Re^9: Poll: Is your $^X an absolute path? (system @list)

Nice straw man. I didn't advocate changing system($line) so arguing how that is a bad idea doesn't really support your point that system(@list) shouldn't be fixed on Win32 to (almost) work as documented (and how it works on other Perls).

But we should fix system(@list) to work as system(@list) is defined by the Perl documentation, as much as practical. Passing arguments to some command is something that is often needed. There really isn't anything not portable about code like:

system( $yourConfiguredEditor, $fileName )
[download]

Nor is there some more portable way to enable a script to launch your favorite editor on some file.

And there is no reason to desire that everyone who does anything like that to have to write code like this instead:

    if(  $^O =~ /Win32/  ) {
        system( qq("$yourEditor" "$fileName") );
    } els...
[download]

This is just a long-standing bug that should be fixed. Your position that we should improve the situation by requiring people to instead write:

    if(  $^O =~ /Win32/  ) {
        system( $yourEditor, qq("$fileName") );
    } els...
[download]

makes little sense to me. (:

- tye

Comment on Re^9: Poll: Is your $^X an absolute path? (system @list) Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^10: Poll: Is your $^X an absolute path? (system @list) by xdg (Monsignor) on Aug 18, 2006 at 16:08 UTC
Wow. Today really seems to be my day for talking past people. Maybe I should stop posting any more today -- there must be something in the air. Nice straw man. I didn't advocate changing system($line) Going way back in the thread, I'd suggested 'if only one argument is provided, we have to assume the user provided a valid command line on the current platform', from which you quoted the 'assume...' part and said '...I strongly disagree'. That's what prompted my response. To use a co-worker's term, I think you, me and BrowserUK are in violent agreement that `system(@list)` on win32 should be fixed to quote the initial argument, but that `system($line)` is up to the user to do the right thing. As a minor note, my suggestion about documenting a recommendation of double quotes was only for the `system($line)` form, like so: `if ( $^O =~ /Win32/ ) { system( qq{"$yourEditor" "$filename"} ); }` [download] There should be a general warning in docs for the `system($line)` form about making assumptions about spaces in filenames. On linux, they can be escaped with backslashes. On Win32, each argument that might have spaces needs to be wrapped in quotes. And so on. Generally, I think people should be encouraged to use `system(@list)` unless they really need to depend on the shell for something (e.g. file redirection). -xdg Code written by xdg and posted on PerlMonks is public domain. It is provided as is with no warranties, express or implied, of any kind. Posted code may not have been tested. Use of posted code is at your own risk.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^11: Poll: Is your $^X an absolute path? (system $cmd,@list) by tye (Sage) on Aug 18, 2006 at 16:37 UTC
That mostly sounds wonderful. Thanks. Sorry for any contributions I made to the confusion. (: However: `system(@list)` on win32 should be fixed to quote the initial argument, (emphasis added). I agree that the initial argument should be quoted. I strongly disagree that the subsequent arguments should not be quoted. I'm glad that you've dealt enough with the problem of spaces in command path names to understand the value in removing the portability problem. I'm sad that you don't see that the problem for the remaining arguments is nearly identical. We can't solve this problem for the remaining arguments as solidly as for the first argument, but the same problem can be improved quite well fairly simply and it would be a huge improvement for being able to do a lot of things more portably in Perl. - tye	[reply] [d/l]