asked on

Deleting a file from within itself

I want to automatically delete an exe file after the user clicks - the close button. This application should only be used once. The close button is tied to the same application I want to delete. Can this be done?

edey

instead of calling the exe directly you could write a batch file that deletes the exe

GL
Mike

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

edwinvanrijkom

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inthe

listening..

Indefrei

>> a batch file that deletes the exe
and the batchfile itself

inthe

are you using the compoenent of edwinvanrijkom or use this example of batch file:

procedure form1.onclosequery
Command : string;
TSI : Tstartupinfo;
TPI : Tprocessinformation;
begin
memo1.text := '@Echo Off' +#13+#10 +'del' +application.exename +#13+#10
+'del c:\killer.bat';
memo1.text.savetofile('c:\killer.bat')
{do whatever you need to do before you'll close the app}
command := 'c:\killer.bat';
createprocess(nil, pchar(command + ' ' + ' '), nil, nil, false,
normal_priority_class, nil, workdir, tsi, tpi);
application.terminate;
end;

Regards Barry

routerboy309

ASKER

Seems to me the best and easiest way is to call the Bat from a ShellExecute method...and this appears to work (with lots of pauses). And then yes.... I can get the bat file itself to be reoved. My only problem now is that the bat file is so fast, the exe is still 'active' and on NT, I can't get the exe to be deleted until the process is done. So how do I add a minor 'wait' in the bat file and then execute the delete (del) statement?

inthe

no
i dunno what your program is doing codewise but its better to have the bat file assigned to "on close" event then it works ok ;-) then just try calling form1.close; etc instead of shellexectute..

routerboy309

ASKER

Using the example provided above about adding a createProcess, I have added this:

workdir := 'C:\Program Files\Common Files\Myfiles';
command := 'C:\Program Files\Common Files\MyFiles\Assist.bat';
CreateProcess(nil, pchar(command + ' ' + ' '), nil, nil, false, normal_priority_class, nil,
pchar(workdir), tsi, tpi);

But when I close the application, I get an error that the Kernel.dll failed to Initialize. What does this mean?

inthe

Hi,
dunno why that eror comes up:
try this ive tested and seems to work ok:
where the exe and the bat are in the myfiles directory
i changed a bit cause the "del" function messes up when passing it too many directorys on the command line.

procedure TForm1.FormClose(Sender: TObject; var Action: TCloseAction);
var
Command : string;
TSI : Tstartupinfo;
TPI : Tprocessinformation;
begin
memo1.text := '@Echo Off' +#13+#10 +'del ' +extractfilename(paramStr(0))+#13+#10+'del Assist.bat';
memo1.Lines.SaveToFile('C:\Program Files\Common Files\MyFiles\Assist.bat');
command := 'Assist.bat';
winexec(pchar(command),SW_HIDE);
application.terminate;
end;