Error passing double quotes and spaces in install argument (-ia)

[PeterMosmans]

Hi,

I try to install jre8 with the following install argument: /INSTALLDIRPUBJRE="%ProgramFiles%\Java\jre8". The system variable %ProgramFiles% contains a space (c:\Program Files).
From what I understood on the wiki (https://github.com/chocolatey/choco/wiki/CommandsReference#how-to-pass-options--switches ) you can use single quotes instead of double quotes.
However, I tried all sorts of combinations using single quotes, double quotes and escape characters (`), but chocolatey seems to refuse the syntax. When I check the logs I see that the double quotes andor space aren't passed correctly to the Java installer. Some results from the logs:
INSTALLDIRPUBJRE=C:\Program Files\Java\jre8

ConvertFrom-StringData : parsing "C:\Program Files\Java\jre8" - Unrecognized escape sequence \P.

INSTALLDIRPUBJRE=''C:\Program Files\Java\jre8 Error reading config file: "Invalid value" at line 1; char 1

Some (but not all) of the combinations tried (and failed):

-ia '/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE="C:\Program Files\Java\jre8"'
-ia '/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE=''C:\Program Files\Java\jre8'''
-ia '/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE="C:\Program\ Files\Java\jre8"'
-ia '/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE="C:\Program\ Files\Java\jre8"'
-ia '/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE="C:\Program\ Files\Java\jre8"'
-ia /INSTALLDIRPUBJRE="C:\Program\ Files\Java\jre8"
-ia '/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE="C:\Program Files\Java\jre8"'
-ia "/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE=C:\Program Files\Java\jre8"
-ia "/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE="%ProgramFiles%\Java\jre8""
-ia "/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE=''%ProgramFiles%\Java\jre8''"
-ia '"/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE=''%ProgramFiles%\Java\jre8''"'
-ia "/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE=''%ProgramFiles%\Java\jre8''"
-ia '/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE="%ProgramFiles%\Java\jre8"'
-ia '/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE="%ProgramFiles%\Java\jre8"'
-ia '/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE=""%ProgramFiles%\Java\jre8""'
-ia '/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE=''%ProgramFiles%\Java\jre8'''
-ia "/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE=''%ProgramFiles%\Java\jre8''"
-ia ''/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE="%ProgramFiles%\Java\jre8''
-ia '/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE='';c:\Program;Files\Java\jre8'''

What would be the correct syntax ?

Thanks in advance,

Peter

[gep13]

Try the following:

-ia "/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE='C:\Program Files\Java\jre8'"

As per example here:

https://chocolatey.org/packages/VisualStudio2013Ultimate

If that doesn't work, you are going to need to work some magic with the ` (backtick) character, but I can never remember how that works :-) but @ferventcoder should be able to point you in the right direction.

[ferventcoder]

If you are in cmd.exe you can use just double quotes. If you are in powershell you need to work around it automatically removing the double quotes using backticks.

[ferventcoder]

Note that the message says, TEST THIS, MAY NOT BE RELEVANT ANYMORE ;)

[ferventcoder]

@PeterMosmans @gep13 can you verify my update to the documentation as working correctly?

[gep13]

Looks good to me, not in a position to test it though, hopefully @PeterMosmans can confirm.

Only comment would be to perhaps ditch the code highlighting of the ". Where you show an example of escaping a " with a ` it looks like there is a space between them, due to the code formatting.

I can't think of a way to make that better, without ditching the highlighting though. Any ideas?

[ferventcoder]

@gep13 fixed.

[PeterMosmans]

Thanks for the fast responses. When I try it from a command prompt with the syntax
"/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE='%ProgramFiles%\Java\jre8'"
I get the following error:

Error deserializing response of type chocolatey.infrastructure.app.domain.Registry:
Root element is missing.
jre8 not installed. An error occurred during installation:
Root element is missing.
Error deserializing response of type chocolatey.infrastructure.app.domain.Registry:
Root element is missing.
Root element is missing.

I get the same error when trying the backticked variants:

"/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE=`'%ProgramFiles%\Java\jre8`'"
"/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE=`"%ProgramFiles%\Java\jre8`""

[gep13]

Have you tried the latest update to the documentation:

https://github.com/chocolatey/choco/wiki/CommandsReference#how-to-pass-options--switches

Where the backticks are escaping a " not a '?

[PeterMosmans]

Yes, but that also unfortunately doesn't work:

'/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE=`"%ProgramFiles%\Java\jre8`"'
"/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE=`"%ProgramFiles%\Java\jre8`""
`"/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE="%ProgramFiles%\Java\jre8"`"
`'/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE="%ProgramFiles%\Java\jre8"`'

[PeterMosmans]

Could the quotes/backquotes have somehow "damaged" the installation itself ? Without any options I get the same error message:

>choco install jre8 --force
Chocolatey v0.9.9.4
Installing the following packages:
jre8
By installing you accept licenses for the packages.

jre8 v8.0.40 (forced)
Error deserializing response of type chocolatey.infrastructure.app.domain.Registry:
 Root element is missing.
jre8 not installed. An error occurred during installation:
 Root element is missing.
Error deserializing response of type chocolatey.infrastructure.app.domain.Registry:
 Root element is missing.
Root element is missing.

And in the logfiles:

jre8 v8.0.40 (forced)

[ERROR] - Error deserializing response of type chocolatey.infrastructure.app.domain.Registry:
 Root element is missing.
[ERROR] - jre8 not installed. An error occurred during installation:
 Root element is missing.
[ERROR] - Error deserializing response of type chocolatey.infrastructure.app.domain.Registry:
 Root element is missing.
[ERROR] - Root element is missing.

[gep13]

Ok, one more variation:

"/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE="%ProgramFiles%\Java\jre8""

NOTE: Only back-ticking the internal quotes, not the external

[PeterMosmans]

Nope, sorry:

>choco install jre8 -InstallArguments "/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE=`"%ProgramFiles%\Java\jre8`"" --force
Chocolatey v0.9.9.4
Installing the following packages:
jre8;Files\Java\jre8`

...and the same errors

[PeterMosmans]

Could it be that due to all the tries the registry (?) is broken ?

>choco uninstall jre8
Chocolatey v0.9.9.4
Uninstalling the following packages:
jre8
Which version of jre8 would you like to uninstall?
 1) None [Default - Press Enter]
 2) 8.0.40
2
You selected jre8 v8.0.40
Error deserializing response of type chocolatey.infrastructure.app.domain.Registry:
 Root element is missing.
Root element is missing.

Can I help by copying/uploading relevant logfiles ?

[ferventcoder]

Yep, upload them to a gist. Make sure to use -dv so we can get lots of information

[PeterMosmans]

Please find relevant (hopefully) logs here.. https://gist.github.com/PeterMosmans/2d3bdfbae7ace583bd20

I cannot seem to pass double quotes and spaces as install arguments

[ferventcoder]

@PeterMosmans are you using PowerShell to make these calls?

This is going to get very interesting :/

Command line: choco.exe  install jre8 -dv -ia "/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE=`"C:\Program Files\Java\jre8`"" --force
Received arguments: install jre8 -dv -ia /INSTALLDIRPUBJRE=`C:\Program Files\Java\jre8` --force

InstallArguments='/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE=`C:\Program'

Command line: choco.exe  install jre8 -dv -ia "/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE='C:\Program Files\Java\jre8'" --force
Received arguments: install jre8 -dv -ia /INSTALLDIRPUBJRE='C:\Program Files\Java\jre8' --force

InstallArguments='/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE='C:\Program Files\Java\jre8''

[ferventcoder]

-ia '/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE="C:\Program Files\Java\jre8"' - will likely work in cmd.exe but not in powershell
-ia "/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE=C:\Program Files\Java\jre8" - will likely work to get it set, but it may not be passed to the installer correctly

-ia "/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE="Program Files\Java\jre8"" - with powershell, everytime you want to keep around a double quote, you need to use the backtick or disable powershell parsing

https://connect.microsoft.com/PowerShell/feedback/details/376207/executing-commands-which-require-quotes-and-variables-is-practically-impossible
tl;dr - use --% before -ia to just pass the args through. Requires POSH v3+

-ia '/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE=""c:\Program Files\Java\jre8\""' - seems to be the ONLY thing that will work in POSH as is. But it doesn't work in cmd.exe.

Command line: "C:\ProgramData\Chocolatey\choco.exe" install bob --noop -ia "/yup=""dude what""" -dv
Received arguments: install bob --noop -ia /yup="dude what" -dv
InstallArguments='/yup="dude what"'

-ia "/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE=""c:\Program Files\Java\jre8\""" - is how it will work in cmd.exe.

Command line: "C:\ProgramData\Chocolatey\choco.exe" install bob --noop -dv -ia="/yup=""dude what"""
Received arguments: install bob --noop -dv -ia=/yup="dude what"
InstallArguments='/yup="dude what"'

[ferventcoder]

Well that was fun but I have it updated for you. https://github.com/chocolatey/choco/wiki/CommandsReference#how-to-pass-options--switches

What quote values was meant to do was talk about quoting the ENTIRE argument, not just a section. What you really need is how to pass quotes in arguments to be passed through with quotes. I added that section with what we found here.

[PeterMosmans]

@ferventcoder , thank you so much for helping me with this issue. I should have been clearer that I call chocolatey.exe from within a command shell.
And, lo and behold, when I do so using one doublequote (") around the argument, and two doublequotes ("") around a to-be doublequoted argument, it works.

[DEBUG] - Command line: choco.exe install jre8 -ia "/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE=""C:\Program Files\Java\jre8""" -dv
[DEBUG] - Received arguments: install jre8 -ia /INSTALLDIRPUBJRE="C:\Program Files\Java\jre8" -dv
InstallArguments='/INSTALLDIRPUBJRE="C:\Program Files\Java\jre8"

Thanks once again, especially for clarifying the documentation. At least something good came of it :)

Cheers,

Peter

[ferventcoder]

For the registry issue - follow #257