"oShell.Exec(cmd)" - Running System Command with a Script

This section provides a tutorial example on how to run a system command with a VBScript code. Command output and status can be monitored with WshScriptExec properties.

As mentioned in the previous section, WSH offers offers runtime objects to perform system administration task.

Here is a tutorial example that uses WshShell object to run a system command and obtaining its output:

'  StdIn_StdOut.vbs
'- Copyright (c) 1998 HerongYang.com. All Rights Reserved.

   Dim oShell, oExec, sLine
   Set oShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
   Set oExec = oShell.Exec("ping localhost")

'  Reading the output of the shell command thread
   Do While Not oExec.StdOut.AtEndOfStream
      sLine = oExec.StdOut.ReadLine
      WScript.StdOut.WriteLine "Output: " & sLine
      WScript.Sleep 10
   Loop

'  Waiting for the shell command thread to end
'  In case the output ends before the command
   Do While oExec.Status = 0
      WScript.Sleep 100
   Loop

When I ran it on my machine, I got:

C:\herong>cscript Shell_Exec.vbs

Output:
Output: Pinging localhost [127.0.0.1] with 32 bytes of data:
Output:
Output: Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Output: Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Output: Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Output: Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Output:
Output: Ping statistics for 127.0.0.1:
Output:     Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Output: Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Output:     Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

Table of Contents

 About This Book

 Introduction of VBScript - Visual Basic Scripting Edition

 Variant Data Type, Subtypes, and Literals

 Arithmetic Operations

 Numeric Comparison Operations and Logical Operations

 String Operations - Concatenation and Comparison

 Variable Declaration and Assignment Statement

 Expression and Order of Operation Precedence

 Statement Syntax and Statement Types

 Array Data Type and Related Statements

 Array References and Array Assignment Statements

 Conditional Statements - "If ... Then" and "Select Case"

 Loop Statements - "For", "While", and "Do"

 "Function" and "Sub" Procedures

 Built-in Functions

 Inspecting Variables Received in Procedures

 Error Handling Flag and the "Err" Object

 Regular Expression Pattern Match and Replacement

 scrrun.dll - Scripting Runtime DLL Library

 Creating Your Own Classes

 IE Web Browser Supporting VBScript

 IIS ASP Server Supporting VBScript

WSH (Windows Script Host)

 What is WSH (Windows Script Host)?

 "cscript.exe/wscript.exe" Command Version and Options

 Running VBScript Code Files

 "WScript" Runtime Object Hierarchy

"oShell.Exec(cmd)" - Running System Command with a Script

 WSF - Windows Script File XML Format

 References

 Full Version in PDF/EPUB