Question

I would like to ask a few questions:

•How to execute the command “C:\strawberry\perl\bin\perl.exe C:\temp\bin\mactime.pl -b C:\temp\bin\testing.bodyfile -z UCT-8 > C:\temp\bin\testing2.txt” in a C# console program?

•How do I display the results of the console? Should I use “console.writeline”?

The mactime.pl is from “The Sleuth Kit” windows.

The command works perfectly on the normal command prompt. The C# console program executes with errors of:

“Can’t open C:\temp\bin\testing.bodyfile -z UCT-8 >C:\temp\bin\testing2.txt at C:\temp\bin\mactime.pl line 282.”

and does not disply any results. There is no “testing2.txt” being generated after the program was executed.

The following are my codes:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.Win32;
using System.Diagnostics;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
class Program
{
   static void Main(string[] args)
   {
       LaunchCommandLineApp(); 
   }   

   static void LaunchCommandLineApp()
{
    // For the example
    const string ex1 = "C:\\temp\\bin\\mactime.pl";
    const string ex2 = "C:\\temp\\bin\\testing.bodyfile";
    const string ex3 = "C:\\temp\\bin\\testing2.txt";

    // Use ProcessStartInfo class
    ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
    startInfo.CreateNoWindow = false;
    startInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
    startInfo.FileName = "C:\\strawberry\\perl\\bin\\perl.exe";
    startInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
    startInfo.Arguments = "\"" + ex1 + "\" -b " + ex2 + "\" -z UCT-8 >" + ex3;

    try
    {
        // Start the process with the info we specified.
        // Call WaitForExit and then the using statement will close.
        using (Process exeProcess  = Process.Start(startInfo))
        {
            exeProcess.WaitForExit();
        }
    }
    catch
    {
        // Log error.
    }
  }
  }
  }

Mactime.pl Arguments:

mactime [-b body_file] [-p password_file] [-g group_file] [-i day|hour idx_file]
[-d] [-h] [-V] [-y] [-z TIME_ZONE] [DATE]
-b: Specifies the body file location, else STDIN is used
-d: Output timeline and index file in comma delimited format
-h: Display a header with session information
-i [day | hour] file: Specifies the index file with a summary of results

    -g: Specifies the group file location, else GIDs are used
    -p: Specifies the password file location, else UIDs are used
    -V: Prints the version to STDOUT
    -y: Dates have year first (yyyy/mm/dd) instead of (mm/dd/yyyy)
    -m: Dates have month as number instead of word (can be used with -y)
    -z: Specify the timezone the data came from (in the local system format)

    [DATE]: starting date (yyyy-mm-dd) or range (yyyy-mm-dd..yyyy-mm-dd)

Answer 1

Fix the arguments. On your code it currently looks like:

“C:\temp\bin\mactime.pl” -b C:\temp\bin\testing.bodyfile” -z UCT-8 >C:\temp\bin\testing2.txt

Notice the unmatched " and there’s no space after >.
Change that into:

startInfo.Arguments = "\"" + ex1 + "\" -b \"" + ex2 + "\" -z UCT-8 > \"" + ex3 + "\"";

Its now like:

“C:\temp\bin\mactime.pl” -b “C:\temp\bin\testing.bodyfile” -z UCT-8 > “C:\temp\bin\testing2.txt”