How to pass Windows filepaths on command line

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

I'm useless at Windows and failing at passing in a file path to a script from the command line:

perl test.pl --file='test.txt'
...
Could not open 'test.txt': No such file or directory at test.pl
[download]

Note the quotes around test.txt. I tried with the full path

perl test.pl --file='C:\scripts\test.txt'
...
Could not open 'C:\scripts\test.txt': Invalid argument at test.pl
[download]

Script and file are in the same directory. Any help appreciated

Comment on How to pass Windows filepaths on command line Select or Download Code

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Re: How to pass Windows filepaths on command line by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Aug 28, 2014 at 17:57 UTC
Use double quotes (or no quotes if the path doesn't contain spaces) instead of single:`perl test.pl --file="test.txt"` With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday' Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: How to pass Windows filepaths on command line by davido (Cardinal) on Aug 28, 2014 at 17:55 UTC
Without code I can only guess what you are doing with `@ARGV`. I suspect you're using Getopt::Long, which is fine. If there's some other method of processing @ARGV that you're using we should probably know, because that may be relevant. That said, why don't you try `perl test.pl --file="test.txt"`, and `perl test.pl --file="C:\scripts\test.txt"`? The shell will remove the double-quotes anyway, so unless there are special characters you want to preserve, the quoting isn't doing anything for you to begin with. Note the following: `perl -e "print qq{<<$_>>\n} for @ARGV" file=test\test\test __OUTPUT__ <<file=test\test\test>>` [download] In other words, even without quotes, the backslashes are preserved. Now try the same one-liner with double-quotes around the path. The output will demonstrate that the shell is stripping them away. Single quotes don't have that syntactic meaning under Windows. Dave	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: How to pass Windows filepaths on command line by toolic (Bishop) on Aug 28, 2014 at 17:51 UTC
Show us your code that parses @ARGV. Are you using Getopt::Long? Show your open code.	[reply]
Re^2: How to pass Windows filepaths on command line by bangor (Monk) on Aug 28, 2014 at 17:53 UTC
I'm using Getopt::Lucid. Everything works fine on Unix. `my $in_file = $opt->get_file; open(my $fh, "<:encoding(utf8)", $in_file) or die "Could not open $in_file: $!";` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: How to pass Windows filepaths on command line by toolic (Bishop) on Aug 28, 2014 at 17:57 UTC
Your error message has single quotes, but your code does not. Try without the single quotes: `perl test.pl --file=test.txt` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: How to pass Windows filepaths on command line by bangor (Monk) on Aug 28, 2014 at 18:04 UTC
Thanks everyone for the fast replies - removing the quotes worked!	[reply]
Re^2: How to pass Windows filepaths on command line by jellisii2 (Hermit) on Aug 28, 2014 at 20:14 UTC
Beware spaces in your path. Quotes will be required.	[reply]
Re: How to pass Windows filepaths on command line by sandy105 (Scribe) on Aug 29, 2014 at 06:18 UTC
usually i run the programs like perl test.pl "test.txt" if in same folder or full path if not ..	[reply]