%O parameter doesn't quote filenames with spaces

[Rekrul]

Well, this certainly seems like a bug, and I couldn't find anything about in the documentation, but I'll probably be told that it's working the way it was intended...

The help files says that the parameter %N inserts the selected filename, and that %O inserts the selected filename without the extension.

Let's say that you have a file called My Book Report.txt

%N = "My Book Report.txt"

%O = My

Yes, you can avoid this by enclosing %O in quotes yourself, but why do you have to?

If this is the intended behavior, can someone please describe to me a scenario where you would only want the first word of a filename containing spaces that isn't a completely obscure and unique one-off case?

[Sir_SiLvA]

Let's say that you have a file called My Book Report.txt

%N = "My Book Report.txt"

%O = My

Wrong
%O = My Book Report

You just have a default behaviour that another program that gets My Book Report split it by spaces if you dont use quotes

Yes, you can avoid this by enclosing %O in quotes yourself, but why do you have to?

Because contrary to you programs cant think

[Fla$her]

Yes, you can avoid this by enclosing %O in quotes yourself, but why do you have to?

"new text %O new text.%E"
Need more explanations?

[ghisler(Author)]

TC does not add quotes around most parameters like %O because they are often combined with others, e.g. the user could write %O_copy.%E or so.
Quotes are added for %N, %P%%N, %T, %T%M and a few others. User %Q at the start to turn off automatic quotes.
Currently it's not planned to add automatic quotes to more placeholders, sorry.

[petermad]

Moderator message from: petermad » 2024-01-23, 19:24 UTC

Moved to "TC Behaviour which will not be changed" from "TC11.x bug reports (English)"

[Rekrul]

Wrong
%O = My Book Report

You just have a default behaviour that another program that gets My Book Report split it by spaces if you dont use quotes

You mean virtually every Windows program in existence?

While there may be some programs that will accept a filename with spaces in it that isn't quoted, the vast majority will interpret space as a delimiter and stop reading a filename there. Can you name a common Windows program that accepts filenames on the command line, which doesn't need filenames with spaces to be enclosed in quotes?

TC does not add quotes around most parameters like %O because they are often combined with others, e.g. the user could write %O_copy.%E or so.
Quotes are added for %N, %P%%N, %T, %T%M and a few others. User %Q at the start to turn off automatic quotes.
Currently it's not planned to add automatic quotes to more placeholders, sorry.

Thank you for the explanation. May I respectfully suggest that the help file should make it clear which parameters will be enclosed in quotes and which won't be? I'm not suggesting that it be stated in the description for each and every parameter, maybe just a note at the top like "Please note, only the following parameters will be enclosed in quotes if they contains spaces, all others you will have to enclose in quotes yourself: %N, %P%N, %T, %T%M..."

[Dalai]

May I respectfully suggest that the help file should make it clear which parameters will be enclosed in quotes and which won't be?

I agree that this piece of information should be available in the TC help. Support++

[iG0R]

Quotes are added for %N, %P%%N, %T, %T%M and a few others.

Could you please clarify which parameters or something else I need to add so that each argument passed is enclosed in quotation marks in the following situation:
I have a PowerShell script that takes multiple folder paths as arguments. The folder names may contain spaces and words that resemble cmdlets, that is why they need to be enclosed in quotes.
For example, when I pass the following folder as an argument:

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f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\DiskInternals (FileSystemsReader)

and use the following parameters:

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%X%Y%P%S%T%R

i get the following error:

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FileSystemsReader : The term 'FileSystemsReader' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or
operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try
again.
At line:1 char:117
+ ... t2.ps1 f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\DiskInternals (FileSystemsReader)
+                                                        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (FileSystemsReader:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException

No matter where in the parameters I put quotation marks to enclose the folder names, they are never enclosed in them when passed to the script as arguments. For example:

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"%X%Y%P%S%T%R" or %X%Y"%P%S%T%R" or %X%Y"%P%S%""T%R" etc.

But I found a workaround for this situation and enclosed the parameters in single quotes:

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'%X%Y%P%S%T%R'

Now it works and with such folder names as well:

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f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\PlugIns\UpdateFolderModifiedDate-test2.ps1 'f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\DiskInternals (FileSystemsReader)'

Arguments         : f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\DiskInternals (FileSystemsReader)

RootFolders from arguments:
- f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\DiskInternals (FileSystemsReader)
RootFolders from arguments: f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\DiskInternals (FileSystemsReader)
Processing folder: f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\DiskInternals (FileSystemsReader)
1.  = Get-ChildItem -Path f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\DiskInternals (FileSystemsReader) -Directory
2.
5. Update-ParentFolderTime -folderPath f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\DiskInternals (FileSystemsReader)
7. The folder 'f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\DiskInternals (FileSystemsReader)' has the most recent LastWriteTime than its child files and subfolders

However, to ensure the script functions correctly even when multiple folder names are passed as arguments, it was necessary to complicate argument handling within the script itself. Which would have been much easier if TC had enclosed each folder name in quotation marks.

[Stefan2]

See, always the outer quotation marks are (mostly) "eaten" by the different interpreters of scripts or tools (as here with TC + script engine)
To work with PowerShell from within TC, tripple (""") or escape (\") the double quotation marks.
If PS doesn't have to resolve the string or the $variable, you can also use single (') quotation marks.
As for TC 'var' is the same as "var".


So if you use in TC smtg like
"%X%Y%P%S%T%R"
PS only gets (or sees)
%X%Y%P%S%T%R
(expanded, of course)


Instead try """
"""%X%Y%P%S%T%R"""
or \"
\"%X%Y%P%S%T%R\"
or '
'%X%Y%P%S%T%R'
in TC to provide parameters to PS.




 

[iG0R]

Thanks for the clarification and for sharing your knowledge.
But I have already tried the options with triple or escape quotes, but without success.
When I used triple quotes
"""%X%Y%P%S%T%R"""
I got the following error:

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The string is missing the terminator: ".
    + CategoryInfo          : ParserError: (:) [], ParentContainsErrorRecordException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : TerminatorExpectedAtEndOfString

And after using escape quotes
\"%X%Y%P%S%T%R\"
the following:

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Script was run with the following command:
f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\PlugIns\UpdateFolderModifiedDate-test2.ps1 \
Arguments         : \
RootFolders from arguments:

Although the whole command should be the same as when I use parameters enclosed in single quotes
'%X%Y%P%S%T%R'
after which I get the following proper work of the script:

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Script was run with the following command:
f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\PlugIns\UpdateFolderModifiedDate-test2.ps1 'f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\TweakTC f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\DiskInternals (FileSystemsReader) f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\Scripts'

Arguments         : f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\TweakTC f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\DiskInternals (FileSystemsReader) f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\Scripts

RootFolders from arguments:
- f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\TweakTC
- f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\DiskInternals (FileSystemsReader)
- f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\Scripts
RootFolders from arguments: f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\TweakTC f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\DiskInternals (FileSystemsReader) f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\Scripts
Processing folder: f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\TweakTC

What parameters should I use in TC so that not all arguments are enclosed in single quotes, but each of them is enclosed in double quotes?
I.e. what I get now:

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UpdateFolderModifiedDate-test2.ps1 'f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\TweakTC f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\DiskInternals (FileSystemsReader) f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\Scripts'

what I want to get:

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UpdateFolderModifiedDate-test2.ps1 "f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\TweakTC" "f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\DiskInternals (FileSystemsReader)" "f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\Scripts"

[Stefan2]

Please note also the help:

%R --- like %S, but with selected names from the target panel
%S --- insert the names of all selected files into the command line. Names containing spaces will be surrounded by double quotes.


So you may end with something like: xxxxx "my file.ext"" and sometimes with: xxxxx myFile.exe"

Use a tool like Echoargs or similar to check your command line:
Echoargs.exe is a simple tool that spits out the arguments it receives.
It is part of the PowerShell Community Extensions download, http://pscx.codeplex.com/ (( https://codeplexarchive.org/project/Pscx ))



So often it is better to pass the arguments to an script and handle there the quotes yourself (remove every quoting and add correct quotes yourself)





 

[iG0R]

Thanks again.
I read everything about the parameters in the help (F1 -> Operation -> Menus -> Menu Configuration -> Change button bar).
That is why I use the %S and %R parameters in combination with %P and %T, despite the fact that I only need paths as arguments for my script.
But even with this configuration of parameters, none of the arguments are surrounded by double quotes.

Concerning echoargs.exe
I tested it and it gives a completely different result than my script sees it.
To find out how my script handles arguments, I inserted the following code at the beginning of the script:

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# Print the full command line used to run the script
Write-Host "Script was run with the following command:"
Write-Host $MyInvocation.Line
Write-Host ""

And after each command there is an explanatory text-debugging code in the form of a Write-Host command with the corresponding text.

For example:
Parameters - %X%Y%P%S%T%R (i.e. without any quotation marks)
Echoargs result:

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Arg 0 is <f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\TweakTC>
Arg 1 is <f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\Ultimate File Manager>
Arg 2 is <f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\DiskInternals (FileSystemsReader)>

My script arises the following error:

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FileSystemsReader : The term 'FileSystemsReader' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or
operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try
again.
At line:1 char:205
+ ... anager f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\DiskInternals (FileSystemsReader)
+                                                        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (FileSystemsReader:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException

Parameters - '%X%Y%P%S%T%R' (enclosed in single quotes)
Echoargs result:

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Arg 0 is <'f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\TweakTC>
Arg 1 is <f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\Ultimate File Manager>
Arg 2 is <f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\DiskInternals (FileSystemsReader)'>

My script result is completely successful:

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Script was run with the following command:
f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\PlugIns\UpdateFolderModifiedDate-test2.ps1 'f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\TweakTC f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\Ultimate File Manager f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\DiskInternals (FileSystemsReader)'

Arguments         : f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\TweakTC f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\Ultimate File Manager f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\DiskInternals (FileSystemsReader)

RootFolders from arguments:
- f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\TweakTC
- f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\Ultimate File Manager
- f:\_Downloads\TotalCommander\DiskInternals (FileSystemsReader)

So often it is better to pass the arguments to an script and handle there the quotes yourself (remove every quoting and add correct quotes yourself)

I would be happy to process any quotation marks that would enclose arguments, the keyword, individually, i.e. each argument is surrounded by its own quotation marks.
But that's the point, and that's why I came to this topic, because the TС doesn't allow me to do that. It only allows to surround all the arguments at once with quotes, and even then, only single quotes.

[petermad]

May I respectfully suggest that the help file should make it clear which parameters will be enclosed in quotes and which won't be?

I agree that this piece of information should be available in the TC help. Support++

Until it gets into the help - here are the parameters and combinations that i find to be automatically quoted when containing spaces:
%N
%P%N
%P%M
%T%N
%T%M
%S
%S1-%Sn
%R
%R1-%Rn
%P%S
%P%S1-%Sn
%P%R
%P%R1-%Rn
%T%S
%T%S1-%Sn
%T%R
%T%R1-%Rn
%C
%C1-%C9
%V
%v

Substrings are also quoted if the non-substring parameter would be quoted: %N:~0,-1 is quoted, but %P:~0,-1 and %P:~0,-1%N are not quoted.

Notice that even though %N is automatically quoted %M is not, which I find highly inconsistent - https://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=76443

Maybe it is easier to remember which parameters are not automatically quoted:
%O, %E and %M
Standalone %P and %T,
%B (and derivatives of %B)

[iG0R]

Until it gets into the help - here are the parameters and combinations that i find to be automatically quoted when containing spaces:
...
%P%S
...
%T%R
...

As you can see from my previous post, this is not entirely true regarding these parameters.

[JOUBE]

May I respectfully suggest that the help file should make it clear which parameters will be enclosed in quotes and which won't be?

I agree that this piece of information should be available in the TC help. Support++

Support++