Re: problems with embedded spaces in file paths (Win32)

["George N. White III" <aa056@chebucto.ns.ca>]

On Mon, 15 Sep 2003, Fabrice Popineau wrote:

> > 1.  on Win32, kpsewhich often fails to find texexec.ini.  I created a
>
> I have applied a couple of patches to texexec and texutil. They are
> attached.

This morning, on Win98, texexec.exe reliably failed to find texexec.ini.
I see that the full path of texexec.exe is passed into the backticks:

 my $IniPath = `$own_quote$kpsewhich$own_quote --format="other text files"
-progname=context texexec.$suffix` ;

replacing "$kpsewhich" with "kpsewhich" got things working.  I wonder
if this is some Win98 command buffer length issue.  Is it necessary
to pass the full path (e.g., C:\PROGRA~1\TEXLIVE\BIN\WIN32\KPSEWHICH.EXE)?

> > 2.  ConTeXt texexec uses $ENV{"HOME"} to set a value in filename.tmp,
> > e.g., on unix:
>
> I tried your example and this is what I get :
>
> C:\tmp>cat try.tmp
> % try.top
> \unprotect
> \setupoutput[pdftex]
> \setupsystem[\c!gebied={C:/Documents and Settings/popineau/My Documents/}]
> \setupsystem[\c!n=2]
> \setupsystem[inputfile=try.tex]
> \protect
>
> Which seems correct, isn't it?

My guess is that when kpathsea is failing, you are supposed to get a
message in "$HOME/cont-err", but instead you end up with text on an
extra page, something like:

        and Settings/popineau/My Documents//cont-err

which suggests the error is likely written to C:/Documents.

I didn't have a chance to test your patch today.

Currently, texexec.pl tries a brute force search if kpathsea fails to find
texexec.ini or texexec.rme. On the Win98 PC I'm using, this search takes
much longer than I'm willing to wait.  Would it be better to exit with a
suggestion that the user investigate the problem with kpathsea?

-- 
George N. White III  <aa056@chebucto.ns.ca>