11.57b1 Bug with commands in the Dir Hotlist

[JOUBE]

Previously, spaces could appear at the end of commands in the directory hotlist. These spaces might have been introduced, for example, when copying batch files from the TCP command line, or for other reasons. The hotlist ignored these (virtually invisible) spaces up to 11.57b1 and was therefore fault-tolerant. This was a very good thing and must remain so. It had been in this way for decades.

Unfortunately, this has - apparently - been affected by the new * (admin) routine in the command line and is now intolerant. This is not good with 2000 possible entries and cannot remain as it is; it must be made simpler again. Especially since TC often copies a trailing space along with the command and this is unvisible.

Very important issue!

[petermad]

Confirmed.

This new problem with trailing spaces also applies to the Start Menu and to Buttons, but not to em_commands

[ghisler(Author)]

Can you explain in which case you need a space at the end of a command line, please?

[petermad]

It is not about needing a space, but they can easily end up there without being noticed. In previous versions of TC they were ignored, but since they are not ignored anymore in TC 11.57b1 there is a risk that a lot of the user's existing Hotlist and Start Menu entries and Buttons will no longer work. So in this way you can say that TC 11.57b1 is not backwards compatible

[ghisler(Author)]

Can you give me an example where TC 11.57b1 behaves differently from TC 11.56 in the directory hotlist?

For testing, a changed an entry from
c:\dir1\dir2
to the same with a space at the end. Invoking that entry goes to
c:\dir1
both in TC 11.57b1 and TC 11.56 with IgnoreDirErrors not set, and shows <Read error!> with IgnoreDirErrors set.

[JOUBE]

Now I have time to answer. Sorry for the late answer. I do not have checked it, but I think from my 1500 items have more then half of them trailing spaces. Because of the standard behavior of Tc in the command line. It adds - if Ctrl+Enter - a trailing space (Do not change this!). With copying this the traling space came to the end of a command in the hotlist. So it is a must to be tolerant with spaces at the end (not only one). Every thing else is a step back to neanderthal.

Code: Select all

Kommando c:\patha\pathb\get_list.cmd 
Kommando c:\patha\pathb\get_list.cmd

Now it is your turn (ghisler(author)) to find the difference between the two commands... One of them give the Tc error 32 back ("Progamm nicht gefunden")...
A tip: one have a trailing space

This is a really very big bug within 11.57b1 and should be fixed in beta 2, please.

Joube

[petermad]

With IgnoreDirErrors=1 the command:

Code: Select all

cd c:\windows 

with a trailing space goes to "c:\windows \" which displays a read error

With IgnoreDirErrors=0 the command goes to
"c:\windows\"

That is the same in TC 11.56 and 11.57b1

--------------------------------------

With the command:

Code: Select all

%COMMANDER_PATH% 

with a trailing space in TC 11.56 starts a new instance of Total Commander

But in TC 11.57b1 I get the error (this is the example of the new behavior:

---------------------------
Total Commander
---------------------------
Error executing program! (31)

"Den angivne fil blev ikke fundet."
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

The message in quotes is in Danish indicating that it comes for Windows.


It is the same with for example these commands with trailing spaces:

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C:\totalcmd\TOTALCMD64.EXE 
C:\Program Files\totalcmd\TOTALCMD64.EXE 
C:\totalcmd\TOOLS\UltraTC\Configuration Editor.exe 

but not for:

Code: Select all

notepad.exe 
c:\windows\notepad.exe

It seems to matter whether the program is in the path environment variable or not

I cannot find a pattern of which .exe files will work and which will not with a trailing space in TC 11.57b1.

[JOUBE]

It is the same with for example these commands with trailing spaces:

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C:\totalcmd\TOTALCMD64.EXE 
C:\Program Files\totalcmd\TOTALCMD64.EXE 
C:\totalcmd\TOOLS\UltraTC\Configuration Editor.exe 

Yes.

but not for:

Code: Select all

notepad.exe 
c:\windows\notepad.exe

It seems to matter whether the program is in the path environment variable or not

That may be true, but that's not the point here, because we're not talking about special cases, but about the behavior as a whole, which has been radically changed with 11.57b1.

There will be thousands of bug reports if the previous behavior isn't exactly restored.

Unfortunately, I will be unavailable for a few days and cannot reply, sorry.

Joube

[petermad]

That may be true, but that's not the point here, because we're not talking about special cases,

I tried with many different .exe files and I could not find a pattern of when I get the error, so it is not really a matter of special cases.

[JOUBE]

That may be true, but that's not the point here, because we're not talking about special cases,

I tried with many different .exe files and I could not find a pattern of when I get the error, so it is not really a matter of special cases.

Yes, that may be possible.

My unavailably is in a few hours. Therefore, I can add something here before.

It's even worse than that:

When I compared it to another older INI file (11.56), I noticed that the space is even enclosed in quotation marks.

Code: Select all

cmd1100="c:\patha\pathb\get_list.cmd "

- within the konfiguration these quotation marks are not visible!
- If I remove within the konfiguration the trailing space (which is not realy visible, only by pressing <end> key) it look like this (all this automaticly by TC: add quotation marks, remove quotation marks) :

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cmd1100=c:\patha\pathb\get_list.cmd

All this is invisible within within the konfiguration .

I assume it happens like this: if you add an entry with a trailing space (about 90% of my entries aren't directories but program launches, mostly batch files). If you then edit the entry by changing the title (and only the title), the command is then enclosed in quotation marks. I don't have time to reproduce this in detail right now, but I suspect that's how it's happening.

dirhotlist and quotation marks: It's always been a problem, as you can read in the forum. Sometimes there are none, sometimes there are, sometimes there are two. Although ghisler (author) always reacted with something like, "Why...?, I don't understand...?, It's due to Microsoft and the INI management..." and all with was manageable over the time for the user. No real problem. If you were aware of it, all of this is now being seriously disrupted. This shouldn't be happening after about 30 years (dirhotlist must have existed since around 2001). It's really simple. Just leave everything as it is and only change something if there's an asterisk at the beginning. Otherwise, please don't change anything.

Thanks.

[ghisler(Author)]

Thanks for the explanation, so this is about launching programs and not about opening directories. I was confused because the thread was about the directory hotlist, which is normally used for directories. This is unintentional, I will fix it.

[petermad]

2ghisler(Author)
Now you are at it, maybe you could fix the problem with opening directories (cd) when IgnoreDirErrors=1 and there is a trailing space.

[ghisler(Author)]

But is it really an error? It worked like that in older versions...

[JOUBE]

Please do not change anything (in plain English: absolutely nothing) in the routines in this area, but leave them exactly as they are. Thank you. The reason is that these routines (with all their quirks and bugs) have evolved over decades, and everyone has (consciously or unconsciously) adapted to them and can live with them. Any change in this area could lead to unintended and unresolved side effects.

These unintended side effects in 11.57b1 arose because the * was introduced in the command line. For this case, and only for this specific case, it can be rewritten. Please leave everything else as it was up to 11.56.

As ghisler(author) wrote: "It worked like that in older versions..." and that's how it should, no, must remain, so that Tc retains its status as reliable software.

[ghisler(Author)]

2JOUBE
I agree. Could you please check whether the change introduced with 11.57 beta 1 (space at end of program) has been fixed?