Start a detached process on Windows using Golang

start is not a standalone application, it's an (internal) command of the Windows command line interpreter (cmd.exe) (details: Command line reference / Start), so you need a "shell" to run the start command.

Use cmd.exe with the /C parameter, and pass start and your application to run.

Like in this example:

s := []string{"cmd.exe", "/C", "start", `c:\path\to\your\app\myapp.exe`}

cmd := exec.Command(s[0], s[1:]...)
if err := cmd.Run(); err != nil {
    log.Println("Error:", err)
}

Or without the command slice:

cmd := exec.Command("cmd.exe", "/C", "start", `c:\path\to\your\app\myapp.exe`)
if err := cmd.Run(); err != nil {
    log.Println("Error:", err)
}

You may also pass the /b param to start like this if you don't want a terminal window for the launched application:

cmd := exec.Command("cmd.exe", "/C", "start", "/b", `c:\path\to\your\app\myapp.exe`)
if err := cmd.Run(); err != nil {
    log.Println("Error:", err)
}

Tags:

Windows

Go