String exception when using wmic

Question

I am trying to send a VLC instance using wmic. I am doing this mainly because I want to capture the pid of the created process.

I know that the command below works fine from the command line:

C:\PROGRA~1\VideoLAN\VLC_117\vlc.exe rtsp://abcd --sout="#duplicate{dst=display, dst={std{access=file, mux=ps, dst='vlc_117/video.mpg'}}} --rtsp-caching=120 --no-video-title-show"

(where rtsp: // abcd can be any input file for the purposes of this example)

Trying to run it through wmic with various different attempts as escape sequences (of which below: 1):

wmic process create 'C:\PROGRA~1\VideoLAN\VLC_117\vlc.exe rtsp://abcd --sout="#duplicate{dst=display, dst={std{access=file, mux=ps, dst='vlc_117/video.mpg'}}} --rtsp-caching=120 --no-video-title-show" '

Reliability gives me the same error:

Invalid format.
Hint: <assignlist> = <propertyname>=<propertyvalue> [, <assignlist>].

However, the following:

wmic process create 'C:\PROGRA~1\VideoLAN\VLC_117\vlc.exe rtsp://abcd --sout="#duplicate{dst=display} --rtsp-caching=120 --no-video-title-show"'

It works great - except that as a team it is useless to me. So the problem seems to be related to the nested brace in my original command.

I tried different rescue characters ... so far without success. Can anyone suggest where I'm wrong?

Answer 1

CMD, , WMIC.

WMIC ' " . \". \', , .

CMD ", " . &, |, < .., , ^& ..

WMIC CMD . , CMD , WMIC - .

, PROCESS CALL CREATE PROCESS CREATE. , PROCESS CREATE, , .

, , WMIC. , , :

C:\PROGRA~1\VideoLAN\VLC_117\vlc.exe rtsp://abcd --sout="#duplicate{dst=display, dst={std{access=file, mux=ps, dst='vlc_117/video.mpg'}}} --rtsp-caching=120 --no-video-title-show"

, , WMIC :

wmic process call create 'C:\PROGRA~1\VideoLAN\VLC_117\vlc.exe rtsp://abcd --sout="#duplicate{dst=display, dst={std{access=file, mux=ps, dst='vlc_117/video.mpg'}}} --rtsp-caching=120 --no-video-title-show"'

WMIC . 'vlc_117/video.mpg' , . , .

, exe:

wmic process call create '"C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC_117\vlc.exe" rtsp://abcd --sout="#duplicate{dst=display, dst={std{access=file, mux=ps, dst='vlc_117/video.mpg'}}} --rtsp-caching=120 --no-video-title-show"'

, PID , FOR/F. . CMD, =, , .., - , FOR/F. - .

for /f "tokens=2 delims=;= " %%N in (
  'wmic process call create '"C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC_117\vlc.exe" rtsp://abcd --sout^="#duplicate{dst=display, dst={std{access=file, mux=ps, dst='vlc_117/video.mpg'}}} --rtsp-caching=120 --no-video-title-show"' ^| find "ProcessId"'
) do set "pid=%%N"

FOR/F IN() , , WMIC - . = --sout=... .

- , , , , . , .

-, - . , , , , .

---

2014-05-27

. PROCESS CALL CREATE , . , . , PROCESS CALL CREATE ( , ) : (

, . \. , . googled .

, , VLC, VLC - script. , , - ?

, , . VLC, CMD/C ECHO. ECHO .

@echo off
:: All of these commands without commas work just fine
wmic process call create 'cmd /c echo hello world^&pause'
wmic process call create 'cmd /c "echo hello world&pause"'
wmic process call create "cmd /c echo hello world&pause"

:: But none of these commands with commas work
wmic process call create 'cmd /c echo hello,goodbye^&pause'
wmic process call create 'cmd /c "echo hello,goodbye&pause"'
wmic process call create "cmd /c echo hello,goodbye&pause"
wmic process call create 'cmd /c echo hello\,goodbye^&pause'
wmic process call create 'cmd /c "echo hello\,goodbye&pause"'
wmic process call create "cmd /c echo hello\,goodbye&pause"

---

2014-12-23: !

DosTips script PID. , WMIC . PID . . , WMIC PROCESS CALL CREATE ( ).

@echo off
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion

:: Get the PID and UID for this batch process
call :getMyPID

:: Initialize an existing PIDs list
set "PIDs= "

:: Get a list of all existing child processes, except for the
:: child CMD.EXE process that was created by this FOR /F loop.
:: This is necessary because the console session that this script
:: is running in might have previously created a child process.
for /f %%A in (
  '2^>nul wmic process where "ParentProcessID=%myPID% and not CommandLine like '%%<%UID%>%%'" get ProcessID'
) do for %%B in (%%A) do set "PIDs=!PIDs!%%B "

:: Create your new process as you normally would.
:: For this demonstration, I will simply create a new CMD.EXE session 
start

:: Get the PID of the newly created child process by getting all child PIDs,
:: except for the child CMD.EXE process that was created by this FOR /F loop.
:: Ignore any PID that already exists in the %PIDs% list. The only PID left
:: is your new process.
for /f %%A in (
  '2^>nul wmic process where "ParentProcessID=%myPID% and not CommandLine like '%%<%UID%>%%'" get ProcessID'
) do for %%B in (%%A) do if "!PIDs: %%B =!" equ "!PIDs!" set "PID=%%B"

:: At this point you could append the new PID to the PIDs list using
::   set "PIDs=!PIDs!%PID% "
:: Then you can repeat the steps of creating a new proces and getting the new PID
::
:: But instead, I will simply show the result and exit
echo new PID=%PID%

exit /b


:getMyPID 
setlocal disableDelayedExpansion

:getLock

:: Establish a nearly unique temp file name using %time%
set "lock=%temp%\%~nx0.%time::=.%.lock"

:: Transform the full path into a UID that can be used in a WMIC query
set "uid=%lock:\=:b%"
set "uid=%uid:,=:c%"
set "uid=%uid:'=:q%"
set "uid=%uid:_=:u%"
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
set "uid=!uid:%%=:p!"
endlocal & set "uid=%uid%"


:: Establish an exclusive lock on the temp file
:: If this fails, then loop back and try again until success
:: This guaranees no two process will ever have the same UID
2>nul ( 9>"%lock%" (

  %= The FOR /F loops creates a child CMD.EXE process which in turn invokes WMIC.         =%
  %= The child CMD.EXE process contains the WMIC query with the UID in its command line.  =%
  %= The WMIC query identifies the CMD.EXE process with the UID in the command line,      =%
  %= and returns the parent process ID, which happens to be the PID for this batch script =%
  for /f "skip=1" %%A in (
    'wmic process where "name='cmd.exe' and CommandLine like '%%<%uid%>%%'" get ParentProcessID'
  ) do for %%B in (%%A) do set "PID=%%B"
  (call ) %= Guarantee success so we don't accidently loop again =%

))||goto :getLock

:: Delete the temp file
del "%lock%" 2>nul

:: Return the result
( endlocal
  set "myPID=%PID%"
  set "UID=%uid%"
)
exit /b