'EXEC' action fails with command line arguments if one or multiple folders are selected along with files

[swarup459]

Description
Command line arguments are not sent to CLI app if one or multiple folders are selelcted along with files. If only files are selected, then they are sent properly to the application.

To Reproduce

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<root>
    <shell>
        
        <menu name="arguments.debugger.3">
            <actions>
                <property name="selection.multi.separator" value="&quot; &quot;" />
                <property name="source.items" value="&quot;${selection.path}&quot;" />
                <property name="selection.multi.separator" value="${line.separator}" />
                <message title="${source.items}" />
                <exec path="${application.directory}\arguments.debugger.window.exe" arguments="${source.items}" />
                <message title="${source.items}" />
                <property name="source.items" value="" />
            </actions>
        </menu>
    
    </shell>
</root>

If only files are selected, there is no problem in displaying the arguments in 'Argument Debugger' application. Both the 'message' actions are executed also.
But, if one or multiple folders are selected along with files, the 'exec' action simply fails; the arguments are not shown in 'Argument Debugger' application. The 2nd 'message' action is not executed.

Environment

• OS: Windows 8.1 Enterprise fully updated
• ShellAnything v0.10.0

[end2endzone]

Hi.
My appologies for the late reply.

You are right! I have no idea why would ShellAnything handle files and directories differently. I will have to investigate. This is really annoying now.

I've enabled verbose logging and my INFO logs shows the following:

I0915 19:21:11.511021 30292 ActionManager.cpp:54] Executing action 5 of 6.
W0915 19:21:11.511021 30292 ActionExecute.cpp:225] attribute 'basedir' not specified.
I0915 19:21:11.511021 30292 ActionExecute.cpp:229] Path: C:\Program Files\ShellAnything\bin\arguments.debugger.window.exe
I0915 19:21:11.511021 30292 ActionExecute.cpp:240] Arguments: "C:\temp" "C:\audio.log" "C:\test.txt"
E0915 19:21:11.511021 30292 WindowsProcessLauncherService.cpp:120] Failed to call CreateProcessW() for value 'C:\Program Files\ShellAnything\bin\arguments.debugger.window.exe', Error 0x7b.Description: The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.

.
W0915 19:21:11.511021 30292 ActionExecute.cpp:261] Failed to create process.
E0915 19:21:11.511021 30292 ActionManager.cpp:68] Action #5 has failed: 0x7b, The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.
W0915 19:21:11.511021 30292 ActionManager.cpp:85] Executing action(s) for menu 'issue186' completed with errors.
I0915 19:21:11.511021 30292 ActionManager.cpp:38] shellanything::ActionManager::Execute() - returns
I0915 19:21:11.511021 30292 CContextMenu.cpp:450] CContextMenu::InvokeCommand(),this=0xc4ffe2f0 - returns
I0915 19:21:11.520030 30292 CContextMenu.cpp:358] CContextMenu::~CContextMenu(), delete instance 0xc4ffe2f0

The file C:\Program Files\ShellAnything\bin\arguments.debugger.window.exe exists on my system so it probably more related to the settings I use when calling CreateProcessW() api. I will have to look into this more deeply.

Thank you for showing interrest in ShellAnything

[end2endzone]

I think the issue is related to how I handle these flags in function WindowsProcessLauncherService::StartProcessFromCreateProcess() when actually launching a console or a windowed process. I'm not sure.

However, in the meantime, there seem to be an easy workaroud that you can use on your configuration files.
You get the expected behavior if you set the basedir attributes. For example:

<exec path="${application.directory}\arguments.debugger.window.exe" arguments="${source.items}" basedir="D:\" />

Be careful to not use basedir="${selection.dir}" as it would not work as expected because it expands to a multiline value when selecting multiple files/directories.

[swarup459]

Sorry for the late reply. I was busy into something. Totally forgot about it.

Thanks for the workaround. It works.

And thanks for the program also. Recently, I was testing this for some of my scripts which mainly operate on arguments supplied from the Explorer Context Menu. The windows registry based context menu cannot handle multiple arguments at once, we have to use the 'Send to' menu. Now, the problem is solved. Also, there are some advance features in the program which I will use in the near future.