From: "Kroeger Simon (ext)" <simon.kroeger.ext@...>
Date: 2005-09-13T23:25:25+09:00
Subject: Re: find executables on windows

 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ara.T.Howard [mailto:Ara.T.Howard@noaa.gov] 
> Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2005 4:18 PM
> To: ruby-talk ML
> Subject: Re: find executables on windows
> 
> On Tue, 13 Sep 2005, Kroeger Simon (ext) wrote:
> 
> > MSDN, CreateProcess:
> >
> > ...If the filename does not contain a directory path, the system
> > searches
> > for the executable file in the following sequence:
> >
> > - The directory from which the application loaded.
> >
> > - The current directory for the parent process.
> >
> > - Windows 95 and Windows 98: The Windows system directory.
> >   Use theGetSystemDirectory function to get the path of 
> this directory.
> >
> > - Windows NT: The 32-bit Windows system directory.
> >   Use the GetSystemDirectory function to get the path of this
> > directory.
> >   The name of this directory is SYSTEM32.
> >
> > - Windows NT: The 16-bit Windows system directory.
> >   There is no Win32 function that obtains the path of this 
> directory,
> >   but it is searched. The name of this directory is SYSTEM.
> >
> > - The Windows directory. Use theGetWindowsDirectory 
> function to get the
> >
> >   path of this directory.
> >
> > - The directories that are listed in the PATH environment variable.
> >
> > erm, yes, that's it! :)
> 
> i think i'll settle for PATH ;-)
> 

You asked...

at least on my system the Windows directory, SYSTEM and SYSTEM32 are
also in the PATH, so this will be ok in almost all cases I guess.
Depending what you are about to do I would suggest checking '.' also and
try other extensions than exe. My PATHEXT includes

PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.RB;.RBW

So this may be important, at least if you don't know the complete
filename beforehand.

cheers

Simon