Win32::ShellQuote(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation Win32::ShellQuote(3)

# [NAME](#NAME)

Win32::ShellQuote - Quote argument lists for Win32

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

```
    use Win32::ShellQuote qw(:all);
    system quote_system('program.exe', '--switch', 'argument with spaces or other special characters');
```

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

Quotes argument lists to be used in Win32 in several different situations.

Windows passes its arguments as a single string instead of an array as other platforms do. In almost all cases, the standard Win32 CommandLineToArgvW <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms647232.aspx> function is used to parse this string. *cmd.exe* has different rules for handling quoting, so extra work has to be done if it is involved. It isn't possible to consistantly create a single string that will be handled the same by *cmd.exe* and the stardard parsing rules.

Perl will try to detect if you need the shell by detecting shell metacharacters. The routine that checks that uses different quoting rules from both *cmd.exe* and the native Win32 parsing. Extra work must therefore be done to protect against this autodetection.

# [SUBROUTINES](#SUBROUTINES)

## [quote\_native](#quote_native)

Quotes as a string to pass directly to a program using native methods like **Win32::Spawn()**. This is the safest option to use if possible.

## [quote\_cmd](#quote_cmd)

Quotes as a string to be run through *cmd.exe*, such as in a batch file.

## [quote\_system\_list](#quote_system_list)

Quotes as a list to be passed to system or exec. This is equally as safe as "quote\_native", but you must ensure you have more than one item being quoted for the list to be usable with system.

## [quote\_system\_string](#quote_system_string)

Like "quote\_system\_list", but returns a single string. Some argument lists cannot be properly quoted using this function.

## [quote\_system](#quote_system)

Switches between "quote\_system\_list" and "quote\_system\_string" based on the number of items quoted.

## [quote\_system\_cmd](#quote_system_cmd)

Quotes as a single string that will always be run with *cmd.exe*.

## [quote\_literal](#quote_literal)

Quotes a single parameter in native form.

## [cmd\_escape](#cmd_escape)

Escapes a string to be passed untouched by *cmd.exe*.

# [CAVEATS](#CAVEATS)

- Newlines (\\n or \\r) and null (\\0) can't be properly quoted when running through *cmd.exe*.
- This module re-implements some under-specified part of the perl internals to accurately perform its work.

# [AUTHOR](#AUTHOR)

haarg - Graham Knop (cpan:HAARG) <haarg@haarg.org>

# [CONTRIBUTORS](#CONTRIBUTORS)

•

Mithaldu - Christian Walde (cpan:MITHALDU) <walde.christian@googlemail.com>

# [COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE](#COPYRIGHT_AND_LICENSE)

Copyright (c) 2012 the "AUTHOR" and "CONTRIBUTORS" as listed above.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

2026-10-26 perl v5.44.0

---

Document: Win32::ShellQuote(3pm) from perl-win32-shellquote 0.003001-r5 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/haarg/Win32-ShellQuote.git