mingw make can't handle spaces in path?

Question

I am trying to compile code, the makefile created using qmake. When I run mingw32-make I get the following error:

cd bzip2-1.0.5\ && c:\QtSDK\Desktop\Qt\4.7.3\mingw\bin\qmake.exe c:\Documents an
d Settings\user\My Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\meshlab\meshlab\meshla
b\src\external\bzip2-1.0.5\bzip2-1.0.5.pro -o Makefile
Cannot find file: c:\Documents.
Cannot find file: and.
Cannot find file: Settings\user\My.
Cannot find file: Documents\Visual.
Cannot find file: Studio.
Cannot find file: 2010\Projects\meshlab\meshlab\meshlab\src\external\bzip2-1.0.5
\bzip2-1.0.5.pro.
mingw32-make: *** [bzip2-1.0.5\Makefile] Error 2

By the error it appears that mingw32-make doesn't understand paths that have spaces in them. Is that true? Is there a way around it?

Answer 1

The common way to do it in Linux/UNIX is to escape each space with a backslash, like: /c/Documents\ and\ Settings/User However, this doesn't always work in MinGW.

So, use the short (8.3) name. You get the short name with the Windows (not MinGW) command for %I in (<PATH>) do @echo %~sI where <PATH> can be . (show current directory, like pwd), * (list files in current directory), a particular file path, etc.

Btw, to copy from the awful cmd.exe window, click the icon in the upper-left corner of the title bar, go to Properties, Options, and enable QuickEdit Mode. Then you can select text with your mouse. The Enter key (or menu>Edit>Copy) copies the text to the clipboard. The insert key (or menu>Edit>Paste) pastes it.