Wait till a process ends

Question

I've an application which does

Process.Start()

to start another application 'ABC'. I want to wait till that application ends (process dies) and continue my execution. How can i do it?

There may be multiple instances of the application 'ABC' running at the same time.

Any insights?

Answer 1

Use Process.WaitForExit? Or subscribe to the Process.Exited event if you don't want to block? If that doesn't do what you want, please give us more information about your requirements.

Answer 2

I think you just want this:

var process = Process.Start(...);
process.WaitForExit();

See the MSDN page for the method. It also has an overload where you can specify the timeout, so you're not potentially waiting forever.

Answer 3

Process.WaitForExit should be just what you're looking for I think.

Answer 4

You could use wait for exit or you can catch the HasExited property and update your UI to keep the user "informed" (expectation management):

        System.Diagnostics.Process process = System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("cmd.exe");
        while (!process.HasExited)
        {
            //update UI
        }
        //done

Answer 5

I do the following in my Application:

Process process = new Process();
process.StartInfo.FileName = executable;
process.StartInfo.Arguments = arguments;
process.StartInfo.ErrorDialog = true;
process.StartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Minimized;
process.Start();
process.WaitForExit(1000 * 60 * 5);    // wait up to 5 minutes.

There are few extra features in there which you might find useful...