How to expand command-line arguments when debugging in Visual Studio?

Question

Is there a way to make Visual Studio expand * in file names (and directory names) before invoking the debugger? When I write, e.g., *.txt as the command line arguments, the args[] variable will contain just one entry ("*.txt"), rather than one entry for each matching file. Do I have to write my own code to do this expansion?

That's a pretty infamous Unix shell feature. It is completely absent in Windows, in VS as well. — Hans Passant
– Hans Passant, Commented Nov 4, 2014 at 16:22
Well, it works in cmd, so it's not completely absent. Anyway, I solved it by simply creating a list of all the files I needed, and assigning the list to args at the beginning of my debugging session. But it's kind of fiddly, and such an obvious thing that VS should support IMHO. — Henrik Berg
– Henrik Berg, Commented Nov 5, 2014 at 7:47

RJFalconer · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-04 14:21:18Z

1

If you are invoking visual studio as such:

devenv /debugexe 'myprogram' *.txt

then yes, args[] will contain '*.txt' and you will need to parse and respond to that in your program. (Just the same as if you'd launched the program without the debugger).

edited Nov 4, 2014 at 14:21

answered Nov 4, 2014 at 12:12

RJFalconer

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Henrik Berg Over a year ago

Actually, no, I invoke the debugger by hitting F5, after entering the arguments under "Project properties" -> "Debug" -> "Command Line Arguments". And I do not surround them with quotation marks.

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