Boost C++ Libraries: Ticket #2170: quotes in path string must be removed: build.bat

owner changed

Vladimir Prus — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:09:50 GMT

owner changed from Vladimir Prus to René Rivera

status, version, component, milestone changed

René Rivera — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 00:05:50 GMT

status new → assigned
version Boost 1.35.0 → Boost.Jam 3.1.16
component build → bjam
milestone Boost 1.36.0 → Boost.Jam 3.1.17

status changed; resolution set

René Rivera — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 05:00:12 GMT

status assigned → closed
resolution → wontfix

It is extremely hard to remove quotes on any variables in Windows in a portable manner. To the point that it's not worth supporting for what is techincally an illegal use case. The PATH var, or any var for that matter, on Windows should ever be set to have quotes in it. If there is a program that is adding quotes in there it is that programs bug not bjam's bug.

rafael.anschau@… — Fri, 25 May 2012 18:34:26 GMT

I downloaded boost and when I runed bootstrap.bat, it endeded without either stating success or failure, complaining it didn´t understand something on my path. I debugged boostrap.bat and found the problem was when calling build.bat with:

call .\build.bat %* > ..\..\..\..\bootstrap.log

The string had double quotes(sorry I no longer have the message) , and hypothesized that it didn´t understand double quotes. So I removed the quotes and it built fine.

build.bat should at least say something like "Sorry, bad PATH variable, couldn´t understand ...") to save the installer´s debugging time. Otherwise people will loose lots of time debugging the same problem.(Expecting other app developer not to add quotes is not realistic). Another solution is to write on the install documentation of boost: "Make sure that, before you run bootstrap.bat, your path doesn´t have double quotes. If it does, remove them."