Multiple shell commands

[J. Landman Gay]

On 11/6/04 11:33 AM, Jan Schenkel wrote:

 > --- "J. Landman Gay" <jacque at hyperactivesw.com> wrote:
 >
 >>I want to send two commands to a command-line app
 >>using shell() on
 >>Win98. The first needs to change directories, and
 >>then I need to issue a
 >>command to a DOS app. Both of these work okay if I
 >>type them into the
 >>DOS prompt window.
 >>
 >>When I try to send them via shell() it always fails
 >>with "too many
 >>parameters". I think I'm having trouble with quote
 >>marks, but I don't
 >>know enough about shell on Windows to figure it out.
 >>Here are the
 >>commands I want to send:
 >>
 >>cd "C:\Program Files\Conversion
 >>Software\w32-rbmake-1.1\"
 >>
 >>rbMake -ebjTs -otest "C:\Program Files\Conversion
 >>Software\README.txt"
 >>
 >>How would you format these? I tried using single
 >>quotes around the file
 >>paths but it doesn't work. Omitting the quotes
 >>entirely also fails, even
 >>if I only send the first line. I have also read that
 >>we can use "&" to
 >>join and send multiple commands to shell() but when
 >>I try it, I still
 >>get "too many parameters" with the "&" shown as the
 >>culprit.
 >>
 >>Anyone know how to do this?
 >>
 >>--
 >>Jacqueline Landman Gay
 >
 >
 > Hi Jacque,
 >
 > A few ideas :
 > - you may have to fiddle the 'shellCommand' property
 > (see Ken Ray's site)

I looked there yesterday but couldn't find what I want to do, except 
that I did learn I could use "&" between command lines. Only I can't get 
that to work. Do I need to change the shellCommand property even if the 
shell window is opening successfully?

 > - you could avoid the quotes in the file paths by
 > using the 'shortfilePath' function

I thought of that, but Rev doesn't seem to recognize it. There is only a 
"longFilePath" function, which isn't what I need. I was hoping it would 
work in reverse, but got an unrecognized handler error when I asked for 
the shortFilePath.

 > - as a last rescue, you could write the two commands
 > to a temporary batch file, and then execute that file

That sounds promising. How is that done?

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com