CODEWITHSUNDEEP
gocommand-line
brandonunited
brandonunited

Reputation: 83

Executable files not in path - GO

I'm trying to call a built in command for the command prompt and I'm getting errors I don't understand.

func main() {
    cmd := exec.Command("del", "C:\trial\now.txt")
// Reboot if needed
    cmd.Stdout = os.Stdout
    if err := cmd.Run(); err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
}

And I'm getting the following error:

exec: "del": executable file not found in %PATH%
exit status 1

What am I doing wrong?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 3828

Answers (2)

Adrian
Adrian

Reputation: 46432

del is not an executable, it's a built-in command. exec.Command allows you to fork out to another executable. To use shell commands, you would have to call the shell executable, and pass in the built-in command (and parameters) you want executed:

cmd := exec.Command("cmd.exe", "/C", "del C:\\trial\\now.txt")

Note that you also have to escape backslashes in strings as above, or use backtick-quoted strings:

cmd := exec.Command("cmd.exe", "/C", `del C:\trial\now.txt`)

However, if you just want to delete a file, you're probably better off using os.Remove to directly delete a file rather than forking out to the shell to do so.

Upvotes: 8

Schwern
Schwern

Reputation: 164799

In addition to the problem with the executable, your path string is not what you think it is.

cmd := exec.Command("del", "C:\trial\now.txt")

The \t will be interpreted as a tab, and the \n as a newline.

To avoid this, use `` which has no special characters and no escape, not even \. A great relief for Windows users!

cmd := exec.Command("del", `C:\trial\now.txt`)

See String Literals in the Go Language Spec for more.

Upvotes: 2

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