space in filepath and in filename for system function

[anniyan]

Dear Monks,

I have little bit trouble in system function. If i use the file name which has space in it, it creates problem.

example:

system ("adrl.exe d:\anniyan\filemod\chapter1.doc");

it works well, whereas the following is not

system ("adrl.exe d:\anniyan\file mod\chapter 1.doc");

What is the reason and solution for such problems?

[gellyfish]

You probably want to use the multiple argument system :

system ('adrl.exe','d:\anniyan\file mod\chapter 1.doc');

With the single argument your file name will be broken up on white space and passed to the program as multiple arguments.

/J\

[anonymized user 468275]

re. With the single argument your file name will be broken up on white space and passed to the program as multiple arguments.

I expected this to be the case, but before posting a similar reply to yours I went and tested it with two tests (because the OP is using DOS -- I speak unix, which would not accept this and I normally only speak DOS under duress, usually in the form of extra money ;)):

cd I AM AN EXISTING DIR

type I AM AN EXISTING FILE

The DOS session (under windows NT) managed to perform these correctly and as single arguments rather than trying to access a list of files.

[anniyan]

Thanks for your reply.

I have stored that path in a variable $file.

It is passing the variable name itself as a argument.

system ('adrl.exe', '$file') || die ("not correct path");

[davorg]

Well yes. It would. If you put it in a single-quoted string. Variables aren't expanded in single-quoted strings. You need a double-quoted string. Or, actually, you don't need any quotes at all.

system ('adrl.exe', $file) || die ("not correct path");

[swift]

You can set file name and its path into a variable and use quotemeta()

$file=quotemeta('d:\anniyan\file mod\chapter 1.doc');
system ("adrl.exe" $file);

[furry_marmot]

DOS/Windows needs double quotes, not single quotes, to quote things. And when you use the name of a file with a space in it, you need to quote the name, since the command-line interpreter breaks things up by space. Thus, on the command line, you could type

adrl.exe "d:\anniyan\file mod\chapter 1.doc"

and that will work fine. So, for your perl script, consider (among other solutions)

system qq(adrl.exe "d:\anniyan\file mod\chapter 1.doc");