Delphi XE8: problems running an external console application, waiting for its results and capturing its results

Question

In Delphi XE8 under Windows, I am trying to call an external console application and capture its output. I use the following code, as described in Capture the output from a DOS (command/console) Window and also Getting output from a shell/dos app into a Delphi app:

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject) ;

  procedure RunDosInMemo(DosApp:String;AMemo:TMemo) ;
  const
    ReadBuffer = 2400;
  var
    Security : TSecurityAttributes;
    ReadPipe,WritePipe : THandle;
    start : TStartUpInfo;
    ProcessInfo : TProcessInformation;
    Buffer : Pchar;
    BytesRead : DWord;
    Apprunning : DWord;
    S: String;
  begin
    With Security do begin
      nlength := SizeOf(TSecurityAttributes) ;
      binherithandle := true;
      lpsecuritydescriptor := nil;
    end;
    if Createpipe (ReadPipe, WritePipe,
                   @Security, 0) then 
    begin
      Buffer := AllocMem(ReadBuffer + 1) ;
      FillChar(Start,Sizeof(Start),#0) ;
      start.cb := SizeOf(start) ;
      start.hStdOutput := WritePipe;
      start.hStdInput := ReadPipe;
      start.dwFlags := STARTF_USESTDHANDLES + STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW;
      start.wShowWindow := SW_HIDE;

      S:=UniqueString(DosApp);
      if CreateProcess(nil,
              PChar(S),
              @Security,
              @Security,
              true,
              NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS,
              nil,
              nil,
              start,
              ProcessInfo) then
      begin
        repeat
          Apprunning := WaitForSingleObject
                        (ProcessInfo.hProcess,100) ;
          Application.ProcessMessages;
        until (Apprunning <> WAIT_TIMEOUT) ;
        Repeat
          BytesRead := 0;
          ReadFile(ReadPipe,Buffer[0], ReadBuffer,BytesRead,nil) ;
          Buffer[BytesRead]:= #0;
          OemToAnsi(Buffer,Buffer) ;
          AMemo.Text := AMemo.text + String(Buffer) ;
        until (BytesRead < ReadBuffer) ;
      end;
      FreeMem(Buffer) ;
      CloseHandle(ProcessInfo.hProcess) ;
      CloseHandle(ProcessInfo.hThread) ;
      CloseHandle(ReadPipe) ;
      CloseHandle(WritePipe) ;
    end;
  end;

begin {button 1 code}
  RunDosInMemo('cmd.exe /c dir',Memo1) ; //<-- this works
  RunDosInMemo('"c:\consoleapp.exe" "/parameter"',Memo1) //<-- this hangs in the repeat until (Apprunning <> WAIT_TIMEOUT) ; 
end;

It works for DOS commands, but it does not work for a console application. The console application starts and executes correctly but it hangs in the repeat until (Apprunning <> WAIT_TIMEOUT) loop. What could I try to solve the problem?

Thank you very much!

Answer 1

To summarize: @David Heffernan's code in Execute DOS program and get output dynamically works. The problem is that the console application emits UTF-16.