Question

I’m using a program which uses the type command to pipe contents of a file to another program like this:

type test.txt | (another program)

This command is hardcoded in my main program. The problem is that the type command has problems with forward slashes:

E:\babak\git\bin>type e:/babak/git/bin/test.txt
The syntax of the command is incorrect.

Is there a way to override the cmd internal type with a custom application named type, which supports forward slashes, so if someone calls type in cmd, the custom type application is called?

Answer 1

The TYPE internal command will work fine with quotes if you enclose the argument in quotes.

type "e:/babak/git/bin/test.txt"

You can prevent use of an internal command and force use of a batch or exe if you quote the command:

"type" e:/babak/git/bin/test.txt

You can also include path info to force use of an exe or batch

E:\babak\git\bin\type e:/babak/git/bin/test.txt

or

.\type e:/babak/git/bin/test.txt

But if you do not have control over how the program invokes TYPE, then I don’t see how you can use any of the above techniques.

The only other option I can think of is to preprocess your path info to convert the forward slashes into backslashes. Then you need to make sure your program gets the modifed path info.