how to open a file with space in its name

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

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: how to open a file with space in its name by Corion (Patriarch) on Jan 05, 2006 at 08:21 UTC
Use the list version of `system`, which is safer anyway: `my @cmd = ($ENV{COMSPEC}, "/c", "start", "soffice.exe", $file); system(@cmd) == 0 or die "Couldn't launch @cmd: $! / $?";` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: how to open a file with space in its name by bart (Canon) on Jan 06, 2006 at 01:19 UTC
Until very recently, perl on Win32 allegedly simply turned the `system LIST` into the `system STRING` version, without adding quotes. In other words, it still wouldn't have worked. I'm not sure when the backward incompatible change was introduced.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: how to open a file with space in its name by arunmep (Beadle) on Jan 05, 2006 at 08:31 UTC
it was working correctly thank you very much	[reply]
Re: how to open a file with space in its name by inman (Curate) on Jan 05, 2006 at 09:38 UTC
I amd assuming that you are using Windows - A file path with embedded spaces needs to be delimited by double quotes. Add escaped double quotes around your $file. This is what you would have to do if you typed in the command yourself. `sub{system "start soffice \"$file\""})` [download] As mentioned previously, the new style of system command removes this ambiguity and will make for a more portable program.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: how to open a file with space in its name by suaveant (Parson) on Jan 05, 2006 at 15:35 UTC
If one is trying to escape filenames etc in a situation like this I prefer `"start soffice \Q$file\E";` [download] to `"start soffice \"$file\"";` [download] that way anything weird in the string is escaped, including " chars that may be in it... of course, the list version of system is safer. - Ant - Some of my best work - (1 2 3)	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: how to open a file with space in its name by Corion (Patriarch) on Jan 05, 2006 at 15:37 UTC
Which will not work for Win32 filenames, as a file named `c\:\\autoexec\.bat` does not exist. Also, the quoting rule of double quotes (`"`) is different for `cmd.exe` too - `""` gets converted to `"`, `"""` gets converted to `""` and so on. I think. In any case, `quotemeta` is not what you want when quoting strings for `cmd.exe` or `command.com`.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: how to open a file with space in its name by suaveant (Parson) on Jan 05, 2006 at 16:44 UTC
Re^2: how to open a file with space in its name by Anonymous Monk on Nov 04, 2008 at 13:30 UTC
In unix , how can we open a file with space in its name. Please paste the command and help me out.	[reply]
Re^3: how to open a file with space in its name by ikegami (Patriarch) on Nov 04, 2008 at 13:44 UTC
Use the multiple argument version of system	[reply]
[OT] Re: how to open a file with space in its name by astroboy (Chaplain) on Jan 05, 2006 at 14:23 UTC
It looks like the OP may be performing this operation under Windows (space in the name). When specifically code for that OS, I usually pass the file name to Win32::GetShortPathName, which will provide the canonical short name (sans spaces, 8.3 format), and I dont have to worry about spaces in the names	[reply]
Re: how to open a file with space in its name by samizdat (Vicar) on Jan 05, 2006 at 14:01 UTC
It also helps in making it universal to add './' (UN!X) or '.\' (M$W) to the front of the filename. Some web designers (including mine) use -filename.inc strings in order to make them difficult to read or list. Don Wilde "There's more than one level to any answer."	[reply]