/C perl pScript "Test Folder\input File.txt"
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Though, it is generally not a good idea to have spaces in file or folder names.

Living in the 80s, are we? It's common practice these days.

Though, it is generally not a good idea to have spaces in file or folder names.

Living in the 80s, are we? It's common practice these days.

Still doesn't make it a good idea ... common practice or not

If you want to start a process in C# without worrying about quotes, use the ProcessStartInfo structure to describe the process, then start it. It's pretty easy to use (see the linked docs) and you won't have to worry about quoting.

In perl we have the same situation: You can start a process by making a command-line string or use the name and list of arguments to start the job.

Note: in the linked docs, you'll also see that the Process.Start() method will take the executable and list of arguments, too, if you don't need to alter any other parameters before starting up the job.

...roboticus

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.

Hi roboticus

"In perl we have the same situation: You can start a process by making a command-line string or use the name and list of arguments to start the job."

This is what I was trying to achieve in C# with

string args = @"/C perl.exe " + pScript + " " + _dirPath;

On the command line it should be

perl finddupes.pl Test Folder

except because of the space in Test Folder it doesn't work, The pScript variable is a script selected via a ComboBox and _dirpath is a folder selected via a folder browser dialog

If I change the folder to Test_Folder then this works fine, the actual folder I am trying to check cannot be changed as it's a folder on my works NAS

I'll look more into ProcessStartInfo then, I have a WinForms front end to run my Perl scripts hence the original question.

In both perl and C#, the simple "pass a command-line string" version of starting a command actually fires up a command shell which breaks the line up into pieces in order to actually start the process. Since you already have the pieces ahead of time, you can avoid that overhead by starting up the process with the argument list already separate:

// C#
using System.Diagnostics;

class MyProgram {
    static void Main(string[] args) {
        string MyExe = "C:\path\to\perl.exe";
        string MyScript = args[0];
        string MyDir = "Test Dir";
        
    Process.Start(MyExe, MyScript, MyDir);
    }
}

# Perl
my ($MyExe, $MyDir) = ("C:/path/to/perl.exe", "Test Dir");
my $MyScript = shift;
system($MyExe, $MyScript, $MyDir);
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If you use the ProcessStartInfo structure to configure your process before you start it, you can do nice things like capture the output stream(s), set up the environment variables, etc.

Update: the description of process startup is deliberately simplified, the actual process is a bit smarter than that.

...roboticus

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.

Thanks for your example, I'd still have to rename a folder, I can't though because it's on my work NAS.

But you did give me the idea of perhaps having a few more ARGV's to pick up each word in the folder name and then performing a string concatenation. Not the most efficient though especially if the folder selected had 10 words each separated by spaces.

I'll be using the example by Roboticus