writing a c code in VC++ for windows

This is a very simple question, but it is just hard for me to figure out. I try to move a file from my folder to a program files subfolder, but I think the cmd in windows take the space between program and files as a delimiter. Anyone?

system("xcopy password.ini C:\Program Files\OpenSLP /i /y");

Sometimes, it returns a message, "Invalid number of parameters". Sometimes, it is "parse error". Please help!

Sharon

Because \ is a magic character, and you need to be careful how you use it.

Do you have any good suggestion of using \?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sharonch

Do you have any good suggestion of using \?

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1. Not to use it; try forward slash instead "/"
2. Double it; as in "\\" for each time you want a single "\"

Tim S.

Hmmm, I tried, it didn't work. I still think the problem is in the "space" instead of "\".
system("xcopy password.ini C:\Program Files\OpenSLP /i /y");
Because it treats the C:\Program Files as C:\Program. It doesn't know what to do with the rest "Files\OpenSLP /i /y" It is also too many parameter for xcopy.

Any path (in windows) that includes a space needs to be wrapped in double quotes. And double quotes, in C string literals, need to be4 escaped with backslashes. This is in addition to the backslashing concern.

So (with backslashes escaped)

Code:

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system("xcopy password.ini \"C:\\Program Files\\OpenSLP\" /i /y");

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or (with backslashes replaced with forward slashes

Code:

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system("xcopy password.ini \"C:/Program Files/OpenSLP\" /i /y");

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If you are happy for your code to be windows specific (which it already is, since xcopy is windows specific) better to use WIN32 API function calls rather than a system() call. I'll leave that hint there ...

Yes! It is working. Thanks a lot. I want to check if I am right: the WinAPI that correspond to system() is WinExec(). But it didn't work in my program. I include <Windows.h> and <WinBase.h>, but not helpful. This also warns me that I don't understand windows c programming. I don't know how or where to find the appropriate library to use in my MSVC++2008 to write c program.

I'm not suggesting using WinExec(). I'm suggesting using functions for traversing directories (FindFirst(), FindNext(), etc) and copying of files (CopyFile(), etc).