How to run processes and obtain the output in C#

Example process: fsutil.

Very useful link on obtaining and setting fsutil behaviour and properties at this following link:

http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/skepper/2014/07/16/symbolic_link/

Typically contained in the System32 folder: C:\Windows\System32

It is quite simple to do and consists of two main steps:

Step 1: Create Process object and set its StartInfo object accordingly

var process = new Process
{
	StartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo
	{
		FileName = "C:\\Windows\\System32\\fsutil.exe",
		Arguments = "behavior query SymlinkEvaluation",
		UseShellExecute = false, RedirectStandardOutput = true,
		CreateNoWindow = true
	}
};

Step 2: Start the process and read each line obtained from it:

process.Start();

while (!process.StandardOutput.EndOfStream)
{
	var line = process.StandardOutput.ReadLine();
	Console.WriteLine(line);
}

Full Code listing:

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;

namespace RunProcess
{
    internal class Program
    {
        private static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            try
            {
                var process = new Process
                {
                    StartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo
                    {
                        FileName = "C:\\Windows\\System32\\fsutil.exe",
                        Arguments = "behavior query SymlinkEvaluation",
                        UseShellExecute = false, RedirectStandardOutput = true,
                        CreateNoWindow = true
                    }
                };

                process.Start();

                while (!process.StandardOutput.EndOfStream)
                {
                    var line = process.StandardOutput.ReadLine();
                    Console.WriteLine(line);
                }

                process.WaitForExit();
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
            }
        }
    }
}

For our example I wanted to see what the SymbolicLinkStatus was for remote -> local etc:

Console output as follows: