Shell.Start filename contains a comma

ebloom

This works OK on Linux Mint, problem is on Windows. Haven't tried Mac.
This works as expected (Objo requires double backslash in the string literal)

Var DocFile As String = "C:\\Users\\Eric\\Desktop\\SmithJohn.pdf"
    If System.IsLinux Or System.IsMacOS Then DocFile.Replace("\\", " / ")
  Var sh As New Shell
  If System.IsLinux Then
    sh.Start("xdg-open " + DocFile)
  Else
    sh.Start(DocFile)
  End If

Change the file name to "Smith,John" and it no longer works. Windows doesn't seem to have a problem with the comma, and typing the file name directly into a command prompt works OK if you add quotes around the file name.
I think the issue is the way the Shell works, documentation says it does a cmd /c.
Xojo works OK with this, but differently with FolderItem.Launch.
If there's not a good fix or workaround in Objo, I might just rename the files. The commas aren't actually necessary. TIA for any suggestions.

Garry

Thanks. You’re right that cmd /c is involved. Windows requires quoting around filenames containing commas, but I’ve also confirmed a bug in how Objo passes those quotes to CMD. Simply adding quotes therefore doesn’t solve it.

I’ve logged the quoting bug, which affects both Shell.Start and Shell.Execute.

For opening your PDF, try System.OpenURL with a file URL. This bypasses CMD and asks Windows to open the document in its default application:

If Not System.OpenURL("file:///C:/Users/Eric/Desktop/Smith,John.pdf") Then
    System.ErrorPrint("Could not open the PDF.")
End If

Use forward slashes in the file URL, as shown above. This should let you keep the commas in your filenames.

ebloom

Garry This worked! Thank you. Looks like we'll probably rename the files to avoid any other weird issues going forward.

Garry

I’ve fixed the Windows quoting bug, and the fix will be included in the next release. It covers both Shell.Start and Shell.Execute.

Paths containing commas or spaces still need quotes, but Objo will now pass those quotes correctly. Once the update is available, your example can use:

Var docFile As String = "C:\\Users\\Eric\\Desktop\\Smith,John.pdf"
Var sh As New Shell
sh.Start("\"" + docFile + "\"")

I’ve tested the quoted filename on Windows with Edge as the default PDF handler. The System.OpenURL workaround you’ve already tried remains suitable for opening the document.