directory separator in Windows

[pr-apes]

@pgundlach,

I have the following sample:

<Layout xmlns="urn:speedata.de:2009/publisher/en"
  xmlns:sd="urn:speedata:2009/publisher/functions/en">

  <Record element="data">
    <SetVariable variable="myfile" select="$external_pdfdoc"/>
    <Loop select="sd:number-of-pages($myfile)" variable="page">
      <PlaceObject column="0mm" row="0mm">
        <Image file="{$myfile}" width="210mm" page="{$page}"/>
      </PlaceObject>
      <ClearPage/>
    </Loop>
  </Record>

</Layout>

With the common invocation sp --autoopen, I have the following possibilities (using Windows):

1. -v external_pdfdoc=../doc-100.pdf: included pages.
2. -v external_pdfdoc=..\doc-100.pdf pages not included.
3. -v external_pdfdoc=%USERPROFILE%/Desktop/doc-100.pdf pages not included.
4. -v external_pdfdoc=%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\doc-100.pdf pages not included.
5. -v external_pdfdoc=c:/Users/username/Desktop/doc-100.pdf included pages.
6. -v external_pdfdoc=c:\Users\username\Desktop\doc-100.pdf pages not included.

From https://doc.speedata.de/publisher/en/filenames/, I thought that options 4 and 6 would include the pages.

Am I missing something or is this the way Publisher behaves?

Many thanks for your help.

[pgundlach]

How do you start the sp.exe program? On a command line? I assume that the backslashes must be doubled (but this should be documented)

[pr-apes]

Ok, I get it now.

[pr-apes]

So, as a general rule, when backslashes are used to specify Windows paths, they have to be escaped as \\, don’t they?

[pgundlach]

It depends on where you use them. Within the layout or data files, one backslash should be fine. If provided at startup time from the command line, it should be doubled (so I assume).

[pr-apes]

Well, this is trial and error.

If I happened to have a more precise description when to escape backslashes, I would reopen the issue myself.

Many thanks for your help.