Dear Monks,

I am attempting to execute a windows program that expects input from the user once started. I have tried using system and pass the value as one of the arguments, but this did not work because the program will not accept this data as a parameter.

The program in question is "runas". It is run like this: 

runas /user:username "command to execute"

[download]

Once that command is started, it prompts for a password. The design of the tool does not allow the password to be passed as a parameter. (I am on Windows 2000)

I have tried this without success: 

system('runas /user:username "net localgroup administrators %username%
+@%userdnsdomain% /ADD"', 'password');

[download]

The response I get is:
*Enter password for oitcontractor\administrator:RUNAS ERROR: Unable to accept input
*'administrator' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

So then I thought I should try putting the password in backticks on the next line, and that doesn't work either. I know this is a long post for what should be a short question, but I wanted to show you that I have tried to solve this before asking you.

I did a supersearch for "windows program input" and found this, which mentions Win32::Console but I have not been able to figure out how to use it. Can anyone confirm that Win32::Console can accomplish this and point me to some decent examples. I read the perldoc on it and I am a bit confused. If it cannot then are there any other solutions?

Thanks, disciple

In reply to Pass expected input to Windows program by disciple

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