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POWhy does the cmd.exe shell on Windows fail with paths using a forward-slash ('/'') path separator?
 

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  1. POWhy does the cmd.exe shell on Windows fail with paths using a forward-slash ('/'') path separator?
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    <p>Just when I'd thought I'd seen it all with Windows path issues, I've now encountered a case that only fails when '/' (forward-slash) is used as the path separator is used:</p> <pre><code>C:\temp\tcbugs&gt;mkdir "dir1 with spaces" C:\temp\tcbugs&gt;echo hi &gt; "dir1 with spaces"\foo.txt C:\temp\tcbugs&gt;type "dir1 with spaces\foo.txt" hi C:\temp\tcbugs&gt;type "dir1 with spaces/foo.txt" The system cannot find the file specified. </code></pre> <p>What is particularly interesting about this is that it appears to be specific to the cmd.exe shell and doesn't occur in PowerShell (nor presumably in the win32 API):</p> <pre><code>PS C:\temp\tcbugs&gt; type 'dir1 with spaces/foo.txt' hi </code></pre> <p>Another point of interest is that changing directories with 'cd' and using '/' used as a path separator with cmd.exe does work:</p> <pre><code>C:\temp\tcbugs&gt;mkdir dir2_no_spaces C:\temp\tcbugs&gt;cd ./dir2_no_spaces C:\temp\tcbugs\dir2_no_spaces&gt;cd .. </code></pre> <p>Yet, I can't find any reference to this particular problem anywhere online nor in MSDN's commonly cited documentation:</p> <p><a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365247%28VS.85%29.aspx">Naming Files, Paths, Namespaces</a></p> <p>Which leads me to ask: why does this happen, and is there a definitive source which documents this quirk?</p> <p><strong>UPDATE:</strong></p> <p>dbenham points out that the problem is present regardless of whether spaces are in a directory name, so removed reference to it in the title and question body. Also added an example of 'cd ./' that works, while other commands don't.</p>
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      1. POWhy does the cmd.exe shell on Windows fail with paths using a forward-slash ('/'') path separator?
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      1. POWhy does the cmd.exe shell on Windows fail with paths using a forward-slash ('/'') path separator?
      1. USFrankie Simon
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    1. CO`/` can be used as a path separator at the API level, but you aren't calling the API directly. You're using cmd.exe, and cmd.exe parses the `/` as a command line option.
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      1. POWhy does the cmd.exe shell on Windows fail with paths using a forward-slash ('/'') path separator?
      1. USRaymond Chen
    2. COI suspected as much, but also expected something covering this case would be documented somewhere specifically. The documentation I have found covering path separators--even in the context of the cmd shell--doesn't mention this particular issue so far as I can tell.
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      1. POWhy does the cmd.exe shell on Windows fail with paths using a forward-slash ('/'') path separator?
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    3. COWhere is the documentation that says slash can be used as a path separator in cmd.exe?
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      1. POWhy does the cmd.exe shell on Windows fail with paths using a forward-slash ('/'') path separator?
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