Why does windows START command not work with spaces in arguments AND path?
Solution 1
It's a known bug of the START command.
If you have spaces in both, the command and of the parameters and try to handle them with quotes, it fails.
First the START command check if the full command exists.
But then it starts only the first part.
In your case it looks for "C:\tmp\test runner2.bat"
but try to start C:\tmp\test
.
You can avoid it when the command is replaced by a CALL
START /b /wait "Dummy title" CALL "C:\tmp\test runner2.bat" arg1 arg2 "arg 3" arg4
The START
uses cmd /k
to start the new process.
And that is the cause for the misbehaviour.
Paul Groke mentioned the fact, that this only occours when it's a batch file.
Exe
files will be executed directly and so they are not affected by the cmd.exe bug.
In your case
C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe /K "C:\tmp\test runner2.bat" arg1 arg2 "arg 3" arg4
And the help of cmd /k
and cmd /c
explains, that in this case the first and last quote are removed.
Solution 2
"Jeb" already pointed into the right direction. In my case i didn't tried to run a batch, but a program in the "Program Files" folder (batch shall terminate after launching the program). When calling
START "C:\Program Files\MyAppPath\MyApp.exe" arg1 arg2 ... argN
the path typed with quotes around is supposed to be the "Title" parameter by START command. To get rid of that, you have to "fake" a window title like that:
START "" "C:\Program Files\MyAppPath\MyApp.exe" arg1 arg2 ... argN
This helped in my case.
Solution 3
This does not answer my question, but it does solve the immediate problem I'm having.
While reading through the "Problem with quotes around file names in Windows command shell"-post I discovered a workaround:
cmd.exe /C ""C:\tmp\test runner2.bat" arg1 arg2 "arg 3" arg4"
There is also the other workaround by simply executing the command with the call
command instead (as stated by Ansgar Wiechers)
call "C:\tmp\test runner2.bat" arg1 arg2 "arg 3" arg4
A. Nilsson
Updated on July 28, 2022Comments
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A. Nilsson almost 2 years
This command works
START /b /wait "Dummy title" "C:\tmp\test runner2.bat" arg1 arg2
But both of these fails!
START /b /wait "Dummy title" "C:\tmp\test runner2.bat" arg1 arg2 "arg 3" arg4 START /b /wait "Dummy title" "C:\tmp\test runner2.bat" arg1 arg2 "arg 3"
The error is:
'C:\tmp\test' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
Obviously it has something to do with
"
surounding the arguments, but why and how do I work around this?Related questions:
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Endoro almost 11 yearsI tried it about one hour ... but against a bug of course I can do nothing :)
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Willy K. over 9 yearsSorry - I have overseen that the problem belongs to spaces in both PATH and ARGUMENTS...
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Max almost 9 yearsThat helped mine as well :D
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Paul Groke over 8 yearsThis only seems to happen if
start
is used to execute a batch file. If start is used to start a.exe
, this problem does not occur. -
MartinJH over 6 years4 years later and this is still a bug... But so thanks for a very usefull answer :)
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Miguel Angelo almost 4 yearsFor God's sake... I lost some time with this. It should be "start" then what I want to start.