Retrieves the termination status of the specified process.

Syntax

BOOL WINAPI GetExitCodeProcess(
  __in   HANDLE hProcess,
  __out  LPDWORD lpExitCode
);

Parameters

hProcess [in]

A handle to the process.

The handle must have the PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION or PROCESS_QUERY_LIMITED_INFORMATION access right. For more information, see Process Security and Access Rights.

Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP/2000:  The handle must have the PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION access right.

lpExitCode [out]

A pointer to a variable to receive the process termination status. For more information, see Remarks.

Return Value

If the function succeeds, the return value is nonzero.

If the function fails, the return value is zero. To get extended error information, call GetLastError.

Remarks

This function returns immediately. If the process has not terminated and the function succeeds, the status returned is STILL_ACTIVE. If the process has terminated and the function succeeds, the status returned is one of the following values:

• The exit value specified in the ExitProcess or TerminateProcess function.
• The return value from the main or WinMain function of the process.
• The exception value for an unhandled exception that caused the process to terminate.

Important  The GetExitCodeProcess function returns a valid error code defined by the application only after the thread terminates. Therefore, an application should not use STILL_ACTIVE (259) as an error code. If a thread returns STILL_ACTIVE (259) as an error code, applications that test for this value could interpret it to mean that the thread is still running and continue to test for the completion of the thread after the thread has terminated, which could put the application into an infinite loop.

Requirements

See Also

ExitProcess

ExitThread

Process and Thread Functions

Processes

TerminateProcess

Terminating a Process

WinMain

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Build date: 7/2/2009