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Using wildcard in to install a server printer

In java, I am trying to use a cmd command to install a printer from a printer server. Knowing the 3 first letters of the printer name, I would like to use wildcards. I have tried the following command but it doesn't do anything.
Process p3 = Runtime.getRuntime().exec( "CSCRIPT c:\\windows\\System32\\Printing_Admin_Scripts\\en-US\\prnmngr.vbs -l -s \\\\svmsimp1 -a -p \"slj05%\" " );

Read the prnmngr.vbs script. There is next function for parsing the command line (abbreviated, omitted parts replaced by '...'):
' Parse the command line into its components
function ParseCommandLine(iAction, strServer, strPrinter, strDriver _
, strPort, strUser, strPassword)
on error resume next
'...'
dim oArgs
dim iIndex
'...'
iIndex = 0
set oArgs = wscript.Arguments
while iIndex < oArgs.Count
select case oArgs(iIndex)
case "-a"
iAction = kActionAdd
'...'
case "-p"
iIndex = iIndex + 1
strPrinter = oArgs(iIndex)
'...'
case else
Usage(true)
exit function
end select
iIndex = iIndex + 1
wend
'...'
end function
Crucial line strPrinter = oArgs(iIndex) says the script takes printer name from command line parameter -p "printer" as such, with no attempt to treat any wildcards. Neither in this function nor anywhere else in the whole script.
BTW, all parameters to the ParseCommandLine function are passed by reference (default if ByVal and ByRef are omitted).
Conclusion: although you would like to use wildcards, it's impossible with -a argument (add local printer) as in next call
'...'
select case iAction
case kActionAdd
iRetval = AddPrinter(strServer, strPrinter, strDriver _
, strPort, strUser, strPassword)
'...'
we can see (inside AddPrinter function):
'...'
set oPrinter = oService.Get("Win32_Printer").SpawnInstance_
'...'
oPrinter.DriverName = strDriver
oPrinter.PortName = strPort
oPrinter.DeviceID = strPrinter
oPrinter.Put_(kFlagCreateOnly)
'...'
On the other hand, you could parse output from prnmngr -l -s server to get desired printer names.

Scala - Fails to execute a process through terminal in a particular scenario

I'm using graphviz to generate graphs based on the messages passed in a scala program.
To invoke the graphviz application from inside the scala program, I'm using the exec() method (similar to Java). It successfully executed the command and created the graph when I used the below code snippet:
var cmd: String = "dot -Tpng Graph.dot -o Graph.png"
var run: Runtime = Runtime.getRuntime() ;
var pr: Process = run.exec(cmd) ;
However It fails to execute after changing the path of the input and output files (I just included a directory inside which the input file and output file resides as shown below)
def main(args: Array[String]): Unit = {
var DirectoryName: String = "Logs"
var GraphFileName: String = DirectoryName + File.separator + "Graph.dot"
val GraphFileObj: File = new File(GraphFileName)
// var cmd: String = "dot -Tpng Graph.dot -o Graph.png"
var cmd: String = "dot -Tpng \"" + GraphFileObj.getAbsolutePath + "\" -o \"" + DirectoryName + File.separator + "Graph.png\"" ;
println(cmd)
var run: Runtime = Runtime.getRuntime() ;
var pr: Process = run.exec(cmd) ;
}
The same command when executed through terminal gives proper output. Can you please help me to find what I'm missing?

exec is not a shell...e.g. quoting won't work as you expect, and thus your path (which may contain spaces, etc) will not be processed as you expect. The command will be broken apart using StringTokenizer, and your literal quotes will be...well..literal.
Use the form of exec that takes an array instead, so you can tokenize the command correctly.
val args = Array[String]("dot", "-Tpng", GraphFileObj.getAbsolutePath, ...);
run.exec(args)

Powershell: Capturing standard out and error with Process object

I want to start a Java program from PowerShell and get the results printed on the console.
I have followed the instructions of this question:
Capturing standard out and error with Start-Process
But for me, this is not working as I expected. What I'm doing wrong?
This is the script:
$psi = New-object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo
$psi.CreateNoWindow = $true
$psi.UseShellExecute = $false
$psi.RedirectStandardOutput = $true
$psi.RedirectStandardError = $true
$psi.FileName = 'java.exe'
$psi.Arguments = #("-jar","tools\compiler.jar","--compilation_level", "ADVANCED_OPTIMIZATIONS", "--js", $BuildFile, "--js_output_file", $BuildMinFile)
$process = New-Object System.Diagnostics.Process
$process.StartInfo = $psi
$process.Start() | Out-Null
$process.WaitForExit()
$output = $process.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd()
$output
The $output variable is always empty (and nothing is printed on the console of course).

The docs on the RedirectStandardError property suggests that it is better to put the WaitForExit() call after the ReadToEnd() call. The following works correctly for me:
$psi = New-object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo
$psi.CreateNoWindow = $true
$psi.UseShellExecute = $false
$psi.RedirectStandardOutput = $true
$psi.RedirectStandardError = $true
$psi.FileName = 'ipconfig.exe'
$psi.Arguments = #("/a")
$process = New-Object System.Diagnostics.Process
$process.StartInfo = $psi
[void]$process.Start()
$output = $process.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd()
$process.WaitForExit()
$output

Small variation so that you can selectively print the output if needed. As in if your looking just for error or warning messages and by the way Keith you saved my bacon with your response...
$psi = New-object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo
$psi.CreateNoWindow = $true
$psi.UseShellExecute = $false
$psi.RedirectStandardOutput = $true
$psi.RedirectStandardError = $true
$psi.FileName = 'robocopy'
$psi.Arguments = #("$HomeDirectory $NewHomeDirectory /MIR /XF desktop.ini /XD VDI /R:0 /W:0 /s /v /np")
$process = New-Object System.Diagnostics.Process
$process.StartInfo = $psi
[void]$process.Start()
do
{
$process.StandardOutput.ReadLine()
}
while (!$process.HasExited)

Here is a modification to paul's answer, hopefully it addresses the truncated output. i did a test using a failure and did not see truncation.
function Start-ProcessWithOutput
{
param ([string]$Path,[string[]]$ArgumentList)
$Output = New-Object -TypeName System.Text.StringBuilder
$Error = New-Object -TypeName System.Text.StringBuilder
$psi = New-object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo
$psi.CreateNoWindow = $true
$psi.UseShellExecute = $false
$psi.RedirectStandardOutput = $true
$psi.RedirectStandardError = $true
$psi.FileName = $Path
if ($ArgumentList.Count -gt 0)
{
$psi.Arguments = $ArgumentList
}
$process = New-Object System.Diagnostics.Process
$process.StartInfo = $psi
[void]$process.Start()
do
{
if (!$process.StandardOutput.EndOfStream)
{
[void]$Output.AppendLine($process.StandardOutput.ReadLine())
}
if (!$process.StandardError.EndOfStream)
{
[void]$Error.AppendLine($process.StandardError.ReadLine())
}
Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 10
} while (!$process.HasExited)
#read remainder
while (!$process.StandardOutput.EndOfStream)
{
#write-verbose 'read remaining output'
[void]$Output.AppendLine($process.StandardOutput.ReadLine())
}
while (!$process.StandardError.EndOfStream)
{
#write-verbose 'read remaining error'
[void]$Error.AppendLine($process.StandardError.ReadLine())
}
return #{ExitCode = $process.ExitCode; Output = $Output.ToString(); Error = $Error.ToString(); ExitTime=$process.ExitTime}
}
$p = Start-ProcessWithOutput "C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" -ArgumentList "x","-y","-oE:\PowershellModules",$NewModules.FullName -verbose
$p.ExitCode
$p.Output
$p.Error
the 10ms sleep is to avoid spinning cpu when nothing to read.

I was getting the deadlock scenario mentioned by Ash using Justin's solution. Modified the script accordingly to subscribe to async event handlers to get the output and error text which accomplishes the same thing but avoids the deadlock condition.
Seemed to resolve the deadlock issue in my testing without altering the return data.
# Define global variables used in the Start-ProcessWithOutput function.
$global:processOutputStringGlobal = ""
$global:processErrorStringGlobal = ""
# Launch an executable and return the exitcode, output text, and error text of the process.
function Start-ProcessWithOutput
{
# Function requires a path to an executable and an optional list of arguments
param (
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string]$ExecutablePath,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$false)] [string[]]$ArgumentList
)
# Reset our global variables to an empty string in the event this process is called multiple times.
$global:processOutputStringGlobal = ""
$global:processErrorStringGlobal = ""
# Create the Process Info object which contains details about the process. We tell it to
# redirect standard output and error output which will be collected and stored in a variable.
$ProcessStartInfoObject = New-object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo
$ProcessStartInfoObject.FileName = $ExecutablePath
$ProcessStartInfoObject.CreateNoWindow = $true
$ProcessStartInfoObject.UseShellExecute = $false
$ProcessStartInfoObject.RedirectStandardOutput = $true
$ProcessStartInfoObject.RedirectStandardError = $true
# Add the arguments to the process info object if any were provided
if ($ArgumentList.Count -gt 0)
{
$ProcessStartInfoObject.Arguments = $ArgumentList
}
# Create the object that will represent the process
$Process = New-Object System.Diagnostics.Process
$Process.StartInfo = $ProcessStartInfoObject
# Define actions for the event handlers we will subscribe to in a moment. These are checking whether
# any data was sent by the event handler and updating the global variable if it is not null or empty.
$ProcessOutputEventAction = {
if ($null -ne $EventArgs.Data -and $EventArgs.Data -ne ""){
$global:processOutputStringGlobal += "$($EventArgs.Data)`r`n"
}
}
$ProcessErrorEventAction = {
if ($null -ne $EventArgs.Data -and $EventArgs.Data -ne ""){
$global:processErrorStringGlobal += "$($EventArgs.Data)`r`n"
}
}
# We need to create an event handler for the Process object. This will call the action defined above
# anytime that event is triggered. We are looking for output and error data received by the process
# and appending the global variables with those values.
Register-ObjectEvent -InputObject $Process -EventName "OutputDataReceived" -Action $ProcessOutputEventAction
Register-ObjectEvent -InputObject $Process -EventName "ErrorDataReceived" -Action $ProcessErrorEventAction
# Process starts here
[void]$Process.Start()
# This sets up an asyncronous task to read the console output from the process, which triggers the appropriate
# event, which we setup handlers for just above.
$Process.BeginErrorReadLine()
$Process.BeginOutputReadLine()
# Wait for the process to exit.
$Process.WaitForExit()
# We need to wait just a moment so the async tasks that are reading the output of the process can catch
# up. Not having this sleep here can cause the return values to be empty or incomplete. In my testing,
# it seemed like half a second was enough time to always get the data, but you may need to adjust accordingly.
Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 500
# Return an object that contains the exit code, output text, and error text.
return #{
ExitCode = $Process.ExitCode;
OutputString = $global:processOutputStringGlobal;
ErrorString = $global:processErrorStringGlobal;
ExitTime = $Process.ExitTime
}
}

Getting output parameter value set by VBScript (WMI) method in java via JACOB

Am trying to convert a VBScript to java using JACOB - Java COM bridge library.
'Create' method in VBScript accepts a [out] param in it's method and it sets it upon method execution and i couldn't figure out how to retrieve it back via JACOB.
VBScript in question:
Function CreateProcess(strComputer, strCommand)
Dim objWMIService, objProcess
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set objProcess = objWMIService.Get("Win32_Process")
errReturn = objProcess.Create (strCommand, Null, Null, intProcessID)
Set objWMIService = Nothing
Set objProcess = Nothing
CreateProcess = intProcessID
End Function
intProcessID is [out] param set after method execution. (Create API contract)
Converted java code(incomplete and modified slightly for demonstration):
public static void createProcess() {
String host = "localhost";
String connectStr = String
.format("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\\\%s\\root\\CIMV2",
host);
ActiveXComponent axWMI = new ActiveXComponent(connectStr);
Variant vCollection = axWMI.invoke("get", new Variant("Win32_Process"));
Dispatch d = vCollection.toDispatch();
Integer processId = null;
int result = Dispatch.call(d, "Create", "notepad.exe", null, null, processId)
.toInt();
System.out.println("Result:" + result);
// WORKS FINE until here i.e. notepad launches properly, however processId still seems to be null. Following commented code is wrong - doesn't work
//Variant v = Dispatch.get(d, "processId"); // even ProcessId doesn't work
//int pId = v.getInt();
//System.out.println("process id:"
// + pId);
// what is the right way to get the process ID set by 'Create' method?
}
Would be great if you could provide some pointers or relevant code. Ask me more if needed. Thanks in advance.

Replacing
Integer processId = null;
with
Variant processId = new Variant(0, true);
should solve the problem. You should then have process ID of the notepad.exe process in the processId variant, and it can be fetched by
processId.getIntRef()

Batch file renaming – inserting text from a list (in Python or Java)

I'm finishing a business card production flow (excel > xml > indesign > single page pdfs) and I would like to insert the employees' names in the filenames.
What I have now:
BusinessCard_01_Blue.pdf
BusinessCard_02_Blue.pdf
BusinessCard_03_Blue.pdf (they are gonna go up to the hundreds)
What I need (I can manipulate the name list with regex easily):
BusinessCard_01_CarlosJorgeSantos_Blue.pdf
BusinessCard_02_TaniaMartins_Blue.pdf
BusinessCard_03_MarciaLima_Blue.pdf
I'm a Java and Python toddler. I've read the related questions, tried this in Automator (Mac) and Name Mangler, but couldn't get it to work.
Thanks in advance,
Gus

Granted you have a map where to look at the right name you could do something like this in Java:
List<Files> originalFiles = ...
for( File f : originalFiles ) {
f.renameTo( new File( getNameFor( f ) ) );
}
And define the getNameFor to something like:
public String getNameFor( File f ) {
Map<String,String> namesMap = ...
return namesMap.get( f.getName() );
}
In the map you'll have the associations:
BusinessCard_01_Blue.pdf => BusinessCard_01_CarlosJorgeSantos_Blue.pdf
Does it make sense?

In Python (tested):
#!/usr/bin/python
import sys, os, shutil, re
try:
pdfpath = sys.argv[1]
except IndexError:
pdfpath = os.curdir
employees = {1:'Bob', 2:'Joe', 3:'Sara'} # emp_id:'name'
files = [f for f in os.listdir(pdfpath) if re.match("BusinessCard_[0-9]+_Blue.pdf", f)]
idnumbers = [int(re.search("[0-9]+", f).group(0)) for f in files]
filenamemap = zip(files, [employees[i] for i in idnumbers])
newfiles = [re.sub('Blue.pdf', e + '_Blue.pdf', f) for f, e in filenamemap]
for old, new in zip(files, newfiles):
shutil.move(os.path.join(pdfpath, old), os.path.join(pdfpath, new))
EDIT: This now alters only those files that have not yet been altered.
Let me know if you want something that will build the the employees dictionary automatically.

If you have a list of names in the same order the files are produced, in Python it goes like this untested fragment:
#!/usr/bin/python
import os
f = open('list.txt', 'r')
for n, name in enumerate(f):
original_name = 'BusinessCard_%02d_Blue.pdf' % (n + 1)
new_name = 'BusinessCard_%02d_%s_Blue.pdf' % (
n, ''.join(name.title().split()))
if os.path.isfile(original_name):
print "Renaming %s to %s" % (original_name, new_name),
os.rename(original_name, new_name)
print "OK!"
else:
print "File %s not found." % original_name

Python:
Assuming you have implemented the naming logic already:
for f in os.listdir(<directory>):
try:
os.rename(f, new_name(f.name))
except OSError:
# fail
You will, of course, need to write a function new_name which takes the string "BusinessCard_01_Blue.pdf" and returns the string "BusinessCard_01_CarlosJorgeSantos_Blue.pdf".