Runtime.exec on argument containing multiple spaces

Question

How can I make the following run?

public class ExecTest {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    try {
      //Notice the multiple spaces in the argument
      String[] cmd = {"explorer.exe", "/select,\"C:\\New      Folder\\file.txt\""};

      //btw this works
      //String cmd = "explorer.exe /select,\"C:\\New Folder\\file.txt\"";

      //and surprisingly this doesn't work
      //String[] cmd = {"explorer.exe", "/select,\"C:\\New Folder\\file.txt\""};

      //Update: and (as crazy as it seems) the following also worked
      //String[] cmd = {"explorer.exe", "/select,\"C:\\New", "Folder\\file.txt\""};

      Runtime.getRuntime().exec(cmd);
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }
}

Using Java 6. Tested under Vista x64. By the way, taking the string that gets executed (you'll have to use the String version of exec to get it) and using it in the Search field of Vista's start menu will run as expected.

Answer 1

The characters ,-& and double spaces, all combined are a nightmare!

All the answers exposed here failed for "\\NAS\media\Music\Artistes\E\Earth, Wind & Fire\1992 - The eternal dance - Vol. 1 (1971-1975) (double space between 'Vol. 1' and '(1971').

I have no other choice than writing a temporary batch file:

   void openFolderOf( Album album ) {
      try {
         final String path = album._playList.getParent();
         final File batch = File.createTempFile( getClass().getSimpleName(), ".bat" );
         try( PrintStream ps = new PrintStream( batch )) {
            ps.println( "explorer.exe \"" + path + '"' );
         }
         Runtime.getRuntime().exec( batch.getAbsolutePath());
      }
      catch( final Throwable t ) {
         t.printStackTrace();
      }
   }

Note: on cmd.exe, the line explorer "\\NAS..." works well but not with Runtime.exec() nor ProcessBuilder.

Answer 2

A miracle, it works!

Don't ask me why, but when i, after quite a while of nerve-wrecking research in the internets, was close to give up and use a temporary batch file as a workaround, i forgot to add the /select, parameter to the command, and, who would have thought, the following works on my Win 7 32Bit System.

String param = "\"C:\\Users\\ME\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Temporary Internet Files\\\"";
try {
    String[]commands = new String[]{"explorer.exe", param};
    Process child = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(commands);
} catch (IOException e1) {
    System.out.println("...");
}

General Solution:

The solution of the bug-database mentioned by prunge in his post (http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6511002) worked fine for me.

Reason:

Apparently the problem lies with the commenting of some characters done by java which it does before actually executing the command string. You have to do the commenting yourself by tokenizing your command string, to prevent the faulty java one to spring into action and mess everything up.

How to fix:

So, in my case i had to do the following (tokenizing my command string, so that no spaces are left inside the string):

String param[] = {
    "explorer.exe",
    "/select,C:\\Users\\ME\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Temporary",
    "Internet",
    "Files\\"};

try {
    Process child = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(param);
} catch (IOException e1) {
    System.out.println("...");
}

As you can see i basically started a new String wherever a space occured, so "Temporary Internet Files" became "Temporary","Internet","Files".