Shell arguments with linefeeds

General
1

Hello, I have to call another program (windows) with a long string (about 250 characters or more) which also has line-feeds (CR/LF).

How can I do this? With shell.execute(program, arguments) or using shell.arguments nothing gets thru (using Xojo 2023r1.1).

Command/Argument Example:

c:\tmp\SendCommand.exe /test /p 587 /b "Sehr geehrter Herr Test,

wunschgemäß erinnern wir Sie an Ihren Termin in unserer Praxis am   .

Bis bald!

Freundlich grüßt Sie

 " /Server imap.xxx.de /to xxx@xxx.com /sub Terminerinnerung /from xxx@xxxx /u xxxxxxx /pass xxxx /SSL /s
2

Moin Rolf,

Break the command into continuations and add an EndOfLinux.MSDOS to each break:

"c:\tmp\SendCommand.exe /test /p 587 /b ""Sehr geehrter Herr Test,""" + EndOfLine.MSDOS + EndOfLine.MSDOS _
  """wunschgemäß erinnern wir Sie an Ihren Termin in unserer Praxis am   .""" + EndOfLine.MSDOS _
  """Bis bald!""" + EndOfLine.MSDOS _
  """Freundlich grüßt Sie""" + EndofLine.MSDOS _
  "/Server imap.xxx.de /to xxx@xxx.com /sub Terminerinnerung /from xxx@xxxx /u xxxxxxx /pass xxxx /SSL /s"

Note that the IDE will automatically indent the line following the underscore.

3

Hi Tim, this does not work. I am calling a program that demands the shown parameter in exact that way.

The exact use of my little tool is a little wrapper between 2 foreign programs. I take the parameterstring from the calling program with system.commandline, replace a faulty part of that lengthy string and want to pass the corrected string to the (renamed) target program.

4

Did you try it? It is one line as a command. The “_” character at the end of the line is like a “\” character in shell scripts.

Dim theCommand As String
theCommand = "c:\tmp\SendCommand.exe /test /p 587 /b ""Sehr geehrter Herr Test,""" + EndOfLine.MSDOS + EndOfLine.MSDOS _
  """wunschgemäß erinnern wir Sie an Ihren Termin in unserer Praxis am   .""" + EndOfLine.MSDOS _
  """Bis bald!""" + EndOfLine.MSDOS _
  """Freundlich grüßt Sie""" + EndofLine.MSDOS _
  "/Server imap.xxx.de /to xxx@xxx.com /sub Terminerinnerung /from xxx@xxxx /u xxxxxxx /pass xxxx /SSL /s"
theShell.Execute theCommand
5

Sure, I know. Here the string (System.Commandline) my Wrapper get’s from the calling program:

"D:\tmp\mywrapper.exe" /test /p 587 /b "Sehr geehrter Herr Test,

wunschgemäß erinnern wir Sie an Ihren Termin in unserer Praxis am   .

Bis bald!

Freundlich grüßt Sie

 " /Server xxx.xxxxx.de /to xxx@xxxxr.com /sub Terminerinnerung /from xxx@xxxx.de /u xxx@xxxxx.de /pass xxxx /SSL /s

I do some nessesary string replacements, then call the shell, like:

// a1 is the string containig the modified system.commandline string
Var sh As New Shell
sh.Arguments = a1
sh.ExecuteMode = shell.ExecuteModes.synchronous
sh.Execute("d:\tmp\Originally called program.exe") 'does not work
'sh.Execute("d:\tmp\Originally called program.exe") 'does not work either
Var x1 As Integer = sh.ExitCode

I wrote a temporary exe only showing the now incoming system.commandline
It does not matter if:

  • not using sh.arguments, so calling it with sh.Execute(“d:\tmp\Originally called program.exe”, a1)
  • replacing endofline with endofline.CRLF, .CR or .LF
  • creating console or desktop app (all Windows)

I don’t get why this works in the original setup anyway. This morning I wrote a replacement for the called program (Sending of eMail).

Your code above throws errors (i use API2) b.t.w.: There is no endofline.msdos (I took .CRLF instead), and before the _ there has do be a +.

I have the feeling that in the real commandline parameters there is some code/character other then cr/lf and xojo interprets it before it is stored in system.commandline?

6

Sorry - was writing on my iPad and from memory. I’ve never moved to API2.