❔ Create console app with runtime option to run headless or with console in .NET 6 or later?
I want to build an application that gives the user running it the option to display the console or to not display the console (headless console). I know that InteropServices is capable of hiding the window. This is a mostly satisfactory solution, except it's kind of ugly because running the application does briefly display the console. I'm wondering, is there a way in .NET 6 or later to specify when running a console application to hide or show the console?
7 Replies
what is your
OutputType on your project?
if you use WinExe instead of Exe then it will not show the console if you run it by double clicking it or whatever
but, you might also want to consider making your application a service instead of a typical exe if that might suite it betterYeah but I don't want to use a property of the project. I want to give a runtime option to users of the app.
As far as I know, Exe always shows and WinExe always hides
how would you dynamically let the user show/hide the console?
what kinda of application are we talking about
command line, either env variable or arg
it's a bot that maintains a websocket connection with remote host and has a web api
There are multiple ways to do what you are trying to do, but why not have different apps?
1. the primary functionality of the bot in a
WinExe app that is hidden
2. a monitoring app that is a Exe that prints out whatever output you want to see
user could launch and close the monitoring app as they see fitin windows if its launching in the old cmd window (not the new terminal) you can pinvoke
GetConsoleWindow and ShowWindow to hide and show the console window trough code. oh i guess you already knew. the other option is starting without a console and using AllocConsole to get a console windowWas this issue resolved? If so, run
/close - otherwise I will mark this as stale and this post will be archived until there is new activity.