ProcessStartInfo hanging on "WaitForExit"? Why?

Question

The problem is that if you redirect StandardOutput and/or StandardError the internal buffer can become full. Whatever order you use, there can be a problem:

• If you wait for the process to exit before reading StandardOutput the process can block trying to write to it, so the process never ends.
• If you read from StandardOutput using ReadToEnd then your process can block if the process never closes StandardOutput (for example if it never terminates, or if it is blocked writing to StandardError).

The solution is to use asynchronous reads to ensure that the buffer doesn't get full. To avoid any deadlocks and collect up all output from both StandardOutput and StandardError you can do this:

EDIT: See answers below for how avoid an ObjectDisposedException if the timeout occurs.

using (Process process = new Process())
{
    process.StartInfo.FileName = filename;
    process.StartInfo.Arguments = arguments;
    process.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
    process.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
    process.StartInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;

    StringBuilder output = new StringBuilder();
    StringBuilder error = new StringBuilder();

    using (AutoResetEvent outputWaitHandle = new AutoResetEvent(false))
    using (AutoResetEvent errorWaitHandle = new AutoResetEvent(false))
    {
        process.OutputDataReceived += (sender, e) => {
            if (e.Data == null)
            {
                outputWaitHandle.Set();
            }
            else
            {
                output.AppendLine(e.Data);
            }
        };
        process.ErrorDataReceived += (sender, e) =>
        {
            if (e.Data == null)
            {
                errorWaitHandle.Set();
            }
            else
            {
                error.AppendLine(e.Data);
            }
        };

        process.Start();

        process.BeginOutputReadLine();
        process.BeginErrorReadLine();

        if (process.WaitForExit(timeout) &&
            outputWaitHandle.WaitOne(timeout) &&
            errorWaitHandle.WaitOne(timeout))
        {
            // Process completed. Check process.ExitCode here.
        }
        else
        {
            // Timed out.
        }
    }
}

The documentation for Process.StandardOutput says to read before you wait otherwise you can deadlock, snippet copied below:

 // Start the child process.
 Process p = new Process();
 // Redirect the output stream of the child process.
 p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
 p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
 p.StartInfo.FileName = "Write500Lines.exe";
 p.Start();
 // Do not wait for the child process to exit before
 // reading to the end of its redirected stream.
 // p.WaitForExit();
 // Read the output stream first and then wait.
 string output = p.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
 p.WaitForExit();

This is a more modern awaitable, Task Parallel Library (TPL) based solution for .NET 4.5 and above.

Usage Example

try
{
    var exitCode = await StartProcess(
        "dotnet", 
        "--version", 
        @"C:\",
        10000, 
        Console.Out, 
        Console.Out);
    Console.WriteLine($"Process Exited with Exit Code {exitCode}!");
}
catch (TaskCanceledException)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Process Timed Out!");
}

Implementation

public static async Task<int> StartProcess(
    string filename,
    string arguments,
    string workingDirectory= null,
    int? timeout = null,
    TextWriter outputTextWriter = null,
    TextWriter errorTextWriter = null)
{
    using (var process = new Process()
    {
        StartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo()
        {
            CreateNoWindow = true,
            Arguments = arguments,
            FileName = filename,
            RedirectStandardOutput = outputTextWriter != null,
            RedirectStandardError = errorTextWriter != null,
            UseShellExecute = false,
            WorkingDirectory = workingDirectory
        }
    })
    {
        var cancellationTokenSource = timeout.HasValue ?
            new CancellationTokenSource(timeout.Value) :
            new CancellationTokenSource();

        process.Start();

        var tasks = new List<Task>(3) { process.WaitForExitAsync(cancellationTokenSource.Token) };
        if (outputTextWriter != null)
        {
            tasks.Add(ReadAsync(
                x =>
                {
                    process.OutputDataReceived += x;
                    process.BeginOutputReadLine();
                },
                x => process.OutputDataReceived -= x,
                outputTextWriter,
                cancellationTokenSource.Token));
        }

        if (errorTextWriter != null)
        {
            tasks.Add(ReadAsync(
                x =>
                {
                    process.ErrorDataReceived += x;
                    process.BeginErrorReadLine();
                },
                x => process.ErrorDataReceived -= x,
                errorTextWriter,
                cancellationTokenSource.Token));
        }

        await Task.WhenAll(tasks);
        return process.ExitCode;
    }
}

/// <summary>
/// Waits asynchronously for the process to exit.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="process">The process to wait for cancellation.</param>
/// <param name="cancellationToken">A cancellation token. If invoked, the task will return
/// immediately as cancelled.</param>
/// <returns>A Task representing waiting for the process to end.</returns>
public static Task WaitForExitAsync(
    this Process process,
    CancellationToken cancellationToken = default(CancellationToken))
{
    process.EnableRaisingEvents = true;

    var taskCompletionSource = new TaskCompletionSource<object>();

    EventHandler handler = null;
    handler = (sender, args) =>
    {
        process.Exited -= handler;
        taskCompletionSource.TrySetResult(null);
    };
    process.Exited += handler;

    if (cancellationToken != default(CancellationToken))
    {
        cancellationToken.Register(
            () =>
            {
                process.Exited -= handler;
                taskCompletionSource.TrySetCanceled();
            });
    }

    return taskCompletionSource.Task;
}

/// <summary>
/// Reads the data from the specified data recieved event and writes it to the
/// <paramref name="textWriter"/>.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="addHandler">Adds the event handler.</param>
/// <param name="removeHandler">Removes the event handler.</param>
/// <param name="textWriter">The text writer.</param>
/// <param name="cancellationToken">The cancellation token.</param>
/// <returns>A task representing the asynchronous operation.</returns>
public static Task ReadAsync(
    this Action<DataReceivedEventHandler> addHandler,
    Action<DataReceivedEventHandler> removeHandler,
    TextWriter textWriter,
    CancellationToken cancellationToken = default(CancellationToken))
{
    var taskCompletionSource = new TaskCompletionSource<object>();

    DataReceivedEventHandler handler = null;
    handler = new DataReceivedEventHandler(
        (sender, e) =>
        {
            if (e.Data == null)
            {
                removeHandler(handler);
                taskCompletionSource.TrySetResult(null);
            }
            else
            {
                textWriter.WriteLine(e.Data);
            }
        });

    addHandler(handler);

    if (cancellationToken != default(CancellationToken))
    {
        cancellationToken.Register(
            () =>
            {
                removeHandler(handler);
                taskCompletionSource.TrySetCanceled();
            });
    }

    return taskCompletionSource.Task;
}

Mark Byers' answer is excellent, but I would just add the following:

The OutputDataReceived and ErrorDataReceived delegates need to be removed before the outputWaitHandle and errorWaitHandle get disposed. If the process continues to output data after the timeout has been exceeded and then terminates, the outputWaitHandle and errorWaitHandle variables will be accessed after being disposed.

(FYI I had to add this caveat as an answer as I couldn't comment on his post.)

The problem with unhandled ObjectDisposedException happens when the process is timed out. In such case the other parts of the condition:

if (process.WaitForExit(timeout) 
    && outputWaitHandle.WaitOne(timeout) 
    && errorWaitHandle.WaitOne(timeout))

are not executed. I resolved this problem in a following way:

using (AutoResetEvent outputWaitHandle = new AutoResetEvent(false))
using (AutoResetEvent errorWaitHandle = new AutoResetEvent(false))
{
    using (Process process = new Process())
    {
        // preparing ProcessStartInfo

        try
        {
            process.OutputDataReceived += (sender, e) =>
                {
                    if (e.Data == null)
                    {
                        outputWaitHandle.Set();
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        outputBuilder.AppendLine(e.Data);
                    }
                };
            process.ErrorDataReceived += (sender, e) =>
                {
                    if (e.Data == null)
                    {
                        errorWaitHandle.Set();
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        errorBuilder.AppendLine(e.Data);
                    }
                };

            process.Start();

            process.BeginOutputReadLine();
            process.BeginErrorReadLine();

            if (process.WaitForExit(timeout))
            {
                exitCode = process.ExitCode;
            }
            else
            {
                // timed out
            }

            output = outputBuilder.ToString();
        }
        finally
        {
            outputWaitHandle.WaitOne(timeout);
            errorWaitHandle.WaitOne(timeout);
        }
    }
}