Opening a text file in its native application

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

Dearest Monks,

I don't understand why the following piece of code does not work the way I expect it (it opens a command prompt window when I expect it to open notepad). My goal is to open a .txt file in its native application which I assume to be notepad. The file is created and closed before I attempt to run this piece of code.

sub logfile{
        my $file = "$gGui{complogpath}/$gGui{complog}.txt";
        my @args = ("start",$file);
        for (@args) {
                  if (/ /) { $_ = qq{"$_"};
                }
        };
        system(@args) == 0
          or warn "Couldn't launch '$file' : $!/$?/$^E";
}#logfile
[download]

The following code opens Guide in its native application (adobe). In this case I don't worry about the path because I know that that file is in the same folder than the application code.

sub help{
        my $file = "Guide.pdf";
        my @args = ("start",$file);
        for (@args) {
                  if (/ /) { $_ = qq{"$_"};
                }
        };
        system(@args) == 0
          or warn "Couldn't launch '$file' : $!/$?/$^E";
}#help
[download]

In the first code that does not work, I have to give the full path and I have a feeling that it is the problem. I don't pass all the pieces correctly. (?)

I would appreciate any thoughts you may have.

Thanks in advance for your time.

Claire

Comment on Opening a text file in its native application Select or Download Code

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Re: Opening a text file in its native application by sk (Curate) on Jan 16, 2006 at 06:44 UTC
Start does not like spaces in the dir names (even if you quote them). Here is one way - `use strict; use warnings; use File::Basename; my @args = ("start/d", "c:/program files/T.txt"); my $file = pop(@args); push (@args, '"'. dirname($file) . '"', basename($file)); system(@args) == 0 or die $@;` [download] (This will not work for filenames with spaces, not sure if start can handle it anyways). -SK	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Opening a text file in its native application by FM (Acolyte) on Jan 16, 2006 at 07:03 UTC
Hi SK, This is wonderful! It works! Thank you so much! Claire	[reply]
Re: Opening a text file in its native application by helphand (Pilgrim) on Jan 16, 2006 at 06:10 UTC
My guess is that the start command will not accept a path. `START ["title"] [/Dpath] [/I] [/MIN] [/MAX] [/SEPARATE Ś /SH +ARED] [/LOW Ś /NORMAL Ś /HIGH Ś /REALTIME] [/WAIT] [/B] [command / pr +ogram] [parameters]` [download] You might try using the /Dpath switch to specify the startup directory, that may work. Can't check here, no windows system available at the moment ;) Scott	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Opening a text file in its native application by FM (Acolyte) on Jan 16, 2006 at 06:27 UTC
Hi Scott, Thank you for your reply. I have tried a few different ways to use the /Dpath switch, but I am not sure I got the syntax right--even though Perl is not giving me any warning. Could you give me an example with my code? Thanks, Claire	[reply]
Re: Opening a text file in its native application by pKai (Priest) on Jan 16, 2006 at 11:47 UTC
`my $long = 'D:/temp/spa ce/ab cd.txt'; my $short = Win32::GetShortPathName($long); system('start', $short);` [download] This will also avoid the problem that spaces in the actual filename cannot be handled/escaped in the `start` call. It's not necessary to issue a `use Win32;`, since `GetShortPathName` is accessible as core function in AS perl on Win.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Opening a text file in its native application by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Jan 16, 2006 at 06:26 UTC
It works for me. With or without the path; with the path equating to the cwd or not; it works. What if any error messages are you getting when it fails? What output do you get from the following commands? `P:\>assoc .txt .txt=txtfile P:\>ftype txtfile txtfile=%SystemRoot%\system32\NOTEPAD.EXE %1` [download] Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. Lingua non convalesco, consenesco et abolesco. -- Rule 1 has a caveat! -- Who broke the cabal? "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Opening a text file in its native application by sk (Curate) on Jan 16, 2006 at 06:52 UTC
Can you try the start command with a directory that contains a space? Start (at least for me) balks on dirnames with spaces. I am not sure if it will ever work on filenames with spaces. You have to use /d and specify the path with the space.	[reply]
Re^2: Opening a text file in its native application by FM (Acolyte) on Jan 16, 2006 at 06:43 UTC
Hi, I get the same answers than you when I run the two commands you gave me.	[reply]
Re^2: Opening a text file in its native application by FM (Acolyte) on Jan 16, 2006 at 06:40 UTC
Hi, It does not give me an error message. It opens a command prompt window instead of the file.	[reply]
Re^2: Opening a text file in its native application by FM (Acolyte) on Jan 16, 2006 at 06:50 UTC
hi, I try the start command and opening a file and it works for me too, but in my code, I have a button that calls that sub and that might be the problem?? Thanks, CL	[reply]
Re^3: Opening a text file in its native application by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Jan 16, 2006 at 07:09 UTC
sk hit the nail on the head. The start command appears to have problems with paths that contain spaces, even if you quote them. However, I have found that it you quote the individual element of the path that contains the space, it then works. So, for the path `c:\program files\junk.txt`, if you issue the command `system 'start', '"c:\program files\junk.txt"';` [download] it fails, but if you issue the command `system 'start', 'C:\"program files"\junk.txt';` [download] It succeeds. So you would need to modify your quoting mechanism to be something like this (untested): `sub logfile{ my $file = "$gGui{complogpath}/$gGui{complog}.txt"; my @args = ("start",$file); for (@args) { s[ ( [\\/] ) ## A path delimiter ( [^\\/]* \s [\\/]* ) ## Two or more non delimiters ## including a space ( [\\/] ) ## Another delimiter ][$1"$2"$3]gx; ## Quote the path element }; system(@args) == 0 or warn "Couldn't launch '$file' : $!/$?/$^E"; }#logfile` [download] Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. Lingua non convalesco, consenesco et abolesco. -- Rule 1 has a caveat! -- Who broke the cabal? "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.	[reply] [d/l] [select]