Thread: Windows file paths.

I'm not sure how to deal with file paths when programming in windows. Here is my attempt thus far.

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

char eclipse[150];

int main()
{   
    strcpy(eclipse, "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Desktop\eclipse\eclipse.exe -vm C:\WINDOWS\system32\javaw.exe");
    system(eclipse);
    return 0;
}

\\, not \.

Originally Posted by Elysia

/ also works in place of \\ if you want.

It does in things like fopen et al. that are handled by the C runtime. The dos box/shell/command prompt/whatever that system uses has no earthly idea what forward slashes are.

"Windows" hasn't cared which you use since Dos 2. command.com (the 16-bit command prompt) and the NT4 version of cmd treat / as a switch char rather than part of a path but since Win2k, it's not fussed which you use.

"Windows" hasn't cared which you use since Dos 2. command.com (the 16-bit command prompt) and the NT4 version of cmd treat / as a switch char rather than part of a path but since Win2k, it's not fussed which you use.

Although that's true when specifying relative paths, XP's command prompt has a problem when a drive letter is followed by anything but a backslash.

Code:

C:\>cd c:/work

C:\Work>cd c:\work

C:\Work>cd c:/work
The system cannot find the path specified.

Seems to be just a hole where in one particular circumstance, both options aren't supported.

Originally Posted by cpjust

Wow, that works for me too (on Vista). I don't remember that ever working before.

But in any case, it might only be a feature of a newer cmd.exe that changes / to \ for you. I'd only use '/' in C/C++ code and keep using \ outside of code.

I have a feeling (only a feeling) that this is not the shell, but cd. (Because cd does fancy parsing of the command line, etc., like being able to handle paths with spaces etc?) I can't get / to work as a path separator outside of cd (note that OP is not using cd), but then I'm not running Vista.,

I cannot recall at the moment, but doesn't one also have to have an extra set of "" around the parts that contain spaces? eg

Code:

 strcpy(eclipse, "\"C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Desktop\eclipse\eclipse.exe\" -vm C:\WINDOWS\system32\javaw.exe");

To further clarify - I tested the above commands on several XP machines in various degrees of updated-ness (SP1, SP2, SP3) and got the same results each time. I haven't tried on Vista.