Possible IDE Command Line Bug?

[Shield]

Hey There

I'm using 5.24 LTS on Linux (Ubuntu / Gnome) and it seems like there is a bug with the command line parsing with the IDE.
Since I'm not a regular PB user and I'm even less used to using PB on Linux, I decided to put it here first for review.

Enter the following command line in the IDE Compiler Options...

Code: Select all

foo="foo bar"

...then run the code:

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count = CountProgramParameters()
For i = 0 To count - 1
	Debug "+" + ProgramParameter(i) + "+"
Next

The debug window shows two entries, which is wrong:

+foo="foo+
+bar"+

Correct would be:

+foo=foo bar+

If I compile everything and execute the program via command line, it behaves as expected.
So the fault must lie with the IDE, I guess.

Anything I'm missing?

[Vera]

Hello Shield,
to me the debug output is plausible as you debug each parameter at a time, so they are debugged one after the other - one output per debug-line.

To add them up to achieve your wanted result, I would do it this way:

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count = CountProgramParameters()
For i = 0 To count - 1
   myPara.s = myPara + ProgramParameter(i) + " "
Next
 
Debug "+"+ RTrim(myPara) +"+"

[Shield]

The problem is that ProgramParameter() should report only ONE single parameter, not two.
The space within foo="foo bar" is enclosed in double quotes and there is no other spaces separating the words.

If the string was foo= "foo bar" (notice the space after foo=), the output is correct with two arguments "foo=" and "foo bar" (without quotes).
Also, as I've mentioned, if I start the executable file with the command line the command line arguments are parsed correctly.

[Vera]

ProgramParameter() should report only ONE single parameter

Ok - but why count them at all, knowing there is supposed to be only ONE? A single debug would have been more telling.

Seems a similar issue like with RunProgram() and passing on several parameters including wanted spaces.

Also, as I've mentioned, if I start the executable file with the command line the command line arguments are parsed correctly.

How do you know if you're not just lucky that your passed on spaced-parameter is fully handed over within the first parameterpart.

[Shield]

Ok - but why count them at all, knowing there is supposed to be only ONE? A single debug would have been more telling.

I kinda disagree, I bet I would have gotten an answer from someone that's telling me to iterate.
Also it just felt more logical for me since it illustrates the problem with the splitting better (where " is part of the parameter itself).

How do you know if you're not just lucky that your passed on spaced-parameter is fully handed over within the first parameterpart.

Because there is no luck in programming.

I don't know if parsing command line arguments is standardized on linux among shells / processes
or if each piece of software (also IDE) implements a custom parser. On Windows it always seems to be a quirk too...

[Danilo]

I think PB takes double-quotes into account only if a parameter starts with it, like: "file name.ext"

foo="foo bar" does not start with double-quotes, so it is 2 separate cmd line parameters.
foo = "foo bar" (with space separators) should be 3 params then: foo, =, "foo bar"
"foo=foo bar" is one cmd line param.

Don't know what influence different shells may have on this.

[Trond]

I don't know if parsing command line arguments is standardized on linux among shells / processes

The parsing is done by the shell (bash).

Aparently the IDE isn't using the shell to run the program, or it somehow escapes the quotes first.

[helpy]

command line:

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foo="foo bar"

test with purebasic programm on windows 7 command line (not from IDE) results in:

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+foo="foo+
+bar"

I tried this with an windows batch program. This results in:

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+foo+
+"foo bar"+

Here my batch file for the test:

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@echo off
:LOOP
if "%~1" EQU "" goto :EOF
echo +%1+
shift
goto :LOOP

[helpy]

Information from MSDN:

==> https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/17w5ykft.aspx
==> https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/a1y7w461.aspx


and some more information:

==> http://www.daviddeley.com/autohotkey/pa ... meters.htm
==> http://www.robvanderwoude.com/parameters.php

[Shield]

Interesting. So I guess the proper way would be to quote everything, e.g. "foo=foo bar".

I'd still like to know how the IDE is handling this. Custom parsing?

[Trond]

Interesting. So I guess the proper way would be to quote everything, e.g. "foo=foo bar".

That would give you everything as one parameter. If I type this "apple and oranges" "foo=foo bar" I get the quoted parts as a parameter each.

foo="foo bar" should give two parameters.

I'd still like to know how the IDE is handling this. Custom parsing?

Apparently, yes. And it only considers quotes preceded by a space to open a quoted parameter.

So you can work around this problem by putting in this in the IDE:

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foo= "foo bar"

and it will give you two parameters.

[Shield]

foo="foo bar" should give two parameters.

I disagree, I think one resulting parameter would be correct since it's only one string, not separated by spaces.

In the long run, however, I think this is not of my concern since I can just expect my program to get correctly formatted parameters by the user.