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I have a what should be a simple problem. I am trying to execute the code below in PHP. The goal of this code is to upload files from one folder to another folder in an FTP using a program called WinSCP.

exec("C:\\xampp\\winscp.com backup /command \"option confirm off\" \"put C:\\big boy\\Documents\\dev notes\\\" \"exit\"");

The files do not get transferred and the problem I think I am having is because of the spaces I have in my directory where big boy and dev notes are. I tried including another double quote between:

C:\\big boy\\Documents\\dev notes\\\

but it did not work.

Martin Prikryl
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user875139
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    You would do the same as you would in the operating systems shell. Please provide the command working in cmd, otherwise this is not related to PHP and exec specifically, but to windows shell. – hakre Dec 27 '12 at 16:12

2 Answers2

3

Let's first off all bring this down to earth a little bit. The following line:

exec("C:\\xampp\\upload.exe backup /command \"option confirm off\" \"put C:\\big boy\\Documents\\dev notes\\\" \"exit\"");

You're mainly interested in the actual string of the command, let's rewiew it:

C:\xampp\upload.exe backup /command "option confirm off" ⤦ 
⤥"put C:\big boy\Documents\dev notes\" "exit"

As it should now be obviously visible to you, this is not a valid command in shell. Consult the documentation of upload.exe in which format the value of the /command switch has to be passed.

As you have not provided any reference what upload.exe is, I can not give a more concrete suggestion here. However, one common way to deal with these problems is to first assign the command to a variable and then execute it. This allows to display debugging information which then allows to easily fix things:

$command = "C:\\xampp\\upload.exe backup /command \"option confirm off\" \"put C:\\big boy\\Documents\\dev notes\\\" \"exit\"";
exec($command);

It might be that it's just (guessed only, this is how it work with cmd /k):

$command = 'C:\xampp\upload.exe backup /command ""option confirm off" ⤦ 
⤥"put "c:\big boy\Documents\dev notes\" "exit""';

Edit: And now as you wrote it is actually the winscp.com command, I would assume:

$command = 'C:\xampp\upload.exe backup /command "option confirm off" ⤦ 
⤥"put ""c:\big boy\Documents\dev notes\""" "exit"';

With the following rules:

  • Each single command has to be wrapped into " quotes if it contains spaces.

    option confirm off
"option confirm off"

  • If a command contains also " quotes, those have to be doubled ""

    put "c:\big boy\Documents\dev notes\"
"put ""c:\big boy\Documents\dev notes\"""
hakre
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  • Thanks for the detailed reply. I just tried making a variable like you did for $command to my path. However it still does not work. backup.exe is one of the saved sessions I made in the winscp program. Some examples are here http://winscp.net/eng/docs/commandline – user875139 Dec 27 '12 at 16:40
  • Which program is `upload.exe`? Just `winscp.exe` renamed? *Edit:* I'd say now `winscp.com`, right? – hakre Dec 27 '12 at 16:42
  • yes winscp.com or winscp.exe just renamed. Sorry for the confusion – user875139 Dec 27 '12 at 16:44
  • Well, have you double checked the examples given with `/command` here: http://winscp.net/eng/docs/commandline ? There are examples with spaces, quotes, quotes and spaces and so on and so forth. For example `winscp.com /command "open ""My session""" "put ""C:\Documents and Settings\martin\Documents\myfile.dat"""` – hakre Dec 27 '12 at 16:45
  • This will be a silly question but what are those arrows next to confirm off" and "put? Are they just spaces? – user875139 Dec 27 '12 at 16:54
  • They should just signal line-wrapping, so it's more easy to read. Remove them including the line-break between them to get the original string. Replacing them with spaces should not hurt but was not intended. – hakre Dec 27 '12 at 16:57
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Put single quotes around it like this:

exec("cd 'C:\\Program Files'");
Get Off My Lawn
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