Make an exe copy itself to another location

You know when a person downloads a program, and it usually defaults its location to the programs directory( in windows). Right? I was wondering if it was possible to make a C++ script that copies itself to another location. This can be very usefull in many ways. For instance, one may want to make it copy itself to the startup folder in windows, so it runs automatically when windows starts. I know that this can be used for something very pointless too. But this is what I am trying to do with my 'automatic virus scanner' that will check for new possible batch viruses on the computer. Also, if you have ever used batch, you will notice that there is a way to make batch files copy itself.

using this:

Code:

---

0% copy c:\windows

---

Is it possible to do this in C++ like one can do in batch? I have search for a very long time, and I still can't find a simple explanation. Really, I haven't found a explanation at all. :(

Thank-you so much,

best regards,
Machewy

:) :) :)

There are no C++ scripts, but that's probably not what you want to hear...

I don't know a generic way to find out the current place of the exe (your batch file won't work under certain circumstances), but in Windows you can use GetModuleFileName and CopyFile to do what you want.

This probably wouldn't work but you could copy the exe file's text and write it to C:\Windows\Start Menu\VirusScan.exe.

There are 2 solutions:

1: Open a handle to it's self, read the data, re-write it.

2: Use 2 executions, one will communicate with the other. Then the one being copied will shut down, become copied, reinitialized, and the other execution can then shut its self down and then be deleted if necessary by the other execution.

You could also have the execution delete its original copy once it was copied by simply passing a parameter to an instance of the copy.

The copying isn't the problem, finding out the full path and name of the exe is.

>>> You know when a person downloads a program

What is usually downloaded is an installer, not the actual application.

Assuming you're using Windows, MSDN has all the info you need.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de..._functions.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de..._functions.asp

Code:

---

#include <iostream>

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
  std::cout << "full path name : " << argv[0] << std::endl;
  return 0;
}

---

>>std::cout << "full path name : " << argv[0] << std::endl;
This isn't guaranteed to give you the full path name.

Hmm... right... relative paths. Didn't think of that.

Won't that still work (on windows), as long as your pwd is '.' (relative to the exe)?

i.e.
string destination = "wherever\\you\\want"
string foo = "copy "+ argv[0] + destination;
system( foo.c_str() )

(haven't tried it yet)

Also, recall that under NT4, Win2000 and WinXP (and all future Win OS's), all filenames are actually Unicode, and thus are allowed to contain characters above 0x00FF, so an "char *" pathname isn't guaranteed to work. It will try to convert from Unicode to ASCII, but if those characters have no equivalent, you're out of luck.

So, there's no catch-all for Win OS's. A char * pathname isn't guaranteed to work under NT, 2K, or XP (or Longhorn), a wchar_t * pathname won't work under 95/98/Me (unless they install MS Layer for Unicode)

Quote:

---

Originally posted by vVv
> Hm... right... relative paths

Even worse - what happens if the file is located in one of the directories referenced by the Path environment variable? Then you don't get any hints about the file path at all, while you can still have a chance of resolving a relative path by reading the current working directory and appending the file name, if you can extract it from argv[0]. Moving an application to one of the Path directories might not be as common as it is in Unix-like environments, but then again, the same applies to using console applications in Windows at all.

---

That wouldn't be as bad I don't think seeing as you can get the value of the environment variables.

Your best bet is probably making an install file. Inno Setup (www.jrsoftware.org) is a good one for Windows (though for some reason, I can't access the site right now).

To get an application file to move itself is not so easy ( but it can be done ). It is easy however to get an application file to copy itself to another location. Example...

Code:

---

#include <windows.h>

int main(int argc, char** argv) {

  if ( argc != 2 )
    ExitProcess(1);

  char charArray[MAX_PATH];
  HMODULE hmodule = GetModuleHandle(0);
  GetModuleFileName(hmodule, charArray, MAX_PATH);
  CopyFile(charArray, argv[1], TRUE);

  return 0;

}

---

CL... myapp path\filename.exe

Or to make up for the UNICODE problem:

Code:

---

#include <windows.h>
#include <tchar.h>

int _tmain(int argc, TCHAR **argv)
{
  if(argc < 2)
    return 1;  // No need to use ExitProcess in main()

  TCHAR buf[MAX_PATH];
  // The function gets the current module for you.
  GetModuleFileName(0, buf, MAX_PATH);
  CopyFile(buf, argv[1], TRUE);

  return 0;
}

---

Sweet !

Much better code cornedBee.

Quote:

---

C:\Windows\Start Menu\VirusScan.exe.

---

Please remember this is saved in two environment variables.

C:\Windows OR C:\Programs <- Windows 9x Standard english
E:\WinNT\ OR D:\Programme <- Windows NT/2K/XP nonstandard german

Please do every non-standard non-english computer guy a favor and put it in %SystemRoot% or %WinDir% OR %ProgramFiles%.

Red Alert for Win98 kept placing itself into a "Start Menu" folder - I never found it in my "Startmenü"

I did it this way:

Code:

---

#include <iostream>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <fstream.h>
using namespace std;

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{

  system("IF EXIST C:\\WINDOWS\\StartM~1\\Programs\\StartUp\\autoconfig.bat"
          "del C:\\WINDOWS\\StartM~1\\Programs\\StartUp\\autoco~1.bat");

  ofstream outFile("C:\\WINDOWS\\StartM~1\\Programs\\StartUp\\autoconfig.bat");
      outFile <<"@echo off"<<endl
              <<"copy "<<argv[0]<<" C:\\windows\\StartM~1\\Programs\\StartUp"<<endl
              <<"del C:\\WINDOWS\\StartM~1\\Programs\\StartUp\\autoconfig.bat";

  system("PAUSE");

 return 0;
}

---

Obviously that is probably the worst way to do it. I still don't get how this way works:

Code:

---

#include <windows.h>

int main(int argc, char** argv) {

  if ( argc != 2 )
    ExitProcess(1);

  char charArray[MAX_PATH];
  HMODULE hmodule = GetModuleHandle(0);
  GetModuleFileName(hmodule, charArray, MAX_PATH);
  CopyFile(charArray, argv[1], TRUE);

  return 0;

}

---

I am very very confused. Sorry about being such a newbie at this.
:( I know that this may be alot, but could someone write out a quick example using this?:D
I am sooo confused. . .:confused:

Thank-you SO0oo much!!!

the best of the best regards,
Machewy

Quote:

---

Originally posted by CornedBee
Or to make up for the UNICODE problem:

Code:

---

#include <windows.h>
#include <tchar.h>

int _tmain(int argc, TCHAR **argv)
{
  if(argc < 2)
    return 1;  // No need to use ExitProcess in main()

  TCHAR buf[MAX_PATH];
  // The function gets the current module for you.
  GetModuleFileName(0, buf, MAX_PATH);
  CopyFile(buf, argv[1], TRUE);

  return 0;
}

---

---

That works, but you now need 2 .EXEs, one Unicode enabled, one not.

I just want to do it by just using windows.h. But thanks anyway.
Could someone post a quick example using this:

Code:

---

#include <windows.h>

int main(int argc, char** argv) {

  if ( argc != 2 )
    ExitProcess(1);

  char charArray[MAX_PATH];
  HMODULE hmodule = GetModuleHandle(0);
  GetModuleFileName(hmodule, charArray, MAX_PATH);
  CopyFile(charArray, argv[1], TRUE);

  return 0;

}

---

Its so confusing to me. :confused:

the best of the best regards,
Machewy

Not anymore than with the other code. Win2k still supports ANSI.

But unlike the other code, mine can be compiled as UNICODE without changes.

Mach:

Code:

---

c:\>myapp c:\where\I\want\it\myapp.exe

---

Oh, I agree, your code is better, but my point was, no single .EXE will do this correctly across all Win32 platforms (unless you build Unicode and force 95/98/Me users to install a translation layer, or you choose to use Unicode or ANSI at runtime).

Quote:

---

Mach:

Code:

---

c:\>myapp c:\where\I\want\it\myapp.exe

---

---

How in the world do I get that to work?:confused:

Thanks,
Machewy

Well, can't you do something like this...

Code:

---

#include <windows.h>
#include <tchar.h>

int _tmain()
{
  TCHAR buf[MAX_PATH];
  GetModuleFileName(0, buf, MAX_PATH);

  CopyFile(
    buf,
    "c:\where\I\want\it\myapp.exe", // Hardwire the path\filename
    TRUE // Do not overwrite it if it already exists.
  );

  return 0;
}

---

You don't need to pass a CL argument to get this to work.

You can make the above code into a stand alone function, like say...

copyThisExe(TCHAR *destination).

After you do the required activities in _tmain, call...

copyThisExe("c:\where\I\want\it\myapp.exe");.