Equivalent to Process.Start() without separate arguments

Question

I'm writing a simple application that's required to run arbitrary commands, for example:

powershell -File myscript.ps1
cmd /C "ping localhost"

Process.Start() would be perfect except it requires the arguments be given as a separate parameter. Initially I thought I could just split the string on the first space character, but then what if the executable path is quoted and contains spaces? Is there something like Process.Start() which allows you to just give it a string, with or without arguments, and just have it execute it as if it was pasted to a command prompt?

Answer 1

Why don't you just run everything through cmd /C?

Process.Start("cmd", "/C " + command);

Answer 2

Just call the CreateProcess function directly:

public static class Native
{
    [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
    private struct STARTUPINFO
    {
        public Int32 cb;
        public string lpReserved;
        public string lpDesktop;
        public string lpTitle;
        public Int32 dwX;
        public Int32 dwY;
        public Int32 dwXSize;
        public Int32 dwYSize;
        public Int32 dwXCountChars;
        public Int32 dwYCountChars;
        public Int32 dwFillAttribute;
        public Int32 dwFlags;
        public Int16 wShowWindow;
        public Int16 cbReserved2;
        public IntPtr lpReserved2;
        public IntPtr hStdInput;
        public IntPtr hStdOutput;
        public IntPtr hStdError;
    }

    [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
    private struct PROCESS_INFORMATION
    {
        public IntPtr hProcess;
        public IntPtr hThread;
        public int dwProcessId;
        public int dwThreadId;
    }

    [DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
    private static extern bool CreateProcess(
        string lpApplicationName,
        string lpCommandLine,
        IntPtr lpProcessAttributes,
        IntPtr lpThreadAttributes,
        bool bInheritHandles,
        uint dwCreationFlags,
        IntPtr lpEnvironment,
        string lpCurrentDirectory,
        [In] ref STARTUPINFO lpStartupInfo,
        out PROCESS_INFORMATION lpProcessInformation);

    public static void CreateProcessFromCommandLine(string commandLine)
    {
        var si = new STARTUPINFO();
        var pi = new PROCESS_INFORMATION();

        CreateProcess(
            null,
            commandLine,
            IntPtr.Zero,
            IntPtr.Zero,
            false,
            0,
            IntPtr.Zero,
            null,
            ref si,
            out pi);
    }
}

internal class Program
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        Native.CreateProcessFromCommandLine("ping google.com -t");

        Console.Read();
    }
}