GNU bug report logs - #8541
start-process fails when both the program path and an argument contain spaces

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Package: emacs;

Reported by: Ivar Rummelhoff <ivarru <at> gmail.com>

Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2011 10:25:02 UTC

Severity: normal

Done: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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From: help-debbugs <at> gnu.org (GNU bug Tracking System)
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: tracker <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#8541: closed (start-process fails when both the program path
 and an argument contain spaces)
Date: Thu, 01 Oct 2015 07:56:01 +0000
[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
Your message dated Thu, 01 Oct 2015 10:53:56 +0300
with message-id <83pp0z9g8b.fsf <at> gnu.org>
and subject line Re: bug#8541: start-process fails when both the program path and an	argument contain spaces
has caused the debbugs.gnu.org bug report #8541,
regarding start-process fails when both the program path and an argument contain spaces
to be marked as done.

(If you believe you have received this mail in error, please contact
help-debbugs <at> gnu.org.)


-- 
8541: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=8541
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Contact help-debbugs <at> gnu.org with problems
[Message part 2 (message/rfc822, inline)]
From: Ivar Rummelhoff <ivarru <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: start-process fails when both the program path and an argument
	contain spaces
Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2011 12:01:17 +0200
1. Trying to execute

    (start-process "name" "buffer" "D:\\tmp\\xxx yyy\\foo.bat" "yada yada")

writes the following to "buffer":

    'd:\tmp\xxx' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
    operable program or batch file.

    Process name exited abnormally with code 1

Emacs version: GNU Emacs 23.3.1 (i386-mingw-nt6.1.7601) of 2011-03-10 on 3249CTO


2. If space is avoided in either the program path or the argument, as in

    (start-process "name" "buffer" "D:\\tmp\\foo.bat" "yada yada")
or
    (start-process "name" "buffer" "D:\\tmp\\xxx yyy\\foo.bat" "yada-yada")

then everything works well.


3. The same problem occurs when I give `start-process' the program
name only (instead of the full path) as long as the full path to the
program contains spaces (and one of the arguments contains spaces).


4. Quoting the program path or the argument (with " or \) does not
help. If quote the program path, I get "no such file or directory";
and quoting the argument has no effect as long as there is still a
space character "in there". (Besides, it seems any quoting of the
arguments is passed on to the program.)


5. There seems to be no work-around for this in emacs lisp.


Best Regards,

Ivar Rummelhoff


[Message part 3 (message/rfc822, inline)]
From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Noam Postavsky <npostavs <at> users.sourceforge.net>
Cc: 8541-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#8541: start-process fails when both the program path and
 an	argument contain spaces
Date: Thu, 01 Oct 2015 10:53:56 +0300
> Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2015 12:29:41 -0400
> From: Noam Postavsky <npostavs <at> users.sourceforge.net>
> 
> I believe this was fixed along with #18745 (while searching for it I
> happened to stumble upon this one).

Indeed, so closing this one.


This bug report was last modified 9 years and 238 days ago.

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