! Aware to Perl: Why can't I use "C:\temp\foo" in DOS paths? What doesn't `C:\temp\foo.exe` work?

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Why can't I use "C:\temp\foo" in DOS paths? What doesn't `C:\temp\foo.exe` work?

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Why can't I use "C:\temp\foo" in DOS paths? What doesn't `C:\temp\foo.exe` work?

Whoops! You just put a tab and a formfeed into that filename! Remember that within double quoted strings (``like\this''), the backslash is an escape character. The full list of these is in Quote and Quote-like Operators. Unsurprisingly, you don't have a file called ``c:(tab)emp(formfeed)oo'' or ``c:(tab)emp(formfeed)oo.exe'' on your DOS filesystem.

Either single-quote your strings, or (preferably) use forward slashes. Since all DOS and Windows versions since something like MS-DOS 2.0 or so have treated / and \ the same in a path, you might as well use the one that doesn't clash with Perl -- or the POSIX shell, ANSI C and C++, awk, Tcl, Java, or Python, just to mention a few.

Source: Perl FAQ: Files and Formats
Copyright: Copyright (c) 1997 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington.

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