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I am trying to call Beyond Compare Windows app to perform a file compre directly from Mac but I am block with command line argument passing.

You can call Windows applications from the OS X command line via something like:

open "$HOME/Applications (Parallels)/{ca50aac6-caa6-47a6-9bfe-e38f6261cb8d} Applications.localized/python.exe.app" --args -v

Still, it seems that there is a problem when you try to pass arguments.

3 Answers 3

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APPROACH 1

This approach is a hack, but works with the least expensive version of Parallels.

On the virtual Windows machine:

  • Create a *.bat file for each possible set of parameters. For example:
     @echo off
     start "" "C:\Program Files (x86)\MyApplication.exe" --myArg
     exit

On the Mac:

  • Navigate to $(HOME)/Applications (Parallels)/VMNAME Applications, where VMNAME is the name of a virtual machine.
  • Duplicate the MyApplication.app application bundle and rename the duplicate MyApplication --arg.app.
  • Right-click MyApplication --myArg.app and choose "Show Package Contents*.
  • Open Contents/Resources/AppParams.pva in an editor (e.g., TextEdit), and change the value of the App Path property to the absolute path in the virtual machine to the *.bat file, rather than the application. Save the file.

This is similar to @johnl's answer above, which provided the vital clue. However, at least in Parallels 11, the App Path property would only work with an application path, not with a command line.

APPROACH 2

As of Parallels 11, this approach requires one of the more expensive editions of Parallels - Pro or Business. I don't have either, and haven't tested this approach.

According to the Parallels manual Parallels Desktop for Mac Pro Edition, the command prlctl exec can accept a command to be executed on the Windows virtual machine.

prlctl exec

Executes a command inside a virtual machine. Parallels Tools must be installed in a virtual machine to use this utility. Commands in Linux guests are invoked with bash -c.

Syntax

prlctl exec vm_id|vm_name command

Parameters

Name Description

vm_id|vm_name The UUID or the name of the virtual machine.

command A command to execute.

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  • I like the sound of approach 2 but it doesn't work for me on my Windows 10 VM. I can exec ... cmd.exe (but this starts an interactive shell in the host terminal, it doesn't open cmd up inside the guest). If I try something like exec ... notepad.exe then nothing happens at all.
    – cdlk
    Oct 26, 2015 at 15:34
  • @cdlk - I'm not able to test this approach myself. In your case, did you start the command with prlctl? Do you have Parallels 11 with the Pro or Business edition? Oct 27, 2015 at 12:26
  • No worries. I'm actually evaluating the trial version of Parallels Pro 11 at the moment. I contacted Parallels support earlier on (re. exec on Windows VMs) and they pointed me towards approach 1 instead, so I guess this isn't supported on Windows. Out of interest, on OSX VMs, I can run prlctl exec ... open /Applications/Notes.app/ and this opens the notes app in the guest as you'd expect.
    – cdlk
    Oct 27, 2015 at 17:42
  • Unfortunately Parallels' prlctl does not seem to allow passing command line arguments or setting environment variables in the guest app, without kluges such as placing such things in a file to pass across the Host/Guest boundary. By comparison, VirtualBox makes this easy to do: VBoxManage guestcontrol start [--exe] [--putenv][--unquoted-args]. More and more I regret having chosen Parallels rather than VirtualBox.
    – Krazy Glew
    Dec 23, 2016 at 19:46
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this is a neat hack to get parameters passed to your windows applications:

http://forum.parallels.com/threads/batch-files.11285/

The salient pieces:

  1. copy and rename the Windows Command Processor.app application bundle in your Parallels Applications directory. (should be in ~/Applications (Parallels)/{<GUID>} Applications.localized).
  2. edit Renamed Windows Command Processor.app/Contents/Resources/AppParams.pvaand change the App Path property to ...\cmd.exe /C <path-to-windows-executable> <parameters>
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  • Thanks for this. I think that this means that the <parameters> need to be hardwired in the AppParams.pva file. Is there any way to pass these from the MacOS environment or command line? I.e. to have a MacOS script (e.g. bash) take command line parameters that it passes across Parallels to a script in the Windows guest? (Apart from modifying the .app bundle or the AppParams.pva file on the fly, which is annoying to make MP safe; generating is MP safe, but leaves garbage that mist be cleaned up.)
    – Krazy Glew
    Dec 23, 2016 at 17:49
  • I vaguely remember this working when I first started using Parallels circa 2 years ago in 2015 - editing the .app bundle AppParams.pva and changing the command. Not enough for me to really start using it. But working enough that I thought it might eventually be made to work. // Unfortunately, now, in 2017, 2 years later and several updates of Parallels and MacOS, it works not at all. In fact, when I do such edits, even just adding a single blank character after cmd.exe fails - when I run such a bundle, it gets deleted !!! // Probably some security feature, but I am stymied.
    – Krazy Glew
    Jan 4, 2017 at 17:30
  • As described in stackoverflow.com/questions/41456329/… I have switched to using VirtualBox for automation, because because I was not able to get any form of parameterized automation of GUI apps running across Parallels. But I would love to get automation across Parallels working, since Parallels does some things better than VirtualBox.
    – Krazy Glew
    Jan 4, 2017 at 17:41
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I spent a while trying to implement the solution 1 here, and then found an alternative with the latest Parallels.

Any file with a cmd extension gets executed in the Parallels Windows VM (VBS files too)

So you can create a cmd file with START and your parameters (see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/154075/using-the-start-command-with-parameters-passed-to-the-started-program ) and use

open TheCreatedFile.cmd

to execute it.

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