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Index > Windows > why windows add a new extra spacebar before argument?

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sleepsleep



Joined: 05 Oct 2006
Posts: 12877
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sleepsleep 16 Apr 2012, 19:42
found a weird bit,
why windows return back 2 space bar when initially there is only 1 space bar from our command prompt?

Code:
.code
start:
     invoke  GetCommandLine
      invoke  lstrlen,eax
         pusha
       cinvoke printf,<'len = %d',CR,LF>,eax
               popa
    

let say our application name is A.EXE

result would be
D:\>A.EXE
len = 5
[65] = [A]
[46] = [.]
[69] = [E]
[88] = [X]
[69] = [E]
[0] = [ ]

now if you do A.EXE 1 2 3
D:\>A.EXE 1 2 3
len = 12
[65] = [A]
[46] = [.]
[69] = [E]
[88] = [X]
[69] = [E]
[32] = [ ]
[32] = [ ]
[49] = [1]
[32] = [ ]
[50] = [2]
[32] = [ ]
[51] = [3]
[0] = [ ]

see, windows add an extra space bar,
Post 16 Apr 2012, 19:42
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revolution
When all else fails, read the source


Joined: 24 Aug 2004
Posts: 20363
Location: In your JS exploiting you and your system
revolution 16 Apr 2012, 21:39
Why do birds sing?
Why is rain wet?
Post 16 Apr 2012, 21:39
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AsmGuru62



Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Posts: 1640
Location: Toronto, Canada
AsmGuru62 16 Apr 2012, 22:00
Parser of a command line must not rely on fact that every piece will be
separated by only one blank - it can be 10 blanks or 7 or whatever.
Also, blanks can be enclosed into double quotes and then they considered a part
of the command line token:

A.EXE "C:\Program Files\Microsoft" -del
Post 16 Apr 2012, 22:00
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Goplat



Joined: 15 Sep 2006
Posts: 181
Goplat 19 Apr 2012, 01:38
cmd allows several characters other than space to terminate a program name and begin its arguments (most usefully, the slash), but the C library's rules for parsing command lines requires a space, so cmd adds one:
program/foo → CreateProcess("C:\program.exe", "program /foo", ...)
program;foo → CreateProcess("C:\program.exe", "program ;foo", ...)
program(foo → CreateProcess("C:\program.exe", "program (foo", ...)
If the character *is* a space, this means there ends up being two spaces in the command line passed to CreateProcess.

Edit: It seems this behavior changed between XP and Vista. XP's cmd removes the extra space, Vista's does not.
Post 19 Apr 2012, 01:38
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