CODEWITHSUNDEEP
batch-filespecial-characters
Atnaize
Atnaize

Reputation: 1816

Escape special character in a windows batch

I have a batch file that receive a path as first argument. The path is always composed with specials characters like ^,é or è.

The call is similar to this

D:\Script>MyBatch My\path\test_00170_LASTNAME^Firstname\image

There is always this error: unknown specified path

When I echo the first argument in my bash I can see (notice the missing ^)

My\path\test_00170_LASTNAMEFirstname\image

So I tried to escape this character by adding another ^ just before

My\path\test_00170_LASTNAME^^Firstname\image

But when I echo this one, I have the same result ...

My\path\test_00170_LASTNAMEFirstname\image

I also tried to put the ^ between quotes but this did not work

Upvotes: 1

Views: 4821

Answers (2)

jeb
jeb

Reputation: 82297

You need to escape the caret signs at the command line or better put the path into quotes.

In both cases you should work with delayed expansion, as then the content will not be modified when it is expanded.

myBatch "C:\LASTNAME^Firstname\image"

or

myBatch C:\LASTNAME^^Firstname\image

And in your batch use swomething like this

@echo off
set "arg1=%~1"
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
echo !arg1!

Upvotes: 1

Mathias R. Jessen
Mathias R. Jessen

Reputation: 174485

You need to escape it twice - once when you input the path as an argument to the batch script, and again when echo'ing it:

caret_input.bat:

echo %1

Double-escaped (notice how it's already escaped when the batch file starts outputting):

C:\>caret_input.bat my\path^^^^is\special

C:\>echo my\path^is\special
my\path^is\special

If you were to use a string with a special character inside the batch file, your method of escaping it just once would work just fine:

caret_escape.bat:

echo my\path^^is\special

and the output

C:\>echo my\path^is\special
my\path^is\special

Upvotes: 0

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