Can multiple autoit exe's (appear to ) write to the same console ?

[AJMegaughin]

I'd like to see all the console output from multiple exe's, in the same place, in realtime rather than written to a log

All the sample code I've found has one program spawning a second, and showing the console output from the child process.

Is there a way to have multiple programs write to the same console ?  (Or appear to)

Thanks !

AJM

[FrancescoDiMuro]

@AJMegaughin
Yes, it is possible
By the way, you can do it via GUI either, creating your custom console, instead of using Command Prompt.

[Danp2]

How about using OutputDebugString?

https://www.autoitscript.com/wiki/FAQ#OutputDebugString_native_call

[water]

Can you post or link to an example so the OP sees how it works?
Just "Yes, it is possible" is a bit lean

I do not know too much about this but I think that every exe (process) creates it's own console. To combine the output of multiple exe you would need to send them to some kind of console server using IPC.

[FrancescoDiMuro]

8 minutes ago, water said:

Just "Yes, it is possible" is a bit lean

Hey water
I know right!
By the way, I wanted to give him just a "Yes, it is possibile", since the OP hasn't been very clear about what kind of Console he was meaning, I wanted to be generic, even because I don't have so much spare time.
So, when the OP will be clearer, I'll be less generic as well

[JLogan3o13]

It is not best practice to have multiple exes writing to the same file unless you are using an application that supports multi-user access. As was mentioned you could create a third script that holds a GUI and try to capture the STDOut of the other two executables. If your true goal, however, is simply being able to see updates to a log file in real time, there are a number of easy options to accomplish this:

• powershell get-content xxx -tail -wait
• Enable silent update in Notepad++
• mtail (freeware)
• snaketail (freeware)

[orbs]

i once achieved the same goal while working on a project where multiple instances of my exe were running simultaneously (each processing a small portion of a an extremely large input data).

contrary to the OP preference of avoiding a log file, i did it with just that - i had all my instances writing to the same log file (with the help of this UDF to simulate file lock). i could do post-process analysis, i could also watch the log at real time using a tail utility (some mentioned in the post just above this).

[jdelaney]

If you don't combine the outputs logically, your output will be a garbled mess. the messages would come out as if you were shuffling 2 deck of cards into one.  you can see this for yourself by doing outputs in python with multiple threads.

Edited September 25, 2018 by jdelaney