CreateProcessW

This crate provides an API similar to std::process to create and handle processes on Windows using the Win32 API through the windows-rs crate (see this example).

Its main difference with std::process::Command is that it allows running a command string instead of having to pass the command executable and the arguments separately.

This is equivalent of running:

std::process::Command::new("cmd.exe")
    .arg("/c")
    .arg("any_command_string")
    .spawn().expect("cannot spawn command");

The only difference will be that the Child instance will use the PID of the command instead of the PID of cmd.exe. This is important because calling .kill() in the code above does not work as it kills the PID of cmd.exe instead of the actual command that has been ran.

Usage

Add the following to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
CreateProcessW = "0.1.0"

This crate doesn't follow Rust's naming recommendations. If you want to stay consistent with other imported crates, use the following:

[dependencies]
create_process_w = { version = "0.1.0", package = "CreateProcessW" }

Create a command

The Command struct is used to configure and spawn processes:

use CreateProcessW::Command;

let command = Command::new("cargo.exe clippy -- -D warnings")
    .inherit_handles(true)
    .current_dir(r"C:\Users\<user>\repos\<repo_name>");

Spawning a process

The spawn function spawns the process and returns a Child that represents the spawned child process.

use CreateProcessW::Command;

let child = Command::new("notepad.exe")
    .spawn()
    .expect("notepad failed to start");


std::thread::sleep(std::time::Duration::from_secs(2));

child.kill().expect("cannot kill process");
let status = child.wait().expect("cannot wait process");

if status.success() {
    println!("Success!");
} else {
    println!("Process exited with status {}", status.code());
}

The status function spawns a child process, waits for it to finish and returns its ExitStatus.

use CreateProcessW::Command;

let status = Command::new("notepad.exe")
    .status()
    .expect("notepad failed to start");

if status.success() {
    println!("Success!")
} else {
    println!("Process exited with status {}", status.code())
}