Using OS-COMMAND and DOS statement should warn when unnamed output stream is open

When there is an OUTPUT TO statement with no output stream declared, and a DOS or OS-COMMAND statement is executed on Windows, the results may be questionable.

Dec 14, 2023
Knowledge

Title

URL Name

using-os-command-and-dos-statement-should-warn-when-unnamed-output-stream-is-open

Article Number

000241279

Environment

Product: OpenEdge Version: App Supported Versions OS: Windows

Question/Problem Description

When using OS-COMMAND in the below code with quoted command line and quoted parameters and with the unnamed stream open using OUTPUT TO, the quotes are stripped and the command fails with the following error.

Example:

OUTPUT TO VALUE("C:\temp\space directory\foo.bat").
PUT UNFORMATTED "dir /B ~"C:\temp\space directory~" > ~"C:\temp\space directory\foo.out~"~n".
OUTPUT CLOSE.

OUTPUT TO VALUE("c:\temp\space directory\foo.err").
OS-COMMAND SILENT VALUE("~"C:\temp\space directory\foo.bat~" > ~"C:\temp\space directory\foo.result~"").
OUTPUT CLOSE.

'C:\temp\space' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

Steps to Reproduce

Clarifying Information

Error Message

'C:\temp\space' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

Defect Number

OCTA-57081

Enhancement Number

Cause

The underlying cause is a known issue and this was reported in the defect described here OUTPUT TO statement influences the behavior of OS-COMMAND.

The conspawn.exe utility is used when calling OUTPUT TO <no stream> and then calling the OS-COMMAND or DOS statement.

The side effect of this utility is that all output from the spanwed cmd process is redirected to the target of the OUTPUT TO statement. Among other things conspawn.exe strips the quotes from the path references and then errors when attempting to execute C:\temp\space directory\foo,bat because of the unquoted paths with spaces.

The conspawn.exe executable is needed but the behavior is not, so it is advised not to use this syntax.

This defect was specifically logged to note that there should be a compiler warning when code is being compiled that may be affected by this problem.

Resolution

Fixed version(s): OpenEdge 13.0

Workaround

Use a stream in the OUTPUT TO statement. By naming the output stream this problem does not occur.
Close the unnamed OUTPUT stream using OUTPUT CLOSE before executing the OS-COMMAND or DOS statement.
Write the command being executed along with any stdout/stderr redirection symbols to a batch file and execute the batch file using OS-COMMAND or DOS.
If it is truly necessary to output to OUTPUT the unnamed stream while executing OS commands using the OS-COMMAND or DOS statements you should treat it like there are no quotes in the string. If it doesn't work without the quotes then you should use workaround 1 or 2 above.

Notes

Keyword Phrase

Last Modified Date

12/14/2023 3:13 PM

Using OS-COMMAND and DOS statement should warn when unnamed output stream is open

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