[b9] %P or "%P" - How should I handle path with spaces?

[jiangzhenjerry]

I'm constructing custom buttonbar items to be my personal liking, and somehow the behavior of %P is inconsistent when applied to different external applications. I'm not sure if it is a duplicate of petermad's earlier report. If so, excuse me and feel free to merge/delete my post...

Note: Those who want to try out the executables in the examples below, feel free to follow the link to download from their official websites (and may need to install), or download from my GoogleDrive link (64-bit only, extracted from my installation folder, so no need to install and no virus - GoogleDrive's cloud-based virus scan will prove it )

Example 1: *CMD /K CD /D [directory]: Launch CMD with elevated right

Both %P and "%P" work if the path in the active panel has spaces.

Code: Select all

(Works for path with spaces)

buttonNN=%COMSPEC%
cmdNN=*%COMSPEC% /K
paramNN=CD /D "%P"

(Works for path with spaces)

buttonNN=%COMSPEC%
cmdNN=*%COMSPEC% /K
paramNN=CD /D %P

Example 2: FolderTimeUpdate.exe /BaseFolder [directory]: Launch FolderTimeUpdate and fill in with the current path

Only "%P" works if the path in the active panel has spaces. %P doesn't (program launches without any error message, but the path will be truncated up to the first space).

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(Works for path with spaces)

buttonNN=FolderTimeUpdate.exe
cmdNN=FolderTimeUpdate.exe
paramNN=/BaseFolder "%P"

(Doesn't work for path with spaces; path truncated)

buttonNN=FolderTimeUpdate.exe
cmdNN=FolderTimeUpdate.exe
paramNN=/BaseFolder %P

Example 3: WinRAR.exe [directory]: Launch WinRAR and navigate to the current directory

Neither %P nor "%P" works if the path in the active panel has spaces.

Code: Select all

(Doesn't work for path with spaces - error out)

buttonNN=WinRAR.exe
cmdNN=WinRAR.exe
paramNN="%P"

(Doesn't work for path with spaces - error out)

buttonNN=WinRAR.exe
cmdNN=WinRAR.exe
paramNN=%P

[nsp]

what works in many case is "%P\" as the latest \ of %P could be not well interpreted TC try to add itself " when needed but this is not all the time working.

[jiangzhenjerry]

I don't think it is the trailing '\' issue, as the programs here are flexible enough to recognize both [Directory Path] and [Directory Path\]. I tried it directly in command prompt already.

[Dalai]

It depends on how the target program processes parameters. As nsp pointed out, %P always adds a backslash at the end to indicate it's a path rather than a directory. Since the backslash is usually used as an escape character, especially in C/C++ programming languages, the closing quote sign is "escaped", but the opening one is not. This leads to an imbalance in quoting, and there's no guarantee that all programs can handle such situation properly. Appending a backslash to %P escapes the backslash added by %P instead, so the closing quote remains intact.

It's up to debate whether or not TC should add a backslash, but because it has always been doing so, I doubt Ghisler is going to change it now.

If you have doubts about the backslash being the culprit, I suggest to add a question mark as the first character of the parameters field so you can see (and change) the parameters passed to the started programs. Try out different combinations, with and without trailing backslash, quoting and so on. Programs like Process Hacker and Process Explorer can also be used to inspect the command line of the started programs, which might give a clue to the culprit.

Regards
Dalai

[Hacker]

jiangzhenjerry,
As Dalai said, it's the difference between

Code: Select all

"c:\path\with spaces

and

Code: Select all

"c:\path\with spaces"

Roman

[Fla$her]

Neither %P nor "%P" works if the path in the active panel has spaces.

Not confirmed. WinRAR version?

[Horst.Epp]

This button works perfect for path with spaces as expected.
WinRAR is 6.01 x64 (but this not relevant)

Code: Select all

TOTALCMD#BAR#DATA
"C:\Program Files\WinRAR\WinRAR.exe"
"%P"
C:\Program Files\WinRAR\WinRAR.exe
WinRAR


-1

[jiangzhenjerry]

Thanks everyone for sharing so many comments and thoughts. Really appreciated I am really amazed by how friendly and helpful everyone here is. I would hope to reply individually to your comments but fear that the post would be too long. So I'm trying to make my reply short.

Firstly, regarding how applications like WinRAR handle the backslash, they are pretty flexible. WinRAR does not treat [\"] as escaping ["]. For example, manually running the following two commands in the command prompt yields exact same result without errors:

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WinRAR.exe "D:\Downloads\Total Commander"
WinRAR.exe "D:\Downloads\Total Commander\"

Either way - with or without backslash - things are good.

Secondly, the button that @Horst.Epp provided indeed solves the problem. So what's the difference between his button and my original button? I found the answer -- I opened DEFAULT.BAR and noticed that the correct button is actually using double double-quotes (that is, two pairs of double-quotes)

buttonNN=WinRAR.exe
cmdNN=WinRAR.exe
paramNN=""%P""

Note that I didn't type this double double-quotes in DEFAULT.BAR myself. It is auto-generated by either directly pasting @Horst.Epp's code or manually creating a button and put "%P" (including the single pair of double-quotes) in the parameter.

I think my question still remains - why no quotes (as in DEFAULT.BAR) are ever needed in Example 1, and yet in Example 3 I need two pairs of double-quotes (again, referring to DEFAULT.BAR)?

[Fla$her]

2jiangzhenjerry
It's just INI syntax. Create buttons and commands through dialogues, rather than editing these files, then there will be fewer problems.
By the way, instead of %P, another option is already allowed:

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TOTALCMD#BAR#DATA
%ProgramFiles%\WinRAR\WinRAR.exe
-ap"%B"

WinRAR

[jiangzhenjerry]

2jiangzhenjerry
By the way, instead of %P, another option is already allowed:

Thank you for this hint. Yes, it does work.