Easier Way to Read Process Output?

[devlead]

Discussed in https://github.com/orgs/cake-build/discussions/3837

^{Originally posted by RehanSaeed March 10, 2022}
I'm executing a process and reading the output like so:

StartProcess(
    "az",
    new ProcessSettings()
        .WithArguments(x => x
            .Append("account")
            .Append("list-locations"))
        .SetRedirectStandardOutput(true),
        out var lines);
var json = string.Join(Environment.NewLine, lines);

This is pretty cumbersome. I'd really like something far simpler like simple-exec built into Cake build aliases so I don't have to include yet another dependency:

var (standardOutput, standardError) = await ReadAsync("az account list-locations");

I don't believe anything like this currently exists unless there is an alias I'm missing?

[cake-build-bot]

🎉 This issue has been resolved in version v2.3.0 🎉

The release is available on:

• GitHub Release
• .NET Tool

Your GitReleaseManager bot 📦🚀

[Jericho]

@devlead Thanks for this improvement. I'm in the process of removing StartProcess from my Cake scripts and replacing them with the new Command. One thing I struggled with is how to specify the tool to execute without using the built-in tool resolution. In other words, I know precisely the location of my desired tool, and I would like to be able to simply specify the full path.

I came up with the following solution, but it feels very verbose to be forced to specify the tool name, tool executable names and tool path:

Command(
	new CommandSettings
	{
		ToolName = appName,
		ToolExecutableNames = new[] { appName, $"{appName}.exe" },
		ToolPath = $"{publishDir}{appName}.exe",
	},
	new ProcessArgumentBuilder()
		.Append("nopause")
);

I tried specifying ToolPath only, but I get "Null" exceptions due to the fact that I omitted ToolName and ToolExecutableNames. Therefore, I am forced to specify all three properties.

It would be great to be able to only specify the FilePath of the desired tool. Something along these lines:

Command(
	new FilePath($"{publishDir}{appName}.exe"),
	new ProcessArgumentBuilder()
		.Append("nopause")
);

[devlead]

@Jericho If ToolPath specified we should be able to use it. So that could be a potential improvement.

For now you should, instead of specifying ToolPath be able to register your exes fullpath with Cake tools resolution, that way tool resolution will find it.

Context.Tools.RegisterFile("C:/ProgramData/chocolatey/bin/NuGet.exe")

https://cakebuild.net/docs/writing-builds/tools/tool-resolution

[Jericho]

If ToolPath specified we should be able to use it

That would indeed be the best option (in my humble opinion!).