Running another program in Windows bat file and not create child process

Question

I have subversion server with a post-commit hook to do something.

I want the checkin finish soon, not wait the hook script. But by design, the Subversion post-commit hook script will run until all child process exit, so using somthing like:

start another_prog...

in the hook bat file has no use.

So I want to know how to run another program in Windows bat file which not create child process or let the child process detach from the parent.

Answer 1

Synchronous. The second notepad won't launch until you close the first.

notepad.exe c:\temp\a.txt
notepad.exe c:\temp\b.txt

Asynchronous: The second notepad will launch even if you haven't closed the first.

start notepad.exe c:\temp\a.txt
start notepad.exe c:\temp\b.txt

More info about the start command:
http://www.robvanderwoude.com/ntstart.php

EDIT: The following comment was made elsewhere by @zhongshu, the original poster. I'm only copying it here:

start cmd /c doesn't work because SVN post-commit hook will wait for the hook and the child process created by the hook exit. It's the design of SVN. I have found a solution, Please refer: http://svn.haxx.se/users/archive-2008-11/0301.shtml

Assuming that he knows what he's talking about, I'm wrong and...undeserving.

Answer 2

I found a method to resolve my question, compile the following c code and named the exe output as runjob.exe, and then in the hook bat file, use " runjob another_prog " , now it's ok.

#include <windows.h> 
#include <stdio.h> 
#include <tchar.h> 
int _tmain() 
{ 
    char * pCmd = ::GetCommandLine(); 
    // skip the executable 
    if (*pCmd++ == L'"')
    {
        while (*pCmd++ != L'"'); 
    }
    else 
    {
        while (*pCmd != NULL && *pCmd != L' ') 
            ++pCmd; 
    }

    while (*pCmd == L' ')
        pCmd++; 

    STARTUPINFO si; 
    ZeroMemory( &si, sizeof(si) ); 
    si.cb = sizeof(si); 
    PROCESS_INFORMATION pi; 
    ZeroMemory( &pi, sizeof(pi) ); 

    // Start the child process. 
    BOOL result = CreateProcess 
    ( 
        NULL, // No module name (use command line) 
        pCmd, // Command line 
        NULL, // Process handle not inheritable 
        NULL, // Thread handle not inheritable 
        FALSE, // Set bInheritHandles to FALSE 
        DETACHED_PROCESS, // Detach process 
        NULL, // Use parent's environment block 
        NULL, // Use parent's starting directory 
        &si, // Pointer to STARTUPINFO structure 
        &pi // Pointer to PROCESS_INFORMATION structure (returned) 
    ); 
    if (result) return 0; 

    char msg[2048]; 
    FormatMessage 
    ( 
        FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_SYSTEM, 
        NULL, 
        ::GetLastError(), 
        MAKELANGID(LANG_NEUTRAL, SUBLANG_SYS_DEFAULT), 
        msg, sizeof(msg), 
        NULL 
    ); 
    fputs(msg, stderr); 
    _flushall(); 

    return -1; 
}