How to get SVN Commit log using c# Process

Question

I need to get the commit log by date for a svn project using C# application i.e if we have provided the URl , start and end date , we should use the svn.exe in a process to get log details

I have use the command svn log -r {"2007-07-07"}:{2019-11-08} to get the log in command prompt.

            SourcePath = args[0];  // URL link
            var startDate = args[1];
            var endDate = args[2];
            var svnSource = args[3];  // svn.exe location in my machine

            var cmd1 = "cd /";
            var cmd2 = "c:";
            var cmd3 = string.Concat("cd ", svnSource);                              
            var cmd4 = string.Concat("svn log ", SourcePath, " -r {",  startDate, "}:{", endDate, "}");

            ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
            startInfo.FileName = "svn.exe";              
            startInfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;
            startInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
            startInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;
            startInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
            Process process = new Process();
            process.StartInfo = startInfo;


            process.Start();
            process.StandardInput.WriteLine(cmd1);
            process.StandardInput.WriteLine(cmd2);
            process.StandardInput.WriteLine(cmd3);
            process.StandardInput.WriteLine(cmd4);

while (!process.StandardOutput.EndOfStream) {

            string line = process.StandardOutput.ReadLine();
            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(line))
            {
                if (!process.HasExited)
                {

                }
            }

}

I expect the result in the string "line" with all log values but i am getting actual output value as empty. breakpoint does not hit the "while (!process.StandardOutput.EndOfStream)" part itself while debugging.

How to resolve this ? what am i doing wrong here?

Answer 1

First of all, svn.exe will not interpret commands like that, so instead you should start a shell like cmd.exe.

If you're supplying a URL for your SourcePath then svn can run from anywhere from cmd, so you don't need the first 3 commands at all: cmd1, cmd2, cmd3. That being said, you're not gonna need the svnSource variable either.

Of course, you can cd to the root directory to make your output look cleaner.

So these are the modifications I made to your code:

var SourcePath = args[0];  // URL link
var startDate = args[1];
var endDate = args[2];    

var cmd1 = "cd c:\\";
var cmd2 = string.Concat("svn log ", SourcePath, " -r {", startDate, "}:{", endDate, "}");

ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
startInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
startInfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;
startInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
startInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;
startInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
Process process = new Process();
process.StartInfo = startInfo;

process.Start();
process.StandardInput.WriteLine(cmd1);
process.StandardInput.WriteLine(cmd2);

// It's always a good idea to close your standard input when you're not gonna need it anymore,
// otherwise the process will wait indefinitely for any input and your while condition will never
// be true or in other words it will become an infinite loop...
process.StandardInput.Close();

string result = string.Empty; // for storing the svn commit log

while (!process.StandardOutput.EndOfStream)
{
    string line = process.StandardOutput.ReadLine();
    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(line))
    {
        if (!process.HasExited)
        {
            result += line + Environment.NewLine;
        }
    }                
}