How can I wait for an application launched by another application launched by my application Qt/C++ - c++

Question

I'm creating a Windows Add/Remove Programs application in Qt 5.4 and I'm becaming crazy to solve a little "puzzle":
My application (APP_0) runs another application (APP_1) and waits for this APP_1 until it terminates.
APP_1 is an uninstaller (i.e. uninstall.exe) and I've not the source code of the APP_1, just of my Qt APP_0.
APP_1, instead of doing the uninstall job, it simply copies itself somewhere in the filesystem (I saw as Au_.exe but other apps could use different names and locations), runs this copy of itself (APP_2) and terminates.
The APP_2 has a GUI and the job I'm waiting for (uninstall) is demanded to the final user of the running APP_2.
In this situation my application (APP_0) stops waiting for APP_1 pratically immediately (because it launches APP_1 and waits for APP_1). But to work properly, obviously, I need to know instead when APP_2 is terminated...
So the question is:
is there a way (using some techniques (hooking?)) to know if and when APP_2 terminates?
Note: Consider that the standard Windows Add/Remove Programs utility does the job successfully (it seems it waits for APP_2). You can test this, for example, installing Adobe Digital Edition. Its uninstaller (uninstall.exe) copies itself into a new folder in the User_Local_Temp folder as Au_.exe, runs it and terminates. But the OS utility successfully waits for Au_.exe and only after it terminates refreshes the list of installed programs.
If this kind of technique (uninstall.exe copies itself somewhere ALWAYS with THE SAME name (Au_.exe) ) the problem could be resolved, obviously, very simply. But I don't think that the name of the copied uninstaller is always the same and also I don't like to assume things I'm not sure are real.
Many thanks in advance

Answer 1

Thanks to IInspectable's suggestion (see his comment... and many thanks guy!) I created a function which solves my problems! I'll share here this function which could be useful to other people with the same (or similar) problem.
For my needs, the function receives as parameter the index of the item to be uninstalled (from a QList) and gets the uninstall string (for example: C:\ProgramFiles\MyApp\uninstall.exe).
Then with this uninstall string, I'll create a process (CreateProcess) and put its handle into a Job Object, so that my function will wait for all the processes ran by this process.
The function itself is pretty simple and can be improved.
Notice that the process MUST be created with the CREATE_BREAKAWAY_FROM_JOB option, otherwise the AssignProcessToJobObject will fail with a "Access Denied" error.
void MainWindow::uniButtonClick(int idx)
{
QMessageBox::StandardButton reply;
QMessageBox::StandardButton err;
reply = QMessageBox::question(this, "Uninstall/Change", "Uninstall " +
ip[idx].displayName +"?\r\n\r\n" + ip[idx].uninstallString,
QMessageBox::Yes|QMessageBox::No);
if (reply == QMessageBox::Yes)
{
//QString s = "C:\\windows\\notepad.exe"; // Just to test Job assignment and createprocess
QString s = ip[idx].uninstallString; // the real uninstaller string
QString jobName = "MyJobObject";
try
{
PROCESS_INFORMATION ProcessInfo; //This is what we get as an [out] parameter
STARTUPINFO StartupInfo; //This is an [in] parameter
PJOBOBJECT_BASIC_PROCESS_ID_LIST pList;
HANDLE hProcess;
BOOL bJobAllEnd;
ZeroMemory(&StartupInfo, sizeof(StartupInfo));
StartupInfo.cb = sizeof StartupInfo ; //Only compulsory field
wchar_t* path;
path = (wchar_t*) malloc (sizeof(wchar_t)*s.length()+1);
s.toWCharArray(path);
path[s.length()]=0; // Null terminate the string
// Create the process with CREATE_BREAKAWAY_FROM_JOB to overcome the AccessDenied issue on AssignProcessToJobObject.
if(CreateProcess(NULL, path, NULL, NULL, FALSE, CREATE_BREAKAWAY_FROM_JOB|CREATE_SUSPENDED, NULL, NULL,&StartupInfo, &ProcessInfo))
{
pList = (PJOBOBJECT_BASIC_PROCESS_ID_LIST)GlobalAlloc(GMEM_FIXED, 10000);
HANDLE jobObj = CreateJobObject(NULL, (const wchar_t*)jobName.utf16());
if (AssignProcessToJobObject(jobObj, ProcessInfo.hProcess) != 0)
{
ResumeThread(ProcessInfo.hThread); // Process assigned to JobObjext, resume it now
do
{
QueryInformationJobObject(jobObj, JobObjectBasicProcessIdList, pList, 10000, NULL);
bJobAllEnd = TRUE;
for(DWORD i=0; i<pList->NumberOfProcessIdsInList; i++)
{
hProcess = OpenProcess(SYNCHRONIZE, FALSE, pList->ProcessIdList[i]);
if(hProcess != NULL)
{
CloseHandle(hProcess);
bJobAllEnd = FALSE;
}
}
Sleep(500);
} while(!bJobAllEnd);
}
else
qDebug() << "AssignProcess to Job failed: error = " << QString::number(GetLastError());
GlobalFree(pList);
CloseHandle(jobObj);
CloseHandle(ProcessInfo.hThread);
CloseHandle(ProcessInfo.hProcess);
}
}
catch(QString error)
{
QMessageBox::critical(this, "File not found!", "The requested uninstaller doesn't exists", QMessageBox::Ok);
}
// refresh list
handleButton();
}
}