Capturing console output from a .NET application (C#)

Question

How do I invoke a console application from my .NET application and capture all the output generated in the console?

(Remember, I don\'t want to save the information

Answer 1

ConsoleAppLauncher is an open source library made specifically to answer that question. It captures all the output generated in the console and provides simple interface to start and close console application.

The ConsoleOutput event is fired every time when a new line is written by the console to standard/error output. The lines are queued and guaranteed to follow the output order.

Also available as NuGet package.

Sample call to get full console output:

// Run simplest shell command and return its output.
public static string GetWindowsVersion()
{
    return ConsoleApp.Run("cmd", "/c ver").Output.Trim();
}

Sample with live feedback:

// Run ping.exe asynchronously and return roundtrip times back to the caller in a callback
public static void PingUrl(string url, Action replyHandler)
{
    var regex = new Regex("(time=|Average = )(?.*?ms)", RegexOptions.Compiled);
    var app = new ConsoleApp("ping", url);
    app.ConsoleOutput += (o, args) =>
    {
        var match = regex.Match(args.Line);
        if (match.Success)
        {
            var roundtripTime = match.Groups["time"].Value;
            replyHandler(roundtripTime);
        }
    };
    app.Run();
}