Getting raw (unsplit) command line in .NET

Question

In .NET, we can easily access split command line arguments in a string array from the argument of Main(string[]) or Environment.GetCommandLineArgs(). However, is there a way to get the unparsed command line as one string?

Background: my app is adding itself to FileExplorer context menu (like Notepad++ does). When it's launched this way, the filename is passed in without quoting, which means if there are spaces in the path, it's broken down. I know I can fix this by embrace %1 in quotation marks in the registry like myapp.exe "%1", but when I check other application's registry they didn't do so. They are plain like notepad.exe %1 - they got the complete command line. I want to know if it is possible in .NET and how.

Answer 1

Try using: Environment.CommandLine

Answer 2

To get the unparsed, raw, unmodified command line you have to P/Invoke GetCommandLine from kernel32. Some parsing will take place by the operating system. For example, an IO redirection such as >foo.txt will be excluded from the command line text regardless of the technique used.

Environment.CommandLine may be sufficient, but be aware that it removes interstitial spaces between arguments (unless the argument itself is enclosed in quotes) and it removes the quotes from quoted arguments.

For example, for the command line:

test.exe this is "a test"

Environment.CommandLine equals: "this is a test"

But GetCommandLine yields: "test.exe this is "a test"" with the spaces and quotes intact, along with the path of the exe.

Note that when using this technique, you have to parse the command line text manually, which may involve stripping off the path to the exe, which may itself be enclosed in quotes if the path contains spaces.