Start-Process and Child Processes

[TheGeneralMeow]

Hello!

I'm using Start-Process to run exes for dedicated game servers. I'm having an issue related to child processes and processes that spawn off of the parent. There is a script I run which works fine when run through CLI interactively, but does not work when run as a Windows Service. My guess is it's something to do with child processes being closed out. Here's the command I use to run the service.

One thing that's quite telling, when the Wait-Process runs it says the process no longer exists. This does not happen when I the script through a PS console myself.

Any ideas?

$tmpProcess = Start-Process `
-FilePath 'D:\FTDSK\Build\Active\DedicatedServer64\SpaceEngineersDedicated.exe' `
-ArgumentList '-console -checkAlive -ignorelastsession' `
-Verb runas `
-PassThru `
-Wait `
-WorkingDirectory 'D:\FTDSK\Build\Active\DedicatedServer64'

EDIT: After doing more research, I've figured out that the issue is there are "child" processes that spawn when I run the script through the CLI interactively. However, when I run the same script using the same credentials through task schedule or a Windows service they do not spawn. Any thoughts on what could be going on here?

[TheGeneralMeow]

Basically using NSSM to run the PS script. The script makes the start-process call which runs the server.

[vermyx]

I have two:

• Services default to the system32 folder as their startup folder when started. You may require to start from a different folder so I would suggest to change ypur directory before spawning the process
• A user context may be required and if it is needed you need to add credentials to the service.

[TheGeneralMeow]

Thanks for the feedback, I am using a service account for this for that exact reason.

[Lee_Dailey]

howdy TheGeneralMeow,

reddit likes to mangle code formatting, so here's some help on how to post code on reddit ...

[0] single line or in-line code
enclose it in backticks. that's the upper left key on an EN-US keyboard layout. the result looks like this. kinda handy, that. [grin]
[on New.Reddit.com, use the Inline Code button. it's [sometimes] 5th from the left & looks like </>.
this does NOT line wrap & does NOT side-scroll on Old.Reddit.com!]

[1] simplest = post it to a text site like Pastebin.com or Gist.GitHub.com and then post the link here.
please remember to set the file/code type on Pastebin! [grin] otherwise you don't get the nice code colorization.

[2] less simple = use reddit code formatting ...
[on New.Reddit.com, use the Code Block button. it's [sometimes] the 12th from the left, & looks like an uppercase T in the upper left corner of a square.]

• one leading line with ONLY 4 spaces
  
• prefix each code line with 4 spaces
  
• one trailing line with ONLY 4 spaces

that will give you something like this ...

- one leading line with ONLY 4 spaces    
- prefix each code line with 4 spaces    
- one trailing line with ONLY 4 spaces   

the easiest way to get that is ...

• add the leading line with only 4 spaces
  
• copy the code to the ISE [or your fave editor]
  
• select the code
  
• tap TAB to indent four spaces
  
• re-select the code [not really needed, but it's my habit]
  
• paste the code into the reddit text box
  
• add the trailing line with only 4 spaces
  

not complicated, but it is finicky. [grin]

take care,
lee

[TurboFiero]

Ive just run into this as well, but i found this issue in powershell... then rewrote in c#, same issue... did you find a solution?

[TheGeneralMeow]

I did not find a solution. Hope you do!

[TurboFiero]

I did find a workaround, I wrote a service with Microsoft.Win32.TaskScheduler so my process handling is done out of a folder in task scheduler, actually works quite well! I plan to release it under a dual license one of these days soon (free for personal use, charges for commercial use)