Vista - Passing Empty Strings To External Commands?

In cmd.exe, doing:

ExternalCommand.exe " "

will pass a single argument consisting a a single space to
ExternalCommand.

However doing the same in PSH appears to pass nothing (based on the
content of the arguments array passed to Main in a test .NET console
program).

Spaces in the quotes are preserved if there is a non-space character
(e.g. " . " is passed through including the spaces).

How can I pass a an argument of just spaces?

--
Richard

"Richard J Cox" <richard@rjcox.co.uk> wrote in message
news:memo.20070513132446.4148A@rjcox.compulink.co.uk...
>
> In cmd.exe, doing:
>
> ExternalCommand.exe " "
>
> will pass a single argument consisting a a single space to
> ExternalCommand.
>
> However doing the same in PSH appears to pass nothing (based on the
> content of the arguments array passed to Main in a test .NET console
> program).
>
> Spaces in the quotes are preserved if there is a non-space character
> (e.g. " . " is passed through including the spaces).
>
> How can I pass a an argument of just spaces?

I can verify this issue but I'm not coming up with a solution. :-(

--
Keith

On May 14, 12:14 pm, "Keith Hill" <r_keith_h...@mailhot.nospamIdotcom>
wrote:
> "Richard J Cox" <rich...@rjcox.co.uk> wrote in messagenews:memo.20070513132446.4148A@rjcox.compulink.co.uk...
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > In cmd.exe, doing:
>
> > ExternalCommand.exe " "
>
> > will pass a single argument consisting a a single space to
> > ExternalCommand.
>
> > However doing the same in PSH appears to pass nothing (based on the
> > content of the arguments array passed to Main in a test .NET console
> > program).
>
> > Spaces in the quotes are preserved if there is a non-space character
> > (e.g. " . " is passed through including the spaces).
>
> > How can I pass a an argument of just spaces?
>
> I can verify this issue but I'm not coming up with a solution. :-(
>
> --
> Keith- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

prog.exe "`" `"" (that's quote, backtick, quote, space, backtick,
quote, quote

- Oisin

On May 14, 2:56 pm, Oisin Grehan <ois...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On May 14, 12:14 pm, "Keith Hill" <r_keith_h...@mailhot.nospamIdotcom>
> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > "Richard J Cox" <rich...@rjcox.co.uk> wrote in messagenews:memo.20070513132446.4148A@rjcox.compulink.co.uk...
>
> > > In cmd.exe, doing:
>
> > > ExternalCommand.exe " "
>
> > > will pass a single argument consisting a a single space to
> > > ExternalCommand.
>
> > > However doing the same in PSH appears to pass nothing (based on the
> > > content of the arguments array passed to Main in a test .NET console
> > > program).
>
> > > Spaces in the quotes are preserved if there is a non-space character
> > > (e.g. " . " is passed through including the spaces).
>
> > > How can I pass a an argument of just spaces?
>
> > I can verify this issue but I'm not coming up with a solution. :-(
>
> > --
> > Keith- Hide quoted text -
>
> > - Show quoted text -
>
> prog.exe "`" `"" (that's quote, backtick, quote, space, backtick,
> quote, quote
>
> - Oisin- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

hmm, I've overcomplicated that it seems -- you can get away with just
escaping the quotes; e.g. backtick, quote, space, backtick, quote.

- Oisin

In article <1179169017.663546.38260@l77g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>,
oising@gmail.com (Oisin Grehan) wrote:
> On May 14, 12:14 pm, "Keith Hill" <r_keith_h...@mailhot.nospamIdotcom>
> wrote:
> > "Richard J Cox" <rich...@rjcox.co.uk> wrote in
> > > messagenews:memo.20070513132446.4148A@rjcox.compulink.co.uk...
> >
> > > In cmd.exe, doing:
> >
> > > ExternalCommand.exe " "
> >
> > > will pass a single argument consisting a a single space to
> > > ExternalCommand.
> >
> > > However doing the same in PSH appears to pass nothing (based on
> > > the
> > > content of the arguments array passed to Main in a test .NET
> > > console
> > > program).
> >
> > > Spaces in the quotes are preserved if there is a non-space
> > > character
> > > (e.g. " . " is passed through including the spaces).
> >
> > > How can I pass a an argument of just spaces?
> >
> > I can verify this issue but I'm not coming up with a solution. :-(
> >
> > --
> > Keith- Hide quoted text -
> >
> > - Show quoted text -
>
> prog.exe "`" `"" (that's quote, backtick, quote, space, backtick,
> quote, quote


Which does indeed work... and is both (1) obfuscated[1] and (2) an
unreasonable approach because " " works with CmdLets.

Defect raised:
https://connect.microsoft.com/feedba...dbackID=277254
&SiteID=99


--
Richard

[1] I'm not sure how well a PowerShell obfuscated code competition would
work...

"Richard J Cox" <richard_cox@newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message >
> Defect raised:
> https://connect.microsoft.com/feedba...dbackID=277254
> &SiteID=99

Richard, don't forget that you get to vote on your own defect submissions.
:-)

--
Keith

On May 15, 4:46 pm, "Keith Hill [MVP]"
<r_keith_h...@no.spam.thank.u.hotmail.com> wrote:
> "Richard J Cox" <richard_...@newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message >
>
> > Defect raised:
> >https://connect.microsoft.com/feedba...x?FeedbackID=2...
> > &SiteID=99
>
> Richard, don't forget that you get to vote on your own defect submissions.
> :-)
>
> --
> Keith

not sure if you saw my second post -- you can get away with a simpler
escape of just the quotes:

prog.exe `" `"

but I agree, it should be the same experience as with cmdlets. I'll
vote for this one.

- Oisin