What happened?
On Windows, rdc capture -- <exe> <args> passes arguments to the launched app wrapped in literal single quotes whenever an argument contains a backslash. The app then receives e.g. 'C:\path\file' — with the quotes as part of the string — and can't find the file.
Steps to reproduce
rdc capture -o out.rdc -- C:\tools\app.exe C:\data\input.txt- The launched app sees its argument as
'C:\data\input.txt' (literal single-quotes included).
Concrete example (launching the daslang interpreter):
rdc capture -o out.rdc -- D:\bin\daslang.exe -load_module D:\mod D:\path\script.das
→ error[20605]: missing prerequisite ''D:\path\script.das''; file not found
(Note the doubled quotes in the diagnostic — daslang prints the bad filename in single-quotes, and the filename it received already had single-quotes.)
Expected: arguments passed through unmodified.
Actual: any backslash-containing arg is wrapped in '...'.
Root cause
The child command line handed to renderdoc.ExecuteAndInject(...) is built with POSIX shlex.quote. shlex.quote single-quotes any string containing a character outside its safe set [A-Za-z0-9_@%+=:,./-] — and the Windows path separator \ is not in that set. On Windows, single quotes are not shell quoting; they become literal characters in the argument string.
Recommended fix
Build the child command line with platform-appropriate quoting:
- Windows:
subprocess.list2cmdline(args) (MSVCRT rules — only wraps args with spaces/tabs/" in double quotes), not shlex.quote.
- POSIX: keep
shlex.join / shlex.quote.
Since ExecuteAndInject takes a single cmdline string, the safest is to branch on os.name/sys.platform when joining [app] + app_args.
Workaround: pass forward-slash paths (/ is in shlex's safe set, so it isn't quoted) — incidental, not a real fix.
OS / Platform
Windows 11
Python version
3.12.13
rdc-cli version
0.5.6
Capture file
N/A — fails before any capture is produced.
What happened?
On Windows,
rdc capture -- <exe> <args>passes arguments to the launched app wrapped in literal single quotes whenever an argument contains a backslash. The app then receives e.g.'C:\path\file'— with the quotes as part of the string — and can't find the file.Steps to reproduce
rdc capture -o out.rdc -- C:\tools\app.exe C:\data\input.txt'C:\data\input.txt'(literal single-quotes included).Concrete example (launching the daslang interpreter):
(Note the doubled quotes in the diagnostic — daslang prints the bad filename in single-quotes, and the filename it received already had single-quotes.)
Expected: arguments passed through unmodified.
Actual: any backslash-containing arg is wrapped in
'...'.Root cause
The child command line handed to
renderdoc.ExecuteAndInject(...)is built with POSIXshlex.quote.shlex.quotesingle-quotes any string containing a character outside its safe set[A-Za-z0-9_@%+=:,./-]— and the Windows path separator\is not in that set. On Windows, single quotes are not shell quoting; they become literal characters in the argument string.Recommended fix
Build the child command line with platform-appropriate quoting:
subprocess.list2cmdline(args)(MSVCRT rules — only wraps args with spaces/tabs/"in double quotes), notshlex.quote.shlex.join/shlex.quote.Since
ExecuteAndInjecttakes a single cmdline string, the safest is to branch onos.name/sys.platformwhen joining[app] + app_args.Workaround: pass forward-slash paths (
/is in shlex's safe set, so it isn't quoted) — incidental, not a real fix.OS / Platform
Windows 11
Python version
3.12.13
rdc-cli version
0.5.6
Capture file
N/A — fails before any capture is produced.