Processes, Threads, and Stacks
The .NET Framework provides managed execution of code. However, managed
applications live alongside unmanaged applications, and need to coexist.
It can be useful for a managed application to have access to information about
the atoms of unmanaged execution, namely operating system processes and threads.
Additionally, since “managed execution” implies the existence of some overarching
facility monitoring the execution process itself, it is not unreasonable to
wish for access to detailed information about the execution process. Both
of these needs are met by the classes in the System.Diagnostics namespace,
providing access to unmanaged processes and threads, as well as access to managed
stack frames. Access to managed threads and AppDomains, which are the managed
equivalent of processes, is accomplished using the System and System.Threading namespaces.
Launching a New Process
The Process class can be used to launch new operating
system processes, enumerate and kill existing ones, and monitor the vital
statistics of a running process. The Process.Start method
has overloads that range from taking the filename of an EXE to launch
to taking a populated ProcessStartInfo instance, which fully
specifies the parameters for process launching. The latter approach can also
be used to capture and redirect the launched process’s stdin, stdout and stderr,
as the following sample demonstrates:
public void LaunchDirCommand() { ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo(); ...