noclose.exe quoting is incompatible with cmd.exe quoting

[MVV]

It is the fact that cmd.exe uses idiotic quoting system but all applications that start it have to follow its stupid rules.

The rule is that cmd.exe always strips first and last character of passed command line if these characters are double quotes. So this becomes wrong when your command line starts and ends with double quote.

E.g. you want to execute following command line:

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"C:\Program Files\UPX\UPX.exe" "D:\MyFile.exe"

Logical but wrong way of doing that with cmd.exe:

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cmd.exe /K "C:\Program Files\UPX\UPX.exe" "D:\MyFile.exe"

Here cmd.exe executes C:\Program because it cuts outer quotes and gets C:\Program Files\UPX\UPX.exe" "D:\MyFile.exe. Currently noclose.exe starts cmd.exe using this wrong syntax on Shift+Enter.

Stupid but proper way of doing that with cmd.exe (note extra quotes that are required for cmd.exe to be happy):

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cmd.exe /K ""C:\Program Files\UPX\UPX.exe" "D:\MyFile.exe""

This is applied to all Windows NT versions including Windows 2000, XP, 7, 8 - it is a more than 15 years story.
However it wasn't so for Windows 9x with its command.com command interpreter.

[Hacker]

MVV,
The rabbit hole goes so much deeper.

Roman

[MVV]

Wow, what a huge article! Some things are new to me, like inserting a double quote by inserting a pair of double quotes in a quoted string... Also I haven't noticed before that Unix is always passes argv arrays to process creating functions. BTW it is funny that only a page if about Unix and the rest pages are about Windows...

It's a pity that there are so many ways of handling command line arguments and quoting... I prefer simple parsing w\o ugly converting \" to ".

I can't understand the difference between pre-2008 and since-2008 double quoting behaviours: in both of them a pair of double quotes inside of a parameter inserts a double quote into that parameter and continue quoted string...
Got it: in pre-2008 behaviour a pair of double quotes ends quoted string.

[Hacker]

MVV,

Wow, what a huge article!

Those are actually two articles.

Roman

[MVV]

Hacker,
I was talking about second one, but first one is also big.

[ghisler(Author)]

Why is there a problem?

[MVV]

ghisler,
Enter location with spaces in path, then Ctrl+Shift+Enter executable and then some files and press Shift+Enter - wrong command line will be executed because cmd.exe will cut outer quotes and break program path and last parameter. Isn't it a problem?

And anyway it is quite easy to fix: just add enclosing pair of double qoutes!

[ghisler(Author)]

Where should I add extra quotes, in TC when passing the parameter to noclose, or in noclose itself?

[MVV]

In noclose itself:

cmd.exe /k "<exact command line from TC>"

Where command from TC comes as just entire noclose command line and is an absolutely correct command line like "c:\program files\upx\upx.exe" -d "c:\temp\1.exe".

[ghisler(Author)]

OK, could you check whether this does what you need?
https://plugins.ghisler.com/addons/noclose.zip

[MVV]

It seems to be good with fixed noclose! Extra quotes make it working as expected!

[ghisler(Author)]

Thanks, I will include the new noclose in the first beta.

[MVV]

Works fine in 8.52b1, thanks:)