Process.ErrorDataReceived Event

Definition

Occurs when an application writes to its redirected StandardError stream.

C#
public event System.Diagnostics.DataReceivedEventHandler? ErrorDataReceived;
C#
public event System.Diagnostics.DataReceivedEventHandler ErrorDataReceived;
C#
[System.ComponentModel.Browsable(true)]
public event System.Diagnostics.DataReceivedEventHandler ErrorDataReceived;

Event Type

Attributes

Examples

The following example uses the net view command to list the available network resources on a remote computer. The user supplies the target computer name as a command-line argument. The user can also supply a file name for error output. The example collects the output of the net command, waits for the process to finish, and then writes the output results to the console. If the user supplies the optional error file, the example writes errors to the file.

C#
// Define the namespaces used by this sample.
using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Globalization;
using System.IO;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Threading;
using System.ComponentModel;

namespace ProcessAsyncStreamSamples
{

    class ProcessNetStreamRedirection
    {
        // Define static variables shared by class methods.
        private static StreamWriter streamError =null;
        private static String netErrorFile = "";
        private static StringBuilder netOutput = null;
        private static bool errorRedirect = false;
        private static bool errorsWritten = false;

        public static void RedirectNetCommandStreams()
        {
            String netArguments;
            Process netProcess;

            // Get the input computer name.
            Console.WriteLine("Enter the computer name for the net view command:");
            netArguments = Console.ReadLine().ToUpper(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
            if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(netArguments))
            {
                // Default to the help command if there is not an input argument.
                netArguments = "/?";
            }

            // Check if errors should be redirected to a file.
            errorsWritten = false;
            Console.WriteLine("Enter a fully qualified path to an error log file");
            Console.WriteLine("  or just press Enter to write errors to console:");
            netErrorFile = Console.ReadLine().ToUpper(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
            if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(netErrorFile))
            {
                errorRedirect = true;
            }

            // Note that at this point, netArguments and netErrorFile
            // are set with user input.  If the user did not specify
            // an error file, then errorRedirect is set to false.

            // Initialize the process and its StartInfo properties.
            netProcess = new Process();
            netProcess.StartInfo.FileName = "Net.exe";

            // Build the net command argument list.
            netProcess.StartInfo.Arguments = String.Format("view {0}",
                netArguments);

            // Set UseShellExecute to false for redirection.
            netProcess.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;

            // Redirect the standard output of the net command.
            // This stream is read asynchronously using an event handler.
            netProcess.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
            netProcess.OutputDataReceived += new DataReceivedEventHandler(NetOutputDataHandler);
            netOutput = new StringBuilder();

            if (errorRedirect)
            {
                // Redirect the error output of the net command.
                netProcess.StartInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;
                netProcess.ErrorDataReceived += new DataReceivedEventHandler(NetErrorDataHandler);
            }
            else
            {
                // Do not redirect the error output.
                netProcess.StartInfo.RedirectStandardError = false;
            }

            Console.WriteLine("\nStarting process: net {0}",
                netProcess.StartInfo.Arguments);
            if (errorRedirect)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Errors will be written to the file {0}",
                    netErrorFile);
            }

            // Start the process.
            netProcess.Start();

            // Start the asynchronous read of the standard output stream.
            netProcess.BeginOutputReadLine();

            if (errorRedirect)
            {
                // Start the asynchronous read of the standard
                // error stream.
                netProcess.BeginErrorReadLine();
            }

            // Let the net command run, collecting the output.
            netProcess.WaitForExit();

            if (streamError != null)
            {
                // Close the error file.
                streamError.Close();
            }
            else
            {
                // Set errorsWritten to false if the stream is not
                // open.   Either there are no errors, or the error
                // file could not be opened.
                errorsWritten = false;
            }

            if (netOutput.Length > 0)
            {
                // If the process wrote more than just
                // white space, write the output to the console.
                Console.WriteLine("\nPublic network shares from net view:\n{0}\n",
                    netOutput);
            }

            if (errorsWritten)
            {
                // Signal that the error file had something
                // written to it.
                String [] errorOutput = File.ReadAllLines(netErrorFile);
                if (errorOutput.Length > 0)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("\nThe following error output was appended to {0}.",
                        netErrorFile);
                    foreach (String errLine in errorOutput)
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine("  {0}", errLine);
                    }
                }
                Console.WriteLine();
            }

            netProcess.Close();
        }

        private static void NetOutputDataHandler(object sendingProcess,
            DataReceivedEventArgs outLine)
        {
            // Collect the net view command output.
            if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(outLine.Data))
            {
                // Add the text to the collected output.
                netOutput.Append(Environment.NewLine + "  " + outLine.Data);
            }
        }

        private static void NetErrorDataHandler(object sendingProcess,
            DataReceivedEventArgs errLine)
        {
            // Write the error text to the file if there is something
            // to write and an error file has been specified.

            if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(errLine.Data))
            {
                if (!errorsWritten)
                {
                    if (streamError == null)
                    {
                        // Open the file.
                        try
                        {
                            streamError = new StreamWriter(netErrorFile, true);
                        }
                        catch (Exception e)
                        {
                            Console.WriteLine("Could not open error file!");
                            Console.WriteLine(e.Message.ToString());
                        }
                    }

                    if (streamError != null)
                    {
                        // Write a header to the file if this is the first
                        // call to the error output handler.
                        streamError.WriteLine();
                        streamError.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.ToString());
                        streamError.WriteLine("Net View error output:");
                    }
                    errorsWritten = true;
                }

                if (streamError != null)
                {
                    // Write redirected errors to the file.
                    streamError.WriteLine(errLine.Data);
                    streamError.Flush();
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Remarks

The ErrorDataReceived event indicates that the associated Process has written a line that's terminated with a newline (carriage return (CR), line feed (LF), or CR+LF) to its redirected StandardError stream.

The event only occurs during asynchronous read operations on StandardError. To start asynchronous read operations, you must redirect the StandardError stream of a Process, add your event handler to the ErrorDataReceived event, and call BeginErrorReadLine. Thereafter, the ErrorDataReceived event signals each time the process writes a line to the redirected StandardError stream, until the process exits or calls CancelErrorRead.

Note

The application that is processing the asynchronous output should call the WaitForExit() method to ensure that the output buffer has been flushed. Note that specifying a timeout by using the WaitForExit(Int32) overload does not ensure the output buffer has been flushed.

Applies to

Product Versions
.NET Core 1.0, Core 1.1, Core 2.0, Core 2.1, Core 2.2, Core 3.0, Core 3.1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
.NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
.NET Standard 2.0, 2.1

See also