Re: How to call a Windows executable from Ada?

["Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de>]

On 2021-12-09 00:04, Marius Amado-Alves wrote:
> Any *effectively working* solution for calling an external Windows executable, with arguments, from inside Ada?
> 
> For example, the following command runs fine when given on the Windows command line:
> 
> "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\WINWORD.EXE" /f "C:\long path\with spaces\and accented letters\like in the words\declaração de autorização.docx" /mSave_As_Txt
> 
> The same command FAILS when called from inside Ada with any of the know "solutions" on GNAT gem [1] and Rosetta Code [2].

I doubt very much that GNAT.OS_Lib.Non_Blocking_Spawn does not work. You 
do something wrong, like passing quotation marks etc. Remember, Windows 
does not have argument lists Linux have. So all UNIX-esque calls like 
Non_Blocking_Spawn are ultimately assembled back into a single 
command-line which is then split back again inside the process. Thus 
dealing with quotation marks you must make it sure that they are not get 
eaten or introduced.

As for other ways, if you need access to input/output/error of the 
process you can use GLib primitives:

http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de/ada/gtkada_contributions.htm#10

-- 
Regards,
Dmitry A. Kazakov
http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de