Problem passing file names with embedded space to Windows executable via bash function

[Ernie Rael]

On 6/26/2015 12:06 PM, JJ Ottusch wrote:
> I am trying to define a function in my '.bash_profile' that takes a file or
> list of files as an argument and passes the list to a Windows executable
> after converting all the filenames to full path filenames with 'cygpath'.

I use something similar to this, perhaps it would meet your needs. You 
may want to use different option to cygpath.

    #!/usr/bin/bash

    targs() {
         if (($# == 0)); then
             args=()
         else
             IFS=$'\n'
             args=($(cygpath -m -- "$@"))
             IFS=$' \t\n'
         fi

         for i in "${args[@]}"; do echo "'$i'"; done

         some_command "${args[@]}"
    }


-ernie

>
> The whole point of the function is to use 'cygpath' to put the filenames in a
> Windows compatible format for me so I don't have to do it every time I call
> the Windows executable from a CYGWIN term.
>
> My function works fine except in cases where any part of the path or filename
> contains a space. In that case the list of arguments the Windows executable
> sees is incorrectly broken apart by the embedded spaces. I can verify this by
> looking at argc.
>
>
> Here are some examples with comments. All commands run from
> '/cygdrive/c/Temp/Part1\ Part2/' in a CYGWIN RXVT term.
>
>
> Let the windows executable be named 'oglv64' and start with the usual
> 	int main(int argc, char** argv)
> Let there be two files it can take as arguments named 'file1' and 'file2' in
> the directory '/cygdrive/c/Temp/Part1 Part2', where 'Part1 Part2' is a
> subdirectory name with an embedded space. Let the defined function be named
> 'foo'.
>
>
> 1. Show the files
>
> $ dir /cygdrive/c/Temp/Part1\ Part2/
> file1*  file2*
>
> 2. Test the function with 'echo' instead of 'oglv64'. 'cygpath' works
> correctly on each file, but there is a bare space between 'Part1' and 'Part2'
> which can be expected to cause problems with 'oglv64'.
>
> $ foo() { echo `cygpath -am "$@"` ; }; foo file*
> C:/Temp/Part1 Part2/file1 C:/Temp/Part1 Part2/file2
>
> 3. So, escape the space. Looks good.
>
> $ foo() { echo `cygpath -am "$@" | sed 's/ /\\\ /'` ; }; foo file*
> C:/Temp/Part1\ Part2/file1 C:/Temp/Part1\ Part2/file2
>
> 4. Although I can't show it, the Window executable works exactly as desired
> when given the above line as its input. argc=3 and 'oglv64' operates on the
> two files as desired.
>
> $ oglv64 C:/Temp/Part1\ Part2/file1 C:/Temp/Part1\ Part2/file2
>
> 5. Now try this inside the function definition. As shown below, this didn't
> work. argc=5 instead of 3.
>
> $ foo() { oglv64 `cygpath -am "$@" | sed 's/ /\\\ /'` ; }; foo file*
> Can't load C:/Temp/Part1\.
> Can't load Part2/file1.
> Can't load C:/Temp/Part1\.
> Can't load Part2/file2.
>
> 6. Put the full argument in quotes and try again. The 'echo' result is
> correct, but given on two separate lines. However, the Windows executable
> sees argc=2 and thinks it's all one long filename. Wrong, as expected.
>
> $ foo() { echo "`cygpath -am \"$@\" | sed 's/ /\\\ /'`" ; }; foo file*
> C:/Temp/Part1\ Part2/file1
> C:/Temp/Part1\ Part2/file2
>
> $ foo() { oglv64 "`cygpath -am \"$@\" | sed 's/ /\\\ /'`" ; }; foo file*
> Can't load C:/Temp/Part1\ Part2/file1
> C:/Temp/Part1\ Part2/file2.
>
> 7. Drop the escaped space and try forcing quotes at the end of each 'cygpath'
> result. Looks fine with 'echo', but the Windows executable still sees argc=5
> rather than argc=3.
>
> $ foo() { echo `cygpath -am "$@" | sed 's/^/\"/;s/$/\"/'` ; }; foo file*
> "C:/Temp/Part1 Part2/file1" "C:/Temp/Part1 Part2/file2"
>
> $ foo() { oglv64 `cygpath -am "$@" | sed 's/^/\"/;s/$/\"/'` ; }; foo file*
> Can't load "C:/Temp/Part1.
> Can't load Part2/file1".
> Can't load "C:/Temp/Part1.
> Can't load Part2/file2".
>
> 8 On the other hand, using the output from 'echo' as a direct argument to
> 'oglv64' works fine.
>
> $ oglv64 "C:/Temp/Part1 Part2/file1" "C:/Temp/Part1 Part2/file2"
>
>
> No success so far. I am looking to find a simple solution to this problem
> (other than eliminating spaces from all file/directory names). It would have
> multiple applications.
>
> jjo
>
>
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