Combining two executables

Question

I have a command line executable that alters some bits in a file that i want to use from my program. Is it possible to create my own executable that uses this tool and distribute only one executable?

[edit] Clarification:

The command line tool takes an offset and some bits and changes the bits at this offset in a given file. So I want to create a patcher for an application that changes specific bits to a specific value, so what I can do i write something like a batch file to do it but i want to create an executable that does it, i.e. embed the tool into a wrapper program that calls it with specific values.

I can code wrapper in (windows) c\c++, asm but no .net please.

Answer 1

The easiest way is to embed this exe into your own and write it to disk to run it.

Answer 2

You can add the executable as a binary stream resource in your executable and when you need it you can extract it in a temporary folder and create new process with the temporary file.

The exact code you need to do this depends on whether you are writing .Net or C++ code.

Answer 3

Short answer: No.

Less short answer: Not unless it's an installer or a self extracting archive executeable.

Longer, speculative answer: If the file system supports alternate data streams, you could possibly add a stream containing the utility to your program, then your program could access it's own alternate data stream, extracting the utility when you need it. Ahaha.

Answer 4

You could append the one executable onto the end of the other and write some code to unpack it to a temporary folder.

I've done a similar thing before but with a configuration file and some bitmaps appended to an EXE in Windows. The way I did it was to firstly append my stuff onto the end of the EXE and then write a little struct after that which contains the file offset of the data which in your case would be the offset of the 2nd exe.

When running your app, seek to the end of the file minus the size of the struct, extract the file offset and copy the 2nd exe to a temporary folder, then launch it.

OK, here is a little more details as requestd. This is some pseudo-code to create the combined EXE. This is a little utility you run after compiling your main EXE:

Open destination file
Open main exe as a binary file
Copy main exe to destination file
offset = size of main exe
Open 2nd exe as a binary file
Copy 2nd exe to the output file
Write the offset to the output file

Now for the extraction procedure. This goes in your main EXE:

Find the location of our own EXE file (GetModuleFileName() under Windows)
Open the file in binary mode
Seek to the end minus sizeof(offset) (typically 4 bytes)
Read the offset value
Seek to the offset position
Open a temporary file in binary mode
Read bytes from the main EXE and write to the temporary file
Launch the temporary file

Answer 5

It would be easier to roll your own implementation of this program than to write the wrapper; it sounds like it is trivial -- just open the file, seek to the right location, write your bits, close the file, you're done.

Answer 6

I think the easiest way to do this for your purposes is probably to use a self extracting executable package. For example, use a tool like Paquet Builder which will package the exe (and any other files you want) and can be configured to call the exe or a batch file or whatever else you want when the user unpacks the self-extracting executable.

Answer 7

If the exe was built to be relocatable (essentiall linker flag /fixed:no), you can actually do a LoadLibrary on it, get the base address, set up a call chain and call (jump) into it. It would not be worth the effort, and very few exe's are built this way so you would have to have the code to rebuild it, at which point you wouldn't be in this exercise.

So... No.

I'm more intrigued by the developer who doesn't mind writing in C/C++/asm, but 'not .net' - but is apparently stymied by fopen/fseek/fwrite - since that's about all the program you describe sounds like it's doing.

Answer 8

I think this is also possible by using AutoIt's FileInstall function. For this you'll have to setup AutoIt, create a script with the FileInstall function to include the who exe's and then use f.i. the function RunWait to execute them. Compile to an exe and you should be done.