Re: Windows 2000 and XP and exec and double quotes

From: Benjamin Riefenstahl (Benjamin.Riefenstahl_at_epost.de)
Date: 01/28/04 

Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 12:28:43 +0100

Hi Richard,

rauletta@viawest.net (Richard Auletta) writes:
> Here is TCL:
>
> % exec cmd.exe /c echo hello
> hello
> % exec cmd.exe /c echo hello
> hello
> % exec cmd.exe /c echo "hello"
> hello

These look all correct to me. On the Tcl level the literal constants
hello, "hello" and {hello} mean the same string.

> % exec cmd.exe /c echo \"hello\"
> \"hello\"
> % exec cmd.exe /c echo {"hello"}
> \"hello\"
>
> This last one strikes me very odd.

These two are indeed where you hit the problem in Windows [exec].
Note that, as I said before, quotes can not occur in Windows filenames
(try it from Explore or from CMD.EXE, if you don't believe me), so the
fact that [exec] escapes quotes is not a problem with filename
parameters.

> As to why I want to include double quotes, that is what
> ntbackup wants.

Does ntbackup explicitly want quotes (like the FIND command does it)?
In that case you are hosed, because you can control the quoting the
[exec] does with that kind of detail.

OTOH, if ntbackup only needs quotes, iff the parameter contains
spaces, that is exactly how [exec] works, so this would not be a
problem.

> From the doc, clearly the " are in bold and are required (though not
> if the value does not contain spaces.)

Than everything is fine.

You can try out what actually happens, if you replace ntbackup with
this little batch instead:

>>>>>>> test.bat <<<<<<
@echo off
echo.|time >> c:\tmp\test.bat.log
echo %0 %* >> c:\tmp\test.bat.log
echo ----- >> c:\tmp\test.bat.log
>>>>>>> end of test.bat <<<<<<

benny

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