Re: lpr works? FAQ in error?

[Wilfried <wh_ng at gmx dot de>]

"Buchbinder, Barry" wrote:

> Wilfried wrote on Monday, July 21, 2008 10:11 AM:
> 
> > Ehh, I just saw that Rodrigo Medina addressed all these problems.
> > 
> > So the script would probably look like this:
> > 
> > --------------snip-------------
> > #!/bin/sh
> > $1 $2 $3 $4 $5 | unix2dos > tmp_file
> > cygstart notepad.exe /p tmp_file
> > rm tmp_file
> > --------------snip-------------
> 
> It looks to me that the command
> 	$1 $2 $3 $4 $5
> has two or three problems:
>   (1) Arguments are not quoted.
>   (2) One might have more than a command and 4 arguments.
>   (3) It is also possible that one may have surprises if /bin/sh is set up so when non-interactive it handles aliases and shell functions differently than expected.
> So I would just pipe into the shell script.
> 
> The second place is that there is theoretically a race between cygstart and rm.  What happens if rm deleted tmp_file before notepad reads it?  I can think of two ways to handle it.  Adding
> 	sleep 1
> to delay rm by a second will probably usually be enough of a delay.  Substituting
> 	"$(cygpath -u "$COMSPEC")" /c start /wait notepad.exe /p tmp_file
> for
> 	cygstart notepad.exe /p tmp_file
> to use Windows' start command will wait until notepad is closed.  (This may be longer than you want to wait.)
> 
> But I haven't tried this, so it may not work.
> 
> --------------snip--------------
> #!/bin/sh
> unix2dos > tmp_file
> cygstart notepad.exe /p tmp_file
> sleep 1
> rm tmp_file
> --------------snip--------------

Thanks for the discussion.
I had tested my script and it worked for me.
I agree that just 5 parameters may be not enough.
But there is no need to put the sleep command in. 
I had the impression that the script waited until the cygstart command
was finished. But even if not -- Notepad loads the file completely into
memory and then releases the file handle, so one can delete the file
while notepad is still open.
Regards, Wilfried

--
Wilfried Hennings


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