shell script not workig with parameters - shell

Question

This works with CMD:
rar a c:\new.rar c:\*.*
This works running script.vbs, but does not do too much!:
Function qq(strIn)
qq = Chr(34) & strIn & Chr(34)
End Function
Set sh = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
MyCmd = "Cmd /c CD /D " & qq("C:\Program Files (x86)\WinRAR") & " & a c:\new.rar c:\*.* "
sh.run MyCmd,1,True
It is no longer returning errors, but file new.rar is not being created either, it says 'a' is not a valid parameter

Answer 1

(1) Always echo the command before you try to feed it to run:
>> MyCmd = "Cmd /c CD /D " & qq("C:\Program Files (x86)\WinRAR") & " & a c:\new.rar c:\*.* "
>> WScript.Echo MyCmd
>>
Cmd /c CD /D "C:\Program Files (x86)\WinRAR" & a c:\new.rar c:\*.*
Obviously your concatenation puts a spurious "&" in the result.
(2) Never let you be persuaded to put random additions like "cmd /c cd /d" into you command.
(3) Build your command line in a structured way. E.g:
Option Explicit
Function qq(s) : qq = """" & s & """" : End Function
Dim sCmd : sCmd = Join(Array( _
qq("C:\Program Files (x86)\WinRAR") _
, "a" _
, qq("c:\some path with spaces\new.rar") _
, qq("c:\source dir with more spaces\*.*") _
))
WScript.Echo sCmd
output:
cscript y.vbs
"C:\Program Files (x86)\WinRAR" a "c:\some path with spaces\new.rar" "c:\source dir with more spaces\*.*"
See here for background and reasons why.
Update:
This way, blunders (just the path, not the full filespec of rar mentioned) can be spotted and corrected easily:
Option Explicit
Function qq(s) : qq = """" & s & """" : End Function
Dim sCmd : sCmd = Join(Array( _
qq("C:\Program Files (x86)\WinRAR\rar.exe") _
, "a" _
, qq("c:\some path with spaces\new.rar") _
, qq("c:\source dir with more spaces\*.*") _
))
WScript.Echo sCmd

Answer 2

Try this code and let me know if it works or not for you ?
Set sh = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
MyCmd = "Cmd /c CD /D " & qq("C:\Program Files (x86)\WinRAR") & " & rar /? & pause"
sh.run MyCmd,1,True
'************************************
Function qq(strIn)
qq = Chr(34) & strIn & Chr(34)
End Function
'************************************
EDIT : Check this code :
Set sh = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
MyCmd = "Cmd /c CD /D " & qq("C:\Program Files (x86)\WinRAR") & " & rar a c:\new.rar c:\*.* & pause"
sh.run MyCmd,1,True
'************************************
Function qq(strIn)
qq = Chr(34) & strIn & Chr(34)
End Function
'************************************