Understanding $CmdLine

[jazzyjeff]

Hello,

I am trying to understand the $CmdLine array. My goal is to run scriptA.exe have it create a variable $varA and then run scriptB.exe and have scriptB.exe output $varA to a Msgbox. It isn't working though, so I am not getting how this works.

This is what I am trying:

ScriptA -

$varA = 'Test'
Run('d:\(x86)\AutoIt3\AutoIt3.exe "D:\AutoIT Script\CMDLINE\scriptB.au3"')

ScriptB -

If $CmdLine[0] = 0 Then
MsgBox(64, "Result", "No variable was found.")
Else
MsgBox(64, "Variable", $CmdLine[1] & $varA)
EndIf

If someone can help me understand why this isn't working, I'd appreciate it.

[water]

You have to pass $varA to the Run command as parameter.

[jazzyjeff]

How do I do that?

If I use this:

$varA = 'Test'
Run('d:(x86)AutoIt3AutoIt3.exe "D:AutoIT ScriptCMDLINEscriptB.au3" & $varA')

I just get an error opening the file.

[BrewManNH]

Run(@Autoitexe & '/AutoIt3ExecuteScript & "D:AutoIT ScriptCMDLINEscriptB.au3 "' & $varA)

Should work. Especially if the first program is already compiled, and if not will look for the autoit3.exe file and run that instead.

EDIT: forgot the code block

BTW, don't put variables inside the quotes, otherwise they become strings and not variables.

Edited October 5, 2012 by BrewManNH

[water]

A space is necessary between "scriptB.au3" and $varA as BrewManNH showed in his example.

[jazzyjeff]

Thanks for your help BrewManNH and Water.

So I compiled both scripts, because running them from Scite still wasn't working. However, even compiled the variable is never passed from scriptA to ScriptB.

Here are my compiled scripts:

ScriptA:

#Region ;**** Directives created by AutoIt3Wrapper_GUI ****
#AutoIt3Wrapper_Res_requestedExecutionLevel=asInvoker
#EndRegion ;**** Directives created by AutoIt3Wrapper_GUI ****
Global $varA = 'Test'
Run(@Autoitexe & '/AutoIt3ExecuteScript & "D:AutoIT ScriptCMDLINEscriptB.au3 "' & $varA)
Run('"D:AutoIT ScriptCMDLINEscriptB.exe "' & $varA)

ScriptB:

#Region ;**** Directives created by AutoIt3Wrapper_GUI ****
#AutoIt3Wrapper_Res_requestedExecutionLevel=asInvoker
#EndRegion ;**** Directives created by AutoIt3Wrapper_GUI ****
Global $varA
If $CmdLine[0] = 0 Then
MsgBox(64, "Result", "No variable was found.")
Else
MsgBox(64, "Variable", $CmdLine[1] & @CR & $varA)
EndIf
MsgBox(0,"",$varA)

Maybe if I understood what is happening better I could figure this out.

So I first declare a variable in Script A

I then run ScriptB using Run("ScriptB.exe " & varA) and at the end I place the variable that I want transferred.

Now I'm confused. How does this variable become recognised by ScriptB? What does CmdLine do to store the variable in it's array, or how does it store it in it's array?

Maybe it doesn't and that may explain why this isn't working because I am way off track.

Edited October 5, 2012 by jazzyjeff

[jazzyjeff]

Thanks Water. i did notice that after typing this and I did put a space in, but the variable is still never transferred to scriptB. In fact if I don't compile ScriptA, scriptB doesn't appear to even run.

[BrewManNH]

What does the msgbox in script B show when you run it?

[water]

$varA in ScriptB will always be empty because you never assign a value to the variable.

[jazzyjeff]

The first box I see says "No variable found" which must be because there are values stored in $CmdLine. The 2nd Msgbox is empty because $varA doesn't have a value.

:-) I get what your saying Water and I see why $varA has no value because I don't assign anything to it. What's missing to get $varA from scriptA to scriptB? I've tried assign $cmdline[1] to the value of $varA, but that doesn't work either.

I know I could always do a FileWrite and have the variable sent to a txt file and have the other script read the txt file and then delete it. It just seems like it'd be cooler to just have the variable passed between the scripts though.

[BrewManNH]

Small problem in the post I made, the spaces/quotes are in the wrong place. I hadn't tested it because I'm at work and in the middle of something, but got a few minutes to tweak it.

Here's the corrected code.

; ScriptA
#Region ;**** Directives created by AutoIt3Wrapper_GUI ****
#AutoIt3Wrapper_Res_requestedExecutionLevel=asInvoker
#EndRegion ;**** Directives created by AutoIt3Wrapper_GUI ****
Global $varA = 'Test'
Run(@Autoitexe & ' /AutoIt3ExecuteScript ' & '"scriptB.au3" ' & $varA) ; space needed AFTER the double quote and before the single quote
Run('"D:AutoIT ScriptCMDLINEscriptB.exe" ' & $varA)

; ScriptB
#region ;**** Directives created by AutoIt3Wrapper_GUI ****
#AutoIt3Wrapper_Res_requestedExecutionLevel=asInvoker
#endregion ;**** Directives created by AutoIt3Wrapper_GUI ****
Global $varA
If $CmdLine[0] = 0 Then
     MsgBox(64, "Result", "No variable was found.")
Else
     $varA = $CmdLine[1] ; assign the passed parameter to $varA
     MsgBox(64, "Variable", "$CmdLine[1] = " & $CmdLine[1] & @CR & "$varA = " & $varA)
EndIf
MsgBox(0, "", $varA)

[jazzyjeff]

Ah man that was such a basic oversight on my part! I'm sorry you spent time on that, but I totally appreciate it.

It works.

Water, BrewmanNH, thank you both. I feel like I understand how this works now. This will be really cool for developing/improving my other scripts.

[water]

BrewmanNH was too fast. Just wanted to post a similar code.

Glad it works for you now!

Edited October 5, 2012 by water

[BrewManNH]

When dealing with quotes for a command line for Run/ShellExecute etc., I find that the easiest way to tell if the command line is correct is to use a ConsoleWrite on the command's parameters and run it from SciTE, if it looks ok there, then I know I've gotten the quotes/spaces right. Which is how I found out that the space was in the wrong place originally.

This:

@Autoitexe & ' /AutoIt3ExecuteScript ' & '"scriptB.au3" ' & $varA = F:PortableAutoIt3.3.8Appautoit3.exe /AutoIt3ExecuteScript "scriptB.au3" Test

Is what is should look like.

This:

@Autoitexe & '/AutoIt3ExecuteScript & "D:AutoIT ScriptCMDLINEscriptB.au3 "' & $varA = F:PortableAutoIt3.3.8Appautoit3.exe/AutoIt3ExecuteScript & "D:AutoIT ScriptCMDLINEscriptB.au3 "Test

Is what it looked like from what I posted the first time.

[water]

Another suggestion:

Write the Return Value plus the content of the macros @error and @extended to the console after each function call.

Global $iResult = Run(@Autoitexe & ' /AutoIt3ExecuteScript ' & '"scriptB.au3" ' & $varA)
ConsoleWrite("Return value: " & $iResult & ", @error: " & @error & ", @extended: " & @extended & @CRLF)

Run gets the PID of the started process. If you get 0 then there was an error. This makes sure you start to search at the right location and get all the information necessary for debugging.

[jazzyjeff]

Thanks for the tips fellas. All good things to know.