Trying to call a windows .EXE with additional arguments. I found some
direction on calling a .EXE here, such as:
`"C:\Documents and Settings\test.exe"`
However what if I need to run "test.exe /argument /loadfile c:\test.txt
/path c:\windows /localos"
I can't find any syntax help with that. Any suggestions? I've done
trial and error with backticks and quotes but can't seem to nail it
down.
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Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
Well, I'm not an expert on this but look: depends of the situation.
What's that .exe? how it was generated? Seems that you can't pass
directly arguments to an .exe, instead, when you compile your proyect,
you can specifically pass to the compiler the arguments which you want
to be executed, and they will be fixeds, you can't change them later.
For example, with Ocra compiler, for windows, you can do this:
"
Command Line Arguments
To pass command line argument to your script (both while building and
when run from the resulting executable), specify them after a “—”
marker. For example:
ocra script.rb -- --some-options=value
This will pass “—some-options=value” to the script when build and when
running the executable. Any extra argument specified by the user when
invoking the executable will be appended after the compile-time
arguments.
"
Hope this helps and if anybody want to correct me if I'm wrong or add
something will be nice. Cheers.
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Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
The exe is not something I created. In this case it is a windows native
executable file (think notepad.exe or calc.exe). I just need to call it
from the windows system32 directory and pass arguments to it. I just
can't figure out how to do that. Maybe set the arguments to a variable
and pass the variable? I'm pretty sure it's just a matter of getting
the right combo of quotes or back ticks but I can't find the magic
combination.
--
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
Yes, are you sure that the .exe accept arguments?
--
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
Yes. I provided the arguments I need to pass above. I can run that exe
manually from the cli but I need to ruby to do it.
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Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
Maybe arguments isn't the best word. Switches for the exe is maybe more
descriptive.
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Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
Of course they do.
There are two primary ways to call other programs or command from Ruby: either using the backtick syntax (which internally calls Kernel#`) or using Kernel#system. (There is also Kernel#spawn for heavy-duty work, when you need fine-grained control.)
These two differ in how they're called and what's the result. Backticks returns the output of the called shell command, and are processed simply in the same way the command would be processed in cmd.exe shell.
So to call program1.exe with "a" and "my dog" as arguments, returning its output:
`program1.exe a "my dog"`
A Kernel#system call returns a truthy value if the call "succeded" (the program returned a 0 exit code), or a falsy one if it failed (syntax error or nonzero return value). It also accepts multiple arguments: if you only provie one, it acts in the same way as backticks (the string is parsed as a comment by the shell). If you provide multiple, arguments will be passed directly to the called program.
So to call program1.exe with "a" and "my dog" as arguments, returning whether the call worked correctly or not:
system "program1.exe a \"my dog\""
system "program1.exe", "a", "my dog"
I greatly advise you to use the second form, as it automatically escapes the arguments - this is especially important if their contents come from the user, as passing them straight to shell could be a security vulnerability.
There are more examples in the docs: Module: Kernel (Ruby 1.9.3)
On Tue, 08 Jan 2013 11:01:36 +0100, Damián M. González <lists@ruby-forum.com> wrote:
Yes, are you sure that the .exe accept arguments?
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Matma Rex