System substitution

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

I need to run a dos program from Perl. Now the program string and the parameter have imbedded spaces, I am having problems with my escaping. I have tried all sorts of variations. Currently I have the executable working, but the parameter fails. This works :-

$ENV{TYPE}='c:\scotts test\type me';
$rc = system("\"$ENV{TYPE}\" c:\\test.bat");
[download]

This fails :-

$ENV{TYPE}='c:\scotts test\type me';
$new_debug_log='c:\scotts test\type me.bat';
$rc = system("\"$ENV{TYPE}\" \"$new_debug_log\"");
[download]

type me.bat contains

@echo off
@type %1
[download]

It's driving me - crazy

Comment on System substitution Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: System substitution by robartes (Priest) on Nov 20, 2002 at 12:36 UTC
You need to make sure that the shell sees the "scotts test" and "type me" as one name each, and not parse the space in between as a seperator. Conversely, the space before your argument should be parsed as a separator: `use strict; my $command='c:\"scotts test"\"type me"; my $argument='c:\"this is a"\"multi word argument"'; print $command." ".$argument; __END__ c:\"scotts test"\"type me" c:\"this is a"\"multi word argument"` [download] If you replace the print by a call to system(), that should do the trick. It's been a couple of years since I've done anything on the Windows command line, so I might be wrong in my quoting syntax, which would kind of defeat the entire purpose of this post, but there you go :) CU Robartes-	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Re: System substitution by LTjake (Prior) on Nov 20, 2002 at 13:01 UTC
on win2k, atleast, these are equivalent: `C:\>"c:\my test\type me" "c:\my test\type me.bat" @echo off @type %1 C:\>c:\"my test"\"type me" c:\"my test"\"type me.bat" @echo off @type %1` [download] Any idea about older win32s? -- Rock is dead. Long live paper and scissors!	[reply] [d/l]
Re: System substitution by LTjake (Prior) on Nov 20, 2002 at 12:34 UTC
When i run your program, i get the following output (on win2k): `$ENV{TYPE}='c:\my test\type me'; $new_debug_log='c:\my test\type me.bat'; $rc = system("\"$ENV{TYPE}\" \"$new_debug_log\""); __output__ @echo off @type %1` [download] That seems right to me, `type` prints out the contents of the file, and that happens to be the contents of that file. I would probably use the `q()` command instead of escaping things. `$ENV{TYPE} = q("c:\my test\type me"); $new_debug_log = q("c:\my test\type me.bat"); $rc = system("$ENV{TYPE} $new_debug_log"); __output__ @echo off @type %1` [download] HTH -- Rock is dead. Long live paper and scissors!	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: System substitution by AcidHawk (Vicar) on Nov 20, 2002 at 13:04 UTC
I find problems with this all the time.. I have had to resort to the following ... `use win32; $path = "C:\\Test Path\\test file.bat"; $parameter = $ARGV[0]; unless ($bat_file = Win32::GetShortPathName($path)) { print "$bat_file - Path Problems in Setup for $path: $^E\n"); exit(); } $bat_file =~s /\\/\//g; print "$bat_file\n"; system("$bat_file $parameter");` [download] I have tested this code and it does take the command line param from the .pl script and place it after the shortened path with the bat file. I was only echoing a hello %1 in the bat file and from the command line running 214402.pl AcidHawk which resulted in the bat file echoing Hello AcidHawk.. Update: Hmm... let me relook at this question.. You can use the Win32::GetshortPathName for both your $ENV{TYPE} as well as your $new_debug_log. The code above can still apply though instead of using $ARGV[0] use your $new_debug_log var that you have got the short path name for.. ----- Of all the things I've lost in my life, its my mind I miss the most.	[reply] [d/l]