Windows: system() and PAUSE

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

Not really a problem, but just to satisfy my curiosity: On Windows, the following commands work the same from the Windows command line:

perl -we "system('pause')"
pause
cmd /c pause
[download]

but the following does not:

perl -we "system('cmd /c pause')"
[download]

It says that the command 'pause' is not found. How come? PAUSE is, AFIK, an internal command of CMD.EXE, and doing a "cmd /c pause" from the command line works fine. Why does it not work when called from Perl via system()?

--
Ronald Fischer <ynnor@mm.st>

Comment on Windows: system() and PAUSE Select or Download Code

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Re: Windows: system() and PAUSE by Anonymous Monk on Apr 09, 2010 at 09:26 UTC
command not found cmd.exe site:perlmonks.org: Re^2: system command can't spawn cmd.exe: `$ perl -we" system qw[ C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.EXE /c pause ];" Press any key to continue . . .` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Windows: system() and PAUSE by rovf (Priest) on Apr 09, 2010 at 10:04 UTC
Indeed, this worked (I just had to adjust the path, since I'm running Windows 2000): `>perl -we "system qw[ C:\WINNT\system32\cmd.EXE /c pause ];" Drücken Sie eine beliebige Taste . . . >perl -we "system qw[ cmd /c pause ];" Der Befehl "pause"" ist entweder falsch geschrieben oder konnte nicht gefunden werden.` [download] This is really weird. It applies to all internal commands, while external ones work well even without specifying a path: `>perl -we "system qw[ cmd /c ls.exe ];" ....` [download] I really would like to know what's going on here.... -- Ronald Fischer <ynnor@mm.st>	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Windows: system() and PAUSE by ikegami (Patriarch) on Apr 09, 2010 at 18:37 UTC
Which build of AS? Out of curiosity, which of the following work? `perl -we"system qw[ cmd /c pause ];" perl -we"system qw[ cmd.exe /c pause ];" perl -we"system 'cmd /c pause';"` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: Windows: system() and PAUSE by rovf (Priest) on Apr 12, 2010 at 13:26 UTC
Re^5: Windows: system() and PAUSE by ikegami (Patriarch) on Apr 12, 2010 at 16:00 UTC
Re^5: Windows: system() and PAUSE by Anonymous Monk on Apr 12, 2010 at 13:45 UTC
Re^3: Windows: system() and PAUSE by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Apr 09, 2010 at 10:31 UTC
Does `c:\WINNT\system32` appear in your path?	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: Windows: system() and PAUSE by rovf (Priest) on Apr 09, 2010 at 12:02 UTC
Re^5: Windows: system() and PAUSE by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Apr 09, 2010 at 12:06 UTC
Some notes below your chosen depth have not been shown here
Re^3: Windows: system() and PAUSE by cdarke (Prior) on Apr 09, 2010 at 10:27 UTC
Maybe you have another version of cmd.exe in your path? Try using `%comspec%` - that works for me on Windows XP and 7. `C:\>perl -we "system('%comspec% /c pause')" Press any key to continue . . .` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: Windows: system() and PAUSE by rovf (Priest) on Apr 09, 2010 at 11:59 UTC
Re: Windows: system() and PAUSE by cdarke (Prior) on Apr 09, 2010 at 09:00 UTC
Works for me, Windows XP: `C:\>perl -we "system('cmd /c pause')" Press any key to continue . . .` [download] Update: also works on 64-bit Windows 7 from cmd.exe and PowerShell (ActiveState 5.10.1).	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Windows: system() and PAUSE by ikegami (Patriarch) on Apr 09, 2010 at 08:59 UTC
Works for me. ActiverPerl 5.6.0, 5.6.1, 5.8.0, 5.8.8, 5.10.0, 5.10.1	[reply]
Re^2: Windows: system() and PAUSE by rovf (Priest) on Apr 09, 2010 at 10:16 UTC
Error occurs for me with ActivePerl 5.8.8, but not 5.10.0. I tested so far on Windows 2000. Will try to retest on other platforms too. -- Ronald Fischer <ynnor@mm.st>	[reply] [d/l]