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Win32-CommandLine-0.943_1
River stage zero No dependents
2 ++
/ Win32::CommandLine

NAME

Win32::CommandLine - Retrieve and reparse the Win32 command line

VERSION

     $Win32::CommandLine::VERSION = "0.943_1";

SYNOPSIS

     @ARGV = Win32::CommandLine::argv() if eval { require Win32::CommandLine; };

        _or_

     use Win32::CommandLine qw( command_line );
 my $commandline = command_line();
 ...

DESCRIPTION

This module is used to reparse the Win32 command line, automating better quoting, command substitution, and globbing of the command line. Globbing is full bash POSIX compatible globbing. With the use of the companion script (xx.bat), and doskey for macro aliasing, you can add fully implemented, bash compatible, string quoting/expansion and file globbing to any Win32 executable.

This module is compatible with both cmd.exe and 4nt/tcc/tcmd shells, and can be used to add better parsing and bash glob expansion to any external command (by using the included xx.bat batch script).

CMD.EXE

     doskey type=call xx type $*
 type [a-c]*.pl

 doskey perl=call xx perl $*
 perl -e 'print "test"'     &@:: would otherwise FAIL

 @:: print all directories in current directory
 xx echo $(" ls -ALp --quoting-style=c --color=no . | grep --color=no "[\\/]$" ")

 @:: print all files (non-directories) in current directory
 xx echo $(" ls -ALp --quoting-style=shell --color=no . | grep --color=no -v "[\\/]$" ")  [print all files in CWD]

4NT/TCC/TCMD

     alias type=call xx type
 type [a-c]*.pl

 alias perl=call xx perl
 perl -e 'print "test"'     &@:: would otherwise FAIL

Note that bash-compatible globbing and argument expansion are supplied, including command substitution. Glob patterns may also contain meta-notations, such as 'a[bc]*' or 'foo.{bat,pl,exe,o}'.

Command line string/character expansion

     '...'    literal (no escapes and no globbing within quotes)
 "..."    literal (no escapes and no globbing within quotes) (see *NOTE-1)
 $'...'   string including all ANSI C string escapes (see *NOTE-2); no globbing within quotes
 $"..."   literal (no escapes and no globbing within quotes) [same as "..."]
 $( ... ) command substitution (see *NOTE-3)
 $("...") command substitution (quotes removed; see *NOTE-4)

NOTE-1: DOS character escape sequences (such as "\"") are parsed prior to being put into the command line and, so, are valid and still (unavoidably) interpreted within double-quotes.

NOTE-2: ANSI C string escapes are \a, \b, \e, \f, \n, \r, \t, \v, \\, \', \", \[0-9]{1,3}, \x[0-9a-fA-F]{1,2}, \c[@A-Z[\\\]^_`?]; all other escaped characters are left in place without transformation (\<x> => \<x>).

NOTE-3: Command substitution replaces the $(...) argument with the standard output of that argument's execution. Command substitution strings are not, themselves, automatically expanded; use $(xx COMMAND) to trigger expansion of the subshell command line.

NOTE-4: $("...") is present to enable delayed DOS/Windows interpretation of redirection & continuation characters. This allows redirection & continuation characters to be used within the subshell command string.

URLref: [bash ANSI-C Quoting] http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/ANSI_002dC-Quoting.html @@ http://www.webcitation.org/66M8skmP8

GLOB META CHARACTERS

     \           Quote the next metacharacter
 []          Character class
 {}          Multiple pattern
 *           Match any string of characters
 ?           Match any single character
 ~           Current user home directory
 ~USERNAME   Home directory of USERNAME
 ~TEXT       Environment variable named ~TEXT (aka $ENV{~TEXT}) [overrides ~USERNAME expansion]

The multiple pattern metanotation 'a{b,c,d}e' is a shorthand for 'abe ace ade'. Left to right order is preserved, with results of matches being sorted separately at a low level to preserve this order.

INSTALLATION

To install this module, run the following commands:

     perl Build.PL
 perl Build
 perl Build test
 perl Build install

This is minor modification of the usual perl build idiom. This version is portable across multiple platforms.

Alternatively, the standard make idiom is also available (although it is deprecated):

     perl Makefile.PL
 make
 make test
 make install

(On Windows platforms, you should use nmakeor dmake, instead of make.)

Note that the Makefile.PL script is just a pass-through, and Module::Build is still ultimately required for installation. Makefile.PL will throw an exception if Module::Build is missing from your current installation. cpan will notify the user of the build prerequisites (and install them for the build, if it is setup to do so [see the cpan configuration option build_requires_install_policy]).

PPM installation bundles should also be available in the standard PPM repositories (i.e. ActiveState, trouchelle.com [http://trouchelle.com/ppm/package.xml]).

Note: On ActivePerl installations, './Build install' will do a full installation using ppm (see ppm). During the installation, a PPM package is constructed locally and then subsequently used for the final module install. This allows for uninstalls (using 'ppm uninstall MODULE' and also keeps local HTML documentation current.

INTERFACE

command_line( ): $

  • [out] : the original command line for the process, as a string

 my $commandline = command_line();

Use the Win32 API to recapture the original command line for the current process.

argv( [\%options] ): @

  • [in] : (optional) reference to hash containing function options

  • [out] : returns a new argument array (which can replace @ARGV)

 @ARGV = argv();

Reparse & glob-expand the original command line, returning a new argument array (which is a drop-in replacement for @ARGV).

parse( $ [,\%options ] ): @

  • [in] : string argument to parse/glob-expand

  • [in] : (optional) reference to hash containing function options

  • [out] : returns an argument array

 my @argv_new = parse( command_line() );

Parse & glob-expand a string argument; returns the results of parsed/expanded argument as an array.

Function Options ( \%options )

    my %options = (
        remove_exe_prefix => 1,     # = 0/<true> [default = true]       # if true, remove all initial args up to and including the exe name from the @args array
        dosquote => 0,              # = 0/<true>/'all' [default = 0]    # if true, convert all non-globbed ARGS to DOS/Win32 CLI compatible tokens (escaping internal quotes and quoting whitespace and special characters)
        dosify => 0,                # = 0/<true>/'all' [default = 0]    # if true, convert all _globbed_ ARGS to DOS/Win32 CLI compatible tokens (escaping internal quotes and quoting whitespace and special characters); 'all' => do so for for _all_ ARGS which are determined to be files
        unixify => 0,               # = 0/<true>/'all' [default = 0]    # if true, convert all _globbed_ ARGS to UNIX path style; 'all' => do so for for _all_ ARGS which are determined to be files
        nullglob => defined($ENV{nullglob}) ? $ENV{nullglob} : 0,       # = 0/<true> [default = 0]  # if true, patterns which match no files are expanded to a null string (no token), rather than the pattern itself  ## $ENV{nullglob} (if it exists) overrides the default
        glob => 1,                  # = 0/<true> [default = true]       # when true, globbing is performed
        ## TODO: rework this ... need carp/croak on unbalanced quotes/subshells (? carp_ub_quotes, carp_ub_shells, carp = 0/1/warn/carp/die/croak)
        croak_unbalanced => 1,      # = 0/true/'quotes'/'subshells' [default = true] # if true, croak for unbalanced command line quotes or subshell blocks (takes precedence over carp_unbalanced)
        carp_unbalanced => 1,       # = 0/true/'quotes'/'subshells' [default = true] # if true, carp for unbalanced command line quotes or subshell blocks
        ## ToDO: add globstar option
        );

SUBROUTINES/METHODS

RATIONALE

This began as a simple need to work-around the less-than-stellar COMMAND.COM/CMD.EXE command line parser, just to accomplish more `correct` quotation interpretation. It then grew into a small odyssey: learning XS and how to create a perl module, learning the perl build process and creating a customized build script/environment, researching tools and developing methods for revision control and versioning, learning and creating perl testing processes, and finally learning about PAUSE and perl publishing practices. And, somewhere in the middle, adding some of the bash shell magic to the CMD shell (and, additionally, making it compatible with the excellent [and free] TCC-LE shell from JPSoft [find that at http://jpsoft.com]).

Some initial attempts were made using Win32::API and Inline::C. For example, a Win32::API attempt [which caused GPFs]:

  @rem = '--*-Perl-*--
  @echo off
  if "%OS%" == "Windows_NT" goto WinNT
  perl -x -S "%0" %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
  goto endofperl
  :WinNT
  perl -x -S %0 %*
  if NOT "%COMSPEC%" == "%SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe" goto endofperl
  if %errorlevel% == 9009 echo You do not have Perl in your PATH.
  if errorlevel 1 goto script_failed_so_exit_with_non_zero_val 2>nul
  goto endofperl
  @rem ';
  #!/usr/bin/perl -w
  #line 15
  #
  use Win32::API;
  #
  Win32::API->Import("kernel32", "LPTSTR GetCommandLine()");
  my $string = pack("Z*", GetCommandLine());
  #
  print "string[".length($string)."] = '$string'\n";
  # ------ padding --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  __END__
  :endofperl

Unfortunately, Win32::API and Inline::C were shown to be too fragile at the time (in 2007). Win32::API caused occasional (but reproducible) GPFs, and Inline::C was shwon to be very brittle on Win32 systems (i.e, not compensating for paths with embedded strings). [ See http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=625182 for a more full explanation of the problem and initial attempts at a solution. ]

So, an initial XS solution was implemented. And from that point, the lure of bash-like command line parsing led inexorably to the full implementation. The parsing logic is unfortunately still complex, but seems to be holding up well under testing.

IMPLEMENTATION and INTERNALS

This is a list of internal XS functions (brief descriptions will be added at a later date):

  SV * _wrap_GetCommandLine() // [XS] Use C and Win32 API to get the command line
  HANDLE _wrap_CreateToolhelp32Snapshot ( dwFlags, th32ProcessID )
  bool _wrap_Process32First ( hSnapshot, lppe )
  bool _wrap_Process32Next ( hSnapshot, lppe )
  bool _wrap_CloseHandle ( hObject )
  // Pass useful CONSTANTS back to perl
  int _const_MAX_PATH ()
  HANDLE _const_INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE ()
  DWORD _const_TH32CS_SNAPPROCESS ()
  // Pass useful sizes back to Perl (for testing) */
  unsigned int _info_SIZEOF_HANDLE ()
  unsigned int _info_SIZEOF_DWORD ()
  // Pass PROCESSENTRY32 structure info back to Perl
  SV * _info_PROCESSENTRY32 ()

DIAGNOSTICS

Pending documentation...

CONFIGURATION AND ENVIRONMENT

Win32::CommandLine requires no configuration files or environment variables.

OPTIONAL Environment Variables

NULLGLOB - override the default glob expansion behavior for empty matches
 $ENV{NULLGLOB} = 1; # undef/0 | <true>

Default glob expansion, as in bash, expands glob patterns which match nothing into the glob pattern itself. Use $ENV{NULLGLOB} to override this default behavior.

Analogous to the bash command 'shopt -s nullglob', when $ENV{NULLGLOB} is set to a true (non-NULL, non-zero) value, a glob expansion which matches nothing will expand to the null string (aka, q{}).

Note: the default glob expansion behavior can also be modified programmatically via the function option, nullglob, when passed to the argv() and parse() functions. This option, when passed to argv() or parse(), will override both the default behavior and the $ENV{NULLGLOB} setting.

DEPENDENCIES

Win32::CommandLine requires Carp::Assert for internal error checking and warnings.

The optional modules Win32, Win32::Security::SID, and Win32::TieRegistry are recommended to allow full glob tilde expansions for user home directories (eg, ~administrator expands to C:\Users\Administrator). Expansion of the single tilde (~) has a backup implementation based on %ENV variables, and therefore will still work even without the optional modules.

INCOMPATIBILITIES

None reported.

BUGS AND LIMITATIONS

Please report any bugs or feature requests to bug-Win32-CommandLine@rt.cpan.org, or through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Win32-CommandLine. The developers will be notified, and you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as any changes are made.

Operational Notes

IMPORTANT NOTE: Special shell characters (shell redirection [ '|', '<', ''> ] and continuation '&') must be DOUBLE-quoted to escape shell interpretation (eg, "foo | bar"). The shell does initial parsing and redirection/continuation (stripping away everything after I/O redirection and continuation characters) before any process can get a look at the command line. So, the special shell characters can only be hidden from shell interpretation by quoting them with double-quote characters.

%<X> is also replaced by the corresponding %ENV variable by the shell before handing the command line off to the OS. So, %% must be used to place single %'s in the command line (eg, perl -e "use Win32::CommandLine; %%x = Win32::CommandLine::_home_paths(); for (sort keys %%x) { print qq{$_ => $x{$_}\n}; }").

Brackets ('{' and '}') and braces ('[' and ']') must be quoted (single or double quotes) to be matched literally. This may be a gotcha for some users, although if the filename has internal spaces, tab expansion of filenames for the standard Win32 shell (cmd.exe) or 4NT/TCC/TCMD will automatically surround the entire path with spaces (which corrects the issue).

Some programs may expect their arguments to maintain their surrounding quotes, but argv() parsing only quotes arguments which require it to maintain equivalence for shell parsing (i.e., those containing spaces, special characters, etc). And, since single quotes have no special meaning to the shell, all arguments which require quoting for correct shell interpretation will be quoted with double-quote characters, even if they were originally quoted with single-quotes. Neither of these issues should be a problem for programs using Win32::CommandLine, but may be an issue for 'legacy' applications which have their command line expanded with xx.bat.

Be careful with backslashed quotes within quoted strings. Note that "foo\" is an unbalanced string containing a double quote. Place the backslash outside of the quotation ("foo"\) or use a double backslash within ("foo\\") to include the backslash it in the parsed token. However, backslashes ONLY need to be doubled when placed prior to a quotation mark ("foo\bar" will work as expected).

Bugs

No bugs have been reported.

SUPPORT

You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.

     perldoc Win32::CommandLine

You can also look for further information at:

TODO

Expand and polish the documentation. Add argument/option explanations and examples for interface functions.

TESTING

For additional testing, set the following environment variables to a true value ("true" in the perl sense, meaning non-NULL, non-ZERO value):

TEST_AUTHOR

Perform distribution correctness and quality tests, which are essential prior to a public release.

TEST_FRAGILE

Perform tests which have a specific (i.e., fragile) execution context (eg, network tests to named hosts). These are tests that must be coddled with specific execution contexts or set up on specific machines to complete correctly.

TEST_SIGNATURE

Verify signature is present and correct for the distribution.

TEST_ALL

Perform ALL (non-FRAGILE) additional/optional tests. Given the likelyhood of test failures without special handling, tests marked as 'FRAGILE' are still NOT performed unless TEST_FRAGILE is also true. Additionally, note that the 'build testall' command can be used as an equivalent to setting TEST_ALL to true temporarily, for the duration of the build, followed by a 'build test'.

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

 Copyright (c) 2007-2013, Roy Ivy III <rivy[at]cpan[dot]org>. All rights reserved.

This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the Perl Artistic License v2.0 (see http://opensource.org/licenses/artistic-license-2.0.php).

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY

 THIS PACKAGE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS"
 AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES. THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
 MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT
 ARE DISCLAIMED TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY YOUR LOCAL LAW. UNLESS REQUIRED
 BY LAW, NO COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTOR WILL BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT,
 INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF
 THE USE OF THE PACKAGE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

 [REFER TO THE FULL LICENSE FOR EXPLICIT DEFINITIONS OF ALL TERMS.]

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to BrowserUK and syphilis (aka SISYPHUS on CPAN) for some helpful ideas (including an initial XS starting point for the module) during a discussion on PerlMonks (see http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=625182).

AUTHOR

Roy Ivy III <rivy[at]cpan[dot]org>