Process.Start(“echo”, “%cd%”) throws W32Exception File Not Found

Question

When I try to do Process.Start("echo", "%cd%") it raises a System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: The system cannot find the file specified. When I do this manually in cmd it just works like it should. I never knew that there's a difference...

Also, when I do File.Exists(logfile.txt) (w/o path) of a file that should definitely be there, it returns false. This is btw the reason for the echo above: debugging...

This error doesn't occur on my developement machine, only on another one where I am testing on.

The Path variable looks normal. Both are WinXP. Both are running .NET 3.5

Answer 1

Try Process.Start("cmd.exe", "/c echo %CD%")

as far as echo is not an executable but a command inside.

Answer 2

You can use System.Environment.CurrentDirectory if you want to pass the working directory of your application to cmd. AFAIK %CD% is internal to cmd, that's why Process.Start won't expand it. For ordinary environment variables you can use Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables.

Answer 3

This is because echo is a console command, not an application - it isn't housed in an executable file of its own.

As for your file existence issue, if you just use the file name without the path then it will look in the working directory, this could be different to the directory containing the executing application, and completely different to where you think the files ought to be - you should fully qualify your paths after making yourself aware of the applications configuration.