How to pass a folder name to Windows external commands?

freonpsandoz has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I'm trying to pass paths that are folder names and that may contain non-ANSI characters to external commands in Windows. I've tried both Win32::GetANSIPathName and Win32::LongPath::shortpathL. The former seems to always return the original path and the latter seems to always return an empty string. What am I doing wrong? Thanks.

use v5.16;
use strict;
use warnings;
use Win32 ();
use Win32::Console ();
use Win32::LongPath qw(shortpathL);

Win32::Console::OutputCP(65001); # Request Windows console command out
+put in UTF-8  
my $top = shift;

foreach my $foldername ( map { chomp $_; $_ } qx(dir /b /a:d "$top") )
+ {
    my $path = "$top\\$foldername";
    test( "GetANSIPathName", $path, Win32::GetANSIPathName("$path") );
    test( "shortpathL", $path, shortpathL($path) );
}

sub test {
    my ($name, $path, $testpath) = @_;
    my @report = qx(robocopy /njh /nfl /ndl /np /l /s "$testpath" "x:\
+\nodir");
    print( qq($name path "$testpath" didn't work for "$path"\n) )
        unless grep(/^ *Bytes/, @report);
}
[download]

Comment on How to pass a folder name to Windows external commands? Download Code

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Re: How to pass a folder name to Windows external commands? by haukex (Archbishop) on Mar 04, 2022 at 06:20 UTC
`my @report = qx(robocopy /njh /nfl /ndl /np /l /s "$testpath" "x:\\nodir");` See my node Calling External Commands More Safely. In this case, I might recommend IPC::Run3, which on Windows uses Win32::ShellQuote automatically. Edits: Added mention of Win32::ShellQuote and quoted the node.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: How to pass a folder name to Windows external commands? by haukex (Archbishop) on Mar 04, 2022 at 18:45 UTC
I created several directories and files with non-ANSI filenames, and the following code works fine on them - it iterates over the short names such as `"C:\\Temp\\testuni\\5E71~1\\BF49~1.TXT"`. `use warnings; use strict; use Path::Class 'dir'; use IPC::Run3 'run3'; use Data::Dump; my $dir = dir("C:\\Temp\\testuni"); $dir->recurse( callback => sub { my $path = shift; if (!$path->is_dir) { run3 ['hex', $path], undef, \my $out; dd "$path", $out; } });` [download] Don't use `dir` to get a list of filenames, which is why I'm using Path::Class (at the very least, use readdir). Please show a runnable, representative SSCCE that demonstrates the problem you're having, including sample input (directory structure), expected output for that input, and the actual output you're getting including any error messages. And by representative I also mean to please show the actual command you're running, assuming it isn't `robocopy` - since its `/l` option means to just list files, I'm not sure what you're doing with that command in your sample code. One of the things discussed in The problem of "the" default shell, which is linked from my node referenced above, is that a common mistake is to shell out to commands that should be implemented in native Perl.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: How to pass a folder name to Windows external commands? by freonpsandoz (Beadle) on Mar 08, 2022 at 11:41 UTC
I'll try to generate a better example. I'm using 'dir' in an attempt to glob a filespec and get Unicode filenames, which File::Glob::Windows doesn't seem to do. Will Path::Class do that? I'm using robocopy /l to get the total size of a folder, including subfolders. It's supposed to be a fast way to do that. I tried using run3, but I don't understand its rules and haven't got it working yet. Is 'hex' a command in your example? Is there a reason that you used short pathnames? Thanks.	[reply]
Re^4: How to pass a folder name to Windows external commands? by haukex (Archbishop) on Mar 08, 2022 at 18:37 UTC
Re: How to pass a folder name to Windows external commands? (Unicode) by Anonymous Monk on Mar 04, 2022 at 12:10 UTC
What am I doing wrong? you're half a^Befforting, not your fault you need maximum effort. Win32::Unicode Win32::Unicode its simpler/more portable to avoid unicode in filenames and shells Re^4: How can I get a Unicode @ARGV?	[reply]
Re^2: How to pass a folder name to Windows external commands? (Shortpathname) by Anonymous Monk on Mar 04, 2022 at 12:17 UTC
Shortpathname has caveats, cmd.exe dir wildcards with short names, real surprise after a few decades. , newer versions of windows dont turn on 8.3 names by default	[reply]
Re^3: How to pass a folder name to Windows external commands? (Shortpathname) by freonpsandoz (Beadle) on Mar 08, 2022 at 11:45 UTC
Short pathnames will work for my folders, but not for my files. One of the commands I execute to check FLAC files needs the Unicode pathname because it doesn't recognize .FLA files.	[reply]
Re^4: How to pass a folder name to Windows external commands? (Shortpathname) by Anonymous Monk on Mar 09, 2022 at 14:45 UTC


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