Question

I have a problem starting a process in C# when there’s a space in the path on Windows 8, even when the path is in double quotes!

The following code has been working fine for years on our XP and Windows 7 machines, but we recently switched some development boxes over to Windows 8 and we now get the following error:

'D:\Workspace\Visual' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

Code:

string command = "\"D:\\Workspace\\Visual Studio 2010\\Dev\\Tools\\Editors\\AssetManager\\bin\\Tools\\TextureAtlasBuilder.exe\"";
string arguments = "\"D:\\Local\\Temp\\xu2twc4d.cg1\" \"environment-textures\"";

ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo
{
    CreateNoWindow = true,
    UseShellExecute = false,
    WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden,
    RedirectStandardError = true,
    RedirectStandardOutput = true,
    FileName = string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, @"{0}\cmd.exe", Environment.SystemDirectory),
    Arguments = string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, "/C {0} {1}", command, arguments)
};

Process process = new Process
{
    StartInfo = startInfo
};

process.OutputDataReceived += new DataReceivedEventHandler(StandardOutputHandler);
process.ErrorDataReceived += new DataReceivedEventHandler(StandardErrorHandler);

process.Start();

I’ve tried literal strings with and without double quotes, verbatim strings with and without double quotes, and I always get the same error!

What am I doing wrong?!

Thanks

Answer 1

Remove the ” from your arguments string.

It is tricky because the cmd behavior with /C is very strict on the use of ” as can be found out out from cmd /?. If all fails: write your commandline and arguments to a temporary cmd file and start that one…

If /C or /K is specified, then the remainder of the command line after
the switch is processed as a command line, where the following logic
is used to process quote (“) characters:

1.  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.

2.  Otherwise, old behavior is to see if the first character is
    a quote character and if so, strip the leading character and
    remove the last quote character on the command line, preserving
    any text after the last quote character.