Few questions: use of a manifest, string modification

[slackwarefan]

Hello everyone,

This is (as far as I can recall) my first post here, so "Hello", and if I do something worthy of criticism, please go easy. :-p

I have two questions.

First, I'm trying to make a program that needs to be run as administrator. I've seen several programs, one example is MalwareBytes anti-malware, which has the microsoft shield icon added to the program icon, indicating that the program will be run as an administrator. I need to do something like that with my program, so that users do not need to right click and choose "Run As Administrator", and can instead just run it, and get the "Are you sure" (or whatever) prompt. From what I've read, the way to do this is using a manifest. The thing is, I haven't been able to find any information on how to attach a manifest to my program. I don't know if it makes a difference, but I'm using Dev-C++. I'm assuming that I'd make a resource file that somehow references the manifest, but I really have no idea.

Second, I need help with string modification. I need to copy the program that I am running, using the program that I'm running to the appropriate location. I tried using

CopyFile(GetCommandLine(), "C:\\whatever\\directory\\is\\destination\\filename.exe", TRUE)

, however, the issue is that GetCommandLine() returns the directory without the double back-slashed to compensate for the escape character, so CopyFile fails. What I need to do then, is find a way of adding the second backslash to the value that is returned from GetCommandLine().

This actually leads me to a sub-question which is not as important as the others, but here goes:
I tried using strtok() to split up the string that contained the directory and file name, at the backslashes. My plan was to split it up into all of the seperate parts and then to use strcat(? Think that's the one, either way to add strings), to put the strings back together with the double backslashes. Now this was just a test on a seperate random source file and is not the program I'm actually writing, but anyway, here's what I tried (which failed):

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <windows.h>

FILE *fp;
int writefile(FILE *fname, char *wstring);

int main(int argc, char *argv[]){
    
    char *original = GetCommandLine();
    writefile(fp, original);
    char *tok[17];
    *tok[0] = strtok(original, "\\");
    int i = 1;
    while(*tok[i] != NULL){
              printf("%s\n", tok[i]);
              *tok[i] = strtok(NULL, "\\");
              i++;
    }
    //printf("%s\n", original);
    
    system("pause");
    
    return 0;
}

int writefile(FILE *fname, char *wstring){
    fp = fopen("tester.txt", "w");
    if(fp == NULL)
          printf("Error\n");
    fprintf(fp, "%s\n", wstring);
    fclose(fp);
}

What I was trying to do was make an array of pointers which would be strings returned by strtok(). For some reason this kept giving me compiler errors. Specifically this error:

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\Dev-C++\randomtemp.cpp invalid conversion from `char*' to `char'

I don't know if that matters, because I'm thinking there must be an easier way to do this which I hope someone here can help me with .

Anyways, that's all of my stupidity concentrated into one post, so if anyone can help me with this it would be super-amazingly appreciated. (Seriously)

Thanks in advance,
-Primux (slackwarefan)

[Kennedy]

First, I'm trying to make a program that needs to be run as administrator. I've seen several programs, one example is MalwareBytes anti-malware, which has the microsoft shield icon added to the program icon, indicating that the program will be run as an administrator. I need to do something like that with my program, so that users do not need to right click and choose "Run As Administrator", and can instead just run it, and get the "Are you sure" (or whatever) prompt. From what I've read, the way to do this is using a manifest. The thing is, I haven't been able to find any information on how to attach a manifest to my program. I don't know if it makes a difference, but I'm using Dev-C++. I'm assuming that I'd make a resource file that somehow references the manifest, but I really have no idea.

Splitting this into two answers. . . and oh, by the way -- OUCH!

Okay, first I'd guess that MalwareBytes is actually running as a service and not as a program. IIRC, administrator MUST be the one that installs this app, thereby allowing unprivileged users the opportunity to access it without needing Admin rights.

This, however, is mainly a GUESS.

[claudiu]

Several issues with your code ( that I can spot without compiling it):

1) Where are you allocating memory for the "array" of strings?

From what I can tell you want a an array of strings that are all size 17, however there is no such memory allocation.

2) You are testing if tok[i] is NULL for i starting at 1. It won't be NULL, it will always be some garbage because tok[i] for i >= 1 is NEVER INITIALIZED. Perhaps you should printf(tok[i]) after calling strtok.

3) For God's sakes don't use DevCpp. It's garbage from my point of view. Another free alternative would be CodeBlocks which is usually highly recommended on this forum and is IMO 10 times better than Dev.

[Kennedy]

Second, I need help with string modification. I need to copy the program that I am running, using the program that I'm running to the appropriate location. I tried using

CopyFile(GetCommandLine(), "C:\\whatever\\directory\\is\\destination\\filename.exe", TRUE)

, however, the issue is that GetCommandLine() returns the directory without the double back-slashed to compensate for the escape character, so CopyFile fails. What I need to do then, is find a way of adding the second backslash to the value that is returned from GetCommandLine().

Do who by what? You do understand that when you build this string:

char astring[] = "This \\ has \\ backslashes \\ \\ \\ \\ in it.\n";

that the string actually is:
"This \ has \ backslashes \ \ \ \ in it
"

[slackwarefan]

You do understand that when you build this string:

char astring[] = "This \\ has \\ backslashes \\ \\ \\ \\ in it.\n";

that the string actually is:
"This \ has \ backslashes \ \ \ \ in it

Yes, I understand that, that's why I need to add the backslashes.

From what I can tell you want a an array of strings that are all size 17, however there is no such memory allocation.

No I'm trying to make an array with 17 elements which are pointers to strings. If that's the best way to do this, then how do I do this, otherwise, what's the best way to add these backslashes?

-Thanks

P.S. Kennedy: why do you say:

and oh, by the way -- OUCH!

[tabstop]

Yes, I understand that, that's why I need to add the backslashes.

If you understood that, then you would know why you don't need to add the backslashes. The double backslashes only appear in your code, never in the actual data itself. If you pass CopyFile a path with two consecutive backslashes in it, CopyFile will be not amused.

[quzah]

Why don't you just use forward slashes?


Quzah.

[slackwarefan]

If you understood that, then you would know why you don't need to add the backslashes. The double backslashes only appear in your code, never in the actual data itself. If you pass CopyFile a path with two consecutive backslashes in it, CopyFile will be not amused.

I understand that, however I got an error when I passed single backslashes. I'm not expecting it to show double backslashes as part of the path, but if the string only has a single backslash then copyfile will think it's an escape character. Nonetheless, I got that issue resolved.

The only remaining issue I have is how do I attach a manifest to my project?

Anyone familiar with this?

[Kennedy]

P.S. Kennedy: why do you say:

Reading the whole thing at one time hurt my head. . . when I hurt I say OUCH!