Desination file with space in directory name

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

I am trying to copy a file from my windows web server to a windows info server.

My destination file works great if no space in the directory name. But if I copy to a directory that has a space in its name it wont copy:

my $destinationFile = "\\\\myinfoserver\\abc\\the directory\\";
[download]

Here is my copy command:

system("copy $sourceFile $destinationFile > nul") == 0 ||  die "Databa
+se did not copy: $!";
[download]

Please advise how I get this to copy using the system command. If I didnt have a space in the directory name it would work.

Comment on Desination file with space in directory name Select or Download Code

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Re: Desination file with space in directory name by Hue-Bond (Priest) on Jul 28, 2006 at 18:20 UTC
Why don't you use File::Copy? It's as simple as: `use File::Copy; copy "a b", "c d";` [download] -- David Serrano	[reply] [d/l]
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Re: Desination file with space in directory name by swampyankee (Parson) on Jul 28, 2006 at 19:28 UTC
`system` uses the shell. You've got two options: as several people have already suggested, use `File::Copy` (probably the best course) or quote the source and destination files. I believe this is as simple as `$destinationFile = '"' . $destinationFile . '"';` [download] emc Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. Groucho Marx	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Desination file with space in directory name by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Jul 28, 2006 at 18:36 UTC
Try `system( qq[copy "$sourceFile" "$destinationFile" > nul] ) == 0 \|\| die "Database did not copy: $!";` [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: Desination file with space in directory name by bobf (Monsignor) on Jul 30, 2006 at 04:42 UTC
`my $destinationFile = "\\\\myinfoserver\\abc\\the directory\\";` Holy backslashes, Batman! Please take a look at File::Spec. It will require a few extra characters to construct a path name, but it will take care of the directory separators for you so you don't have to escape them manually. It will also do it portably, so if you ever run this on a different OS you won't have to scan through your code to check how the paths were constructed. It's got a great little set of methods for manipulating file and path names, and I've found it to be a good little module to know. It's also part of the core distribution, so there is no extra installation required. :-)	[reply] [d/l]