Running command line silently with VbScript and getting output?
I am pretty new to all of this, but I found that if the script is started via CScript.exe (console scripting host) there is no window popping up on exec(): so when running:
cscript myscript.vbs //nologo
any .Exec() calls in the myscript.vbs do not open an extra window, meaning that you can use the first variant of your original solution (using exec).
(Note that the two forward slashes in the above code are intentional, see cscript /?)
I have taken this and various other comments and created a bit more advanced function for running an application and getting the output.
Example to Call Function: Will output the DIR list of C:\ for Directories only. The output will be returned to the variable CommandResults as well as remain in C:\OUTPUT.TXT.
CommandResults = vFn_Sys_Run_CommandOutput("CMD.EXE /C DIR C:\ /AD",1,1,"C:\OUTPUT.TXT",0,1)
Function
Function vFn_Sys_Run_CommandOutput (Command, Wait, Show, OutToFile, DeleteOutput, NoQuotes)
'Run Command similar to the command prompt, for Wait use 1 or 0. Output returned and
'stored in a file.
'Command = The command line instruction you wish to run.
'Wait = 1/0; 1 will wait for the command to finish before continuing.
'Show = 1/0; 1 will show for the command window.
'OutToFile = The file you wish to have the output recorded to.
'DeleteOutput = 1/0; 1 deletes the output file. Output is still returned to variable.
'NoQuotes = 1/0; 1 will skip wrapping the command with quotes, some commands wont work
' if you wrap them in quotes.
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Error Resume Next
'On Error Goto 0
Set f_objShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
Set f_objFso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Const ForReading = 1, ForWriting = 2, ForAppending = 8
'VARIABLES
If OutToFile = "" Then OutToFile = "TEMP.TXT"
tCommand = Command
If Left(Command,1)<>"""" And NoQuotes <> 1 Then tCommand = """" & Command & """"
tOutToFile = OutToFile
If Left(OutToFile,1)<>"""" Then tOutToFile = """" & OutToFile & """"
If Wait = 1 Then tWait = True
If Wait <> 1 Then tWait = False
If Show = 1 Then tShow = 1
If Show <> 1 Then tShow = 0
'RUN PROGRAM
f_objShell.Run tCommand & ">" & tOutToFile, tShow, tWait
'READ OUTPUT FOR RETURN
Set f_objFile = f_objFso.OpenTextFile(OutToFile, 1)
tMyOutput = f_objFile.ReadAll
f_objFile.Close
Set f_objFile = Nothing
'DELETE FILE AND FINISH FUNCTION
If DeleteOutput = 1 Then
Set f_objFile = f_objFso.GetFile(OutToFile)
f_objFile.Delete
Set f_objFile = Nothing
End If
vFn_Sys_Run_CommandOutput = tMyOutput
If Err.Number <> 0 Then vFn_Sys_Run_CommandOutput = "<0>"
Err.Clear
On Error Goto 0
Set f_objFile = Nothing
Set f_objShell = Nothing
End Function
You can redirect output to a file and then read the file:
return = WshShell.Run("cmd /c C:\snmpset -c ... > c:\temp\output.txt", 0, true)
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set file = fso.OpenTextFile("c:\temp\output.txt", 1)
text = file.ReadAll
file.Close