Shell not working

[AlexanderBB]

Am I doing it correctly ?

 x = Shell("D:\A-Sides\doit.bat", vbNormalFocus)
         
         'wait for bat to finish
         
         Application.Wait (Now + TimeValue("0:00:10"))

The wait is working but Doit.bat doesn't run. Is something else needed?

 

[Rick Rothstein]

The wait is working but Doit.bat doesn't run.

What is Doit.bat supposed to do?

 

[AlexanderBB]

What is Doit.bat supposed to do?

The contents of doit.bat are

ffmpeg.exe -nostats -i "B:\1950\SheetMusic\Mel Torme - Bewitched.mp3" -filter_complex ebur128=peak=true -f null - >outputfile8.txt 2>&1

but does that matter? I've spent all morning looking for why SHELL doesn't work and it's odd.. it seems I have the correct syntax and I've tried with both a .bat and .exe file and neither do anything. Could you give an example of a Shell command that works for you?
Thanks.

 

[Rick Rothstein]

The contents of doit.bat are

ffmpeg.exe -nostats -i "B:\1950\SheetMusic\Mel Torme - Bewitched.mp3" -filter_complex ebur128=peak=true -f null - >outputfile8.txt 2>&1

but does that matter?

It might matter. I see you are redirecting output to a text file, but (since my DOS days are so far behind me) what is the 2>&1 doing?

 

[rlv01]

How do you know that shell is not working? I recommend a test

Sub ShellTest()
    Dim X
    Dim FName As String


    FName = "C:\WINDOWS\NOTEPAD.EXE"
    If ExistFile(FName) Then
        X = Shell(FName, vbNormalFocus)  'since everyone has notepad.exe, this should work
    Else
        MsgBox "File " & FName & " cannot be found"
    End If
    
    FName = "D:\A-Sides\doit.bat"
    If ExistFile(FName) Then
        X = Shell(FName, vbNormalFocus)
    Else
        MsgBox "File '" & FName & "' cannot be found"
    End If
End Sub   


''' True if file exists
Function ExistFile(ByVal FileMask As String) As Boolean


    Dim TestString As String


    ''' A Backslash can give a false indication
    Do While (Right(FileMask, 1) = "\")
        FileMask = Left(FileMask, Len(FileMask) - 1)
    Loop


    ''' A colon can do the same
    Do While (Right(FileMask, 1) = ":")
        FileMask = Left(FileMask, Len(FileMask) - 1)
    Loop


    If FileMask <> "" Then
        TestString = Dir$(FileMask)
        ExistFile = (TestString <> "")
    Else
        ExistFile = False
    End If
End Function

 

[AlexanderBB]

Thanks very much for the help. I did have something wrong, and needed to add change directory instructions to the batch file.
It fooled me by working ok in Command Prompt and I wrongly assumed shelling to the batch there would give the same result.
And I should have put a Pause in to observe it working (or not).

Rick the '2>&1' is part of the redirection, without it the text file was empty. It's something to do with stdout and stderr but I've no idea what they are.

 

[rlv01]

It might matter. I see you are redirecting output to a text file, but (since my DOS days are so far behind me) what is the 2>&1 doing?

Now you are making me feel old since I'm a command line jockey from way back. 2>&1 is a way to redirect both stderr and stdout; but it is an OS/2 & WINNT (and later Win version) feature. It never existed under DOS. A neat site for all things redirection:

http://www.robvanderwoude.com/redirection.php

http://www.robvanderwoude.com/battech_redirection.php