Find executables on windows

ruby-talk
1

You asked...

at least on my system the Windows directory, SYSTEM and SYSTEM32 are
also in the PATH, so this will be ok in almost all cases I guess.
Depending what you are about to do I would suggest checking '.' also and
try other extensions than exe. My PATHEXT includes

PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.RB;.RBW

So this may be important, at least if you don't know the complete
filename beforehand.

cheers

Simon

···

-----Original Message-----
From: Ara.T.Howard [mailto:Ara.T.Howard@noaa.gov]
Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2005 4:18 PM
To: ruby-talk ML
Subject: Re: find executables on windows

On Tue, 13 Sep 2005, Kroeger Simon (ext) wrote:

> MSDN, CreateProcess:
>
> ...If the filename does not contain a directory path, the system
> searches
> for the executable file in the following sequence:
>
> - The directory from which the application loaded.
>
> - The current directory for the parent process.
>
> - Windows 95 and Windows 98: The Windows system directory.
> Use theGetSystemDirectory function to get the path of
this directory.
>
> - Windows NT: The 32-bit Windows system directory.
> Use the GetSystemDirectory function to get the path of this
> directory.
> The name of this directory is SYSTEM32.
>
> - Windows NT: The 16-bit Windows system directory.
> There is no Win32 function that obtains the path of this
directory,
> but it is searched. The name of this directory is SYSTEM.
>
> - The Windows directory. Use theGetWindowsDirectory
function to get the
>
> path of this directory.
>
> - The directories that are listed in the PATH environment variable.
>
> erm, yes, that's it! :slight_smile:

i think i'll settle for PATH :wink:

2

if was thinking more brute force:

...

   glob = File::join(dirname, basename) << '*'

   candidates = Dir[ glob ].select{|entry| File::executable? entry}

   return candidates.shift unless candidates.empty?

...

since, afaik, PATHEXT does not imply some sort of ordering or precedecne.
seem right?

-a

···

On Tue, 13 Sep 2005, Kroeger Simon (ext) wrote:

You asked...

at least on my system the Windows directory, SYSTEM and SYSTEM32 are
also in the PATH, so this will be ok in almost all cases I guess.
Depending what you are about to do I would suggest checking '.' also and
try other extensions than exe. My PATHEXT includes

PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.RB;.RBW

--

email :: ara [dot] t [dot] howard [at] noaa [dot] gov
phone :: 303.497.6469
Your life dwells amoung the causes of death
Like a lamp standing in a strong breeze. --Nagarjuna

===============================================================================

3

Hi,

At Tue, 13 Sep 2005 23:25:25 +0900,
Kroeger Simon (ext) wrote in [ruby-talk:155937]:

Depending what you are about to do I would suggest checking '.' also and
try other extensions than exe. My PATHEXT includes

PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.RB;.RBW

So this may be important, at least if you don't know the complete
filename beforehand.

Currently, ruby.exe doesn't see PATHEXT.

···

--
Nobu Nakada

4

since, afaik, PATHEXT does not imply some sort of ordering or precedecne.
seem right?

The order _is_ important. With PATHEXT=.com;.exe;.bat..., foo.com will be
preferred to foo.exe, which in turn will be preferred to foo.bat, etc.

Loop through PATH first (prepend "."), PATHEXT second, both in order.

Cheers,
Dave