For example, foo -option 10->30 file.ext (this is an actual syntax required) redirects the output to a file named 30. How do I make cmd understand that I would like to pass the actual > character? I've tried several forms of double quotes to no avail.
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MaxVT
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The cmd escape character is ^ so:
foo -option 10-^>30 file.ext
should work for you
MattB
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I never would have known/guessed that - I still can't believe that someone is writing windows software the requires a reserved character. – mfinni Mar 26 '10 at 15:12
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1@mfinni: I often use the caret as escape in a FOR loop containing pipe(s). Long live batch! :) – jscott Mar 26 '10 at 16:26
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2@jscott - lets not start that craziness :) Powershell to the rescue. – MattB Mar 26 '10 at 18:35
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@mfinni: It's perfectly normal in most other places (such as Linuxland). – user1686 Mar 26 '10 at 20:19
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@grawity - that's why I specified "windows software". I know that when you're doing stuff in shell/batch or via pipes or other weird-ish environments, even in windows, you have to escape a lot of things. But he just said he's using cmd - I never would have thought someone would purposefully write something that guaranteed wouldn't work from cmd. – mfinni Mar 26 '10 at 21:07
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@mfinni But it does. You just need to escape it as usual. – user1686 Mar 27 '10 at 19:06
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@grawity It's a tool ported from Linuxland, so they may not be aware of other operating systems' limitations... or aware, but not particularly interested in accommodating Windows users. – MaxVT Apr 23 '10 at 18:12
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Ask the vendor for the foo command how it's supposed to work?
mfinni
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−1. That's the shell and not the program doing something with the `>` here. – Joey Mar 27 '10 at 11:43
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I understand that - I simply don't see a competent vendor writing software for windows with syntax that *won't work out of the box* on the default shell. Not sure the -1 is necessary. – mfinni Mar 27 '10 at 15:40