PFPOSTPRINT issue - follow-up

[Bob Rasmussen]

Ken,

Here may be another approach, based on my experience with similar 
requirements; that is, to run an arbitrary user-supplied command with 
parameters. My approach: use CMD only if the user "program" is a ".BAT". 
If the user specifies an EXE, just run it directly.

On Tue, 18 Dec 2012, Kenneth Brody wrote:

> On 12/18/2012 10:41 AM, Steve Wiltsie wrote:
> > Follow up to my own e-mail - that is probably bad form.  fPTech has
> > determined there is an issue with PFPOSTPRINT in .02 locating files that
> > have a space in the path (ex: PFPOSTPRINT="c:\program
> > files\printwiz40\etc.")  The temp fix is to use the old form = progra~1
> > without any quotes.  Just thought it would be good to post the current
> > status.
> [...]
> 
> The problem, actually, was a change in filePro that now causes it to run 
> into what I might call a "poor design decision" in the Windows command 
> processor.
> 
> The difference is that this works:
> 
>      cmd /c "c:\program files\something\foo.exe" c:\temp\output.txt
> 
> whereas this does not:
> 
>      cmd /c "c:\program files\something\foo.exe" "c:\temp\output.txt"
> 
> See the difference?  It's the quotes around the filename that's passed to 
> the program.  (These quotes are necessary if the filename includes spaces. 
> For example, "c:\users\bob smith\temp\output.txt".)
> 
> Why does this make a difference?  Because "cmd /c" will only handle the 
> quotes around the program name as we would expect only if there are "exactly 
> two quote characters" on the command line.  In fact, it is documented as:
> 
> > If all of the following conditions are met, then quote characters
> > on the command line are preserved:
> >
> > - no /S switch
> > - exactly two quote characters
> > - no special characters between the two quote characters,
> >   where special is one of: &<>()@^|
> > - there are one or more whitespace characters between the
> >   two quote characters
> > - the string between the two quote characters is the name
> >   of an executable file.
> 
> Note the 4th condition as well.  This is why you can't have quotes around 
> the command which uses "progra~1" rather than "program files", for example.
> 
> This works:
> 
>      cmd /c c:\progra~1\something\foo.exe c:\temp\output.txt
> 
> whereas this does not:
> 
>      cmd /c "c:\progra~1\something\foo.exe" c:\temp\output.txt
> 
> 
> There are currently two workarounds that I have come up with:
> 
> 1 - As stated above, use the 8.3 name, without quotes.
> 
> 2 - Add a second quote at the beginning (but *not* at the end) of the 
> command.  For example:
> 
>      set pfpostprint=""c:\program files\something\foo.exe"
> 
> (That way, when the initial quote is stripped as noted above, the remaining 
> quote will work as expected.)
> 
> -- 
> Kenneth Brody
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Regards,
....Bob Rasmussen,   President,   Rasmussen Software, Inc.

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