Command line passing quotes within quotes

Question

I've been searching for a solution to this but couldn't find one. Not sure if its possible.

Can I pass into command-line execution that passes a in a bat file which has an input file as its arguments?

So from the command-line it'll look like this:

C:\run.exe "C:\space folder\run.bat "C:\space folder\input.txt""

The problem is with the folders that has spaces so the quotes are required to be in there.

score 16 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 10 '13 at 01:41

16

Try this:

C:\run.exe "C:\space folder\run.bat \"C:\space folder\input.txt\""

And here is a link that you can see all escape characters http://www.robvanderwoude.com/escapechars.php

answered Dec 10 '13 at 01:41

Jorge Campos

I thought about that, but wouldn't it err on the last address location, I.e. it would attempt to view input.txt/ as a folder? – user2958652 Dec 10 '13 at 01:43
No, It parses all line before execute. – Jorge Campos Dec 10 '13 at 01:44
Ahh. Can't one also use UNIX styled directory syntax on windows? E.g. C:/space\ folder/run.bat? – user2958652 Dec 10 '13 at 01:49
Yeah, acn, but some batch commands could not execute with this syntaxe. I've had running on issues on this paste time, but I don't remeber right now. – Jorge Campos Dec 10 '13 at 01:52
I see. +1 by the way for reference. – user2958652 Dec 10 '13 at 01:55
I tried running that and in my run.exe i just call "echo %1" to see if the whole string got parsed. But i got this in return: "C:\space folder\run.bat \"C:\space It cuts off in the space from the input.txt directory – user2617566 Dec 10 '13 at 03:03

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 04 '16 at 14:03

1

I know it's an old topic, but I found the answer and would like to share.

In Windows you don't have to escape the quotes. Just use them normally.

In this case:

C:\run.exe ""C:\space folder\run.bat" "C:\space folder\input.txt""

answered Mar 04 '16 at 14:03

Rafa Jaques

4

Are you sure? I made a simple run.bat file with two lines "echo %1" and "echo %2". Then I passed in your suggested string as argument. The first parameter %1 was shown to be ""C:\space and the second was shown to be folder\run.bat" "C:\space – Tormod Oct 21 '16 at 18:40
echo may be a special case since it's not really disk-based command, but a built-in one. It may just output everything after it. – Cthutu Jan 04 '19 at 13:25
The problem is that there are two different ways to receive command lines, `GetCommandLine()` or `main(int, char**)`. `echo "Hello"` prints quotes while the same received as `args[]` has no quotes. – Renate Jan 09 '23 at 12:03

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 27 '22 at 11:59

1

In the end, all I needed was quotes.

winrs -r:MACHINE001 ""C:\Program Files\MyApp\My App.exe" -x "LOTS OF PARAMETERS""

edited Oct 27 '22 at 11:59

Adriaan

answered Oct 27 '22 at 11:57

JRH

3 Answers3