" (These are the sort of functions that Windows might not implement)	[reply]

It might be worth ignoring all of the following and instead concentrating on marto's post on using Win32::GuiTest !