CreateProcessEX, a function that extends CreateProcess, doesn't work under very specific conditions.

CreateProcessEx is a function that extends CreateProcessEx a little - it minimizes the main app window while the external process is run, and then maxamises it again when it finishes.

This works nicely in almost all circumstances. If I call notepad like this:

CreateProcessEx("NOTEPAD.EXE",NULL /*arguments*/, TRUE, FALSE, TRUE, TRUE, NULL);

Or like this:

CreateProcessEx("C:\\windows\\NOTEPAD.EXE",NULL /*arguments*/, TRUE, FALSE, TRUE, TRUE, NULL);

everything works as it should; my main window minimises, and then maxamises again when I close notepad.exe .

It just won't work for the program I actually want to call, which is pg_dump.exe, a command line utility through which SQL dumps are performed.

CreateProcessEx("C:\\test\\pg_dump.exe",NULL /*arguments*/, TRUE, FALSE, TRUE, TRUE, NULL);

If I open it in windows, I get a dos box flashing for a moment, because it needs command line arguments (I have some command line arguments for it, but thats not relevant to the problem at hand.)

My window won't minimise, and I see no flashing dos box. I tried intentionally corrupting the file with a hex editor, and now when I open it in windows explorer I get an error messagebox. However, when I attempt to open it using CreateProcessEx, I see no such message box. I've even tried renaming notepad.exe to pg_dump.exe, and it will open notepad (pg_dump.exe) then fine.

What have I failed to take into account? What error have I made?

This is the CreateProcessEx function in it's entirety:

 DWORD CreateProcessEx ( LPCSTR lpAppPath, LPCSTR lpCmdLine,
    BOOL bAppInCmdLine, BOOL bCompletePath,
    BOOL bWaitForProcess, BOOL bMinimizeOnWait, HWND hMainWnd ) {

    STARTUPINFO startupInfo;
    PROCESS_INFORMATION    processInformation;    

    char szAppPath    [ _MAX_PATH  ];
    char szCmdLine    [ _MAX_PATH  ];
    char drive        [ _MAX_DRIVE ];
    char dir        [ _MAX_DIR   ];
    char name       [ _MAX_FNAME ];
    char ext        [ _MAX_EXT ];

    szAppPath[ 0 ] = '\0';
    szCmdLine[ 0 ] = '\0';
   
    ZeroMemory( &startupInfo, sizeof( STARTUPINFO ));

    startupInfo.cb = sizeof( STARTUPINFO );

    ZeroMemory( &processInformation, sizeof( PROCESS_INFORMATION ));

    if ( bCompletePath ) {

        GetModuleFileName( GetModuleHandle( NULL ), szAppPath, _MAX_PATH );

        _splitpath( szAppPath, drive, dir, NULL, NULL );
        _splitpath( lpAppPath, NULL, NULL, name, ext );

        _makepath ( szAppPath, drive, dir, name, strlen( ext ) ? ext : ".exe" );
    }
    else strcpy( szAppPath, lpAppPath );

    if ( bAppInCmdLine ) {

        strcpy( szCmdLine, "\"" );
        strcat( szCmdLine, szAppPath );
        strcat( szCmdLine, "\"" );
    }

    if ( lpCmdLine ) {

        // We must use quotation marks around the command line (if any)...

        if ( bAppInCmdLine ) strcat( szCmdLine, " \"" );
                        else strcpy( szCmdLine, "\"" );

        strcat( szCmdLine, lpCmdLine );
        strcat( szCmdLine, "\"" );
    }

    DWORD dwExitCode = -1;
           
    if ( CreateProcess(    bAppInCmdLine ? NULL: szAppPath,    // lpszImageName
                        szCmdLine,                            // lpszCommandLine
                        0,                                    // lpsaProcess
                        0,                                    // lpsaThread
                        FALSE,                                // fInheritHandles
                        DETACHED_PROCESS,                    // fdwCreate
                        0,                                    // lpvEnvironment
                        0,                                    // lpszCurDir
                        &startupInfo,                        // lpsiStartupInfo
                        &processInformation                    // lppiProcInfo
                    )) {

        if ( bWaitForProcess ) {

            if ( bMinimizeOnWait )
                   
                if ( IsWindow( hMainWnd )) ShowWindow( hMainWnd, SW_MINIMIZE );
                #ifdef __AFX_H__
                else AfxGetMainWnd()->ShowWindow( SW_MINIMIZE );
                #endif

            WaitForSingleObject( processInformation.hProcess, INFINITE );

            if ( bMinimizeOnWait )

                if ( IsWindow( hMainWnd )) ShowWindow( hMainWnd, SW_RESTORE );
                #ifdef __AFX_H__
                else AfxGetMainWnd()->ShowWindow( SW_RESTORE );
                #endif

            GetExitCodeProcess( processInformation.hProcess, &dwExitCode );
        }
        else {

            CloseHandle( processInformation.hThread );
            CloseHandle( processInformation.hProcess );

            dwExitCode = 0;
        }
    }

    return dwExitCode;
}

Thanks in advance,
Sternocera