Do not rely on short (8+3) names on Windows

Changes

@@ -3,6 +3,10 @@ Revision history for {{$dist->name}}
 {{$NEXT}}
   - Fix test failures under WSL2 by filtering Windows paths from PATH
     (gh#31, gh#32)
+  - win32_space_be_gone returns the original path unchanged if no short
+    (8+3) name without spaces is available (gh#13, gh#28, gh#33)
+  - Test suite no longer relies on short (8+3) names on Windows, and
+    quotes paths with spaces instead (gh#13, gh#28, gh#33)
 
 0.35      2026-09-04 09:54:50 -0600
   - Add unset method to remove environment variables (gh#14, gh#27, gh#30)

lib/Shell/Config/Generate.pm

@@ -835,14 +835,20 @@ our @EXPORT_OK = qw( win32_space_be_gone cmd_escape_path powershell_escape_path
 On C<MSWin32> and C<cygwin>:
 
 Given a list of directory paths (or filenames), this will
-return an equivalent list of paths pointing to the same
+attempt to return an equivalent list of paths pointing to the same
 file system objects without spaces.  To do this
 C<Win32::GetShortPathName()> is used on to find alternative
 path names without spaces.
 
-NOTE that this breaks when Windows is told not to create
-short (C<8+3>) filenames; see L<http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=333930>
-for a discussion of this behaviour.
+B<NOTE> that short (C<8+3>) filenames are not created by default on
+newer versions of Windows, and can be disabled on older ones; see
+L<http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=333930> for a discussion of this
+behaviour.  If no short name without spaces is available for a path,
+then the original path is returned unchanged, so you should not rely
+on the result being free of spaces.  The configurations generated by
+this module quote values as needed, and L</set_alias> can be given an
+array reference to preserve spaces in commands, so this function
+should not usually be needed.
 
 In addition, on just C<Cygwin>:
 
@@ -862,7 +868,15 @@ Returns the same list passed into it
 sub win32_space_be_gone
 {
   return @_ if $^O !~ /^(MSWin32|cygwin|msys)$/;
-  map { /\s/ ? _win_to_posix_path(Win32::GetShortPathName(_posix_to_win_path($_))) : $_ } @_;
+  map {
+    my $path = $_;
+    if($path =~ /\s/)
+    {
+      my $short = Win32::GetShortPathName(_posix_to_win_path($path));
+      $path = _win_to_posix_path($short) if defined $short && $short !~ /\s/;
+    }
+    $path;
+  } @_;
 }
 
 =head2 cmd_escape_path

t/lib/TestLib.pm

@@ -5,14 +5,35 @@ use warnings;
 use File::Spec;
 use File::Temp;
 use Shell::Guess;
-use Shell::Config::Generate qw( cmd_escape_path powershell_escape_path );
+use Shell::Config::Generate qw( cmd_escape_path );
 use Test2::API qw( context );
 use Env qw( @PATH );
 use TestPath;
 use base qw( Exporter );
 
 our @EXPORT = qw( find_shell tempdir get_env bad_fish );
 
+# quote a word for the shell used by backticks / system
+# (cmd.exe on MSWin32, /bin/sh elsewhere)
+sub _q
+{
+  my $word = shift;
+  if($^O eq 'MSWin32')
+  {
+    return $word =~ /[\s&^|<>()]/ ? qq{"$word"} : $word;
+  }
+  $word =~ s/'/'"'"'/g;
+  "'$word'";
+}
+
+# quote a word for use inside a PowerShell script
+sub _q_ps
+{
+  my $word = shift;
+  $word =~ s/'/''/g;
+  "'$word'";
+}
+
 sub shell_is_okay
 {
   my($shell, $full_path) = @_;
@@ -33,7 +54,8 @@ sub shell_is_okay
   if($shell =~ /^powershell.exe$/ && -e $full_path)
   {
     return 0 if $ENV{ACTIVESTATE_PPM_BUILD};
-    `$full_path -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -InputFormat none -NoProfile -File corpus\\true.ps1`;
+    my $ps1 = $^O eq 'MSWin32' ? 'corpus\\true.ps1' : 'corpus/true.ps1';
+    `@{[ _q($full_path) ]} -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -InputFormat none -NoProfile -File @{[ _q($ps1) ]}`;
     return $? == 0;
   }
 
@@ -57,7 +79,6 @@ sub find_shell
 }
 
 my $dir = File::Temp::tempdir( CLEANUP => 1 );
-$dir = Win32::GetShortPathName($dir) if $^O eq 'MSWin32';
 
 do {
   my $fn = File::Spec->catfile($dir, 'dump.pl');
@@ -136,15 +157,23 @@ sub get_env
     }
     else
     {
-      my $perl_exe = $^X;
-      $perl_exe = Cygwin::posix_to_win_path($perl_exe)
+      my @cmd = ($^X, File::Spec->catfile($dir, 'dump.pl'));
+      @cmd = map { Cygwin::posix_to_win_path($_) } @cmd
         if $^O =~ /^(cygwin|msys)$/ && $fn =~ /\.(bat|cmd|ps1)$/;
-      ($perl_exe) = cmd_escape_path($perl_exe)
-        if $^O =~ /^(MSWin32|cygwin|msys)$/ && $fn =~ /\.(bat|cmd)$/;;
-      ($perl_exe) = powershell_escape_path($perl_exe)
-        if $^O =~ /^(MSWin32|cygwin|msys)$/ && $fn =~ /\.ps1$/;;
-      print $fh "$perl_exe ", File::Spec->catfile($dir, 'dump.pl'), "\n";
-      close $fn;
+      if($fn =~ /\.(bat|cmd)$/)
+      {
+        @cmd = map { cmd_escape_path($_) } @cmd;
+      }
+      elsif($fn =~ /\.ps1$/)
+      {
+        @cmd = ('&', map { _q_ps($_) } @cmd);
+      }
+      else
+      {
+        # bourne, csh and fish all understand single quotes
+        @cmd = map { s/'/'"'"'/g; "'$_'" } @cmd;
+      }
+      print $fh "@cmd\n";
     }
     print $fh "exit\n" if $shell->is_power;
   };
@@ -157,23 +186,23 @@ sub get_env
   {
     if($shell->is_c)
     {
-      $output = `$shell_path -f $fn`;
+      $output = `@{[ _q($shell_path) ]} -f @{[ _q($fn) ]}`;
     }
     else
     {
-      $output = `$shell_path $fn`;
+      $output = `@{[ _q($shell_path) ]} @{[ _q($fn) ]}`;
     }
   }
   elsif($shell->is_power && $^O =~ /^(cygwin|MSWin32|msys)$/)
   {
     my $fn2 = $fn;
     $fn2 = Cygwin::posix_to_win_path($fn) if $^O =~ /^(cygwin|msys)$/;
     $fn2 =~ s{\\}{/}g;
-    $output = `$shell_path -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -InputFormat none -NoProfile -File $fn2`;
+    $output = `@{[ _q($shell_path) ]} -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -InputFormat none -NoProfile -File @{[ _q($fn2) ]}`;
   }
   else
   {
-    $output = `$fn`;
+    $output = `@{[ _q($fn) ]}`;
   }
 
   my $fail = $?;

t/shell_config_generate__alias.t

@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ use TestLib;
 my $dir = tempdir();
 
 my $perl_exe = $^X;
-$perl_exe = Win32::GetShortPathName($perl_exe) if $^O eq 'MSWin32';
 
 my $config = eval { Shell::Config::Generate->new };
 isa_ok $config, 'Shell::Config::Generate';
@@ -28,6 +27,11 @@ do {
 eval { $config->set_alias("myecho1", "$perl_exe $script_name f00f") };
 is $@, '', 'set_alias';
 
+# the string form of set_alias leaves quoting up to the caller, so
+# paths with spaces can't be used here.  The array form, which does
+# quote each word, is tested with spaces in t/shell_config_generate__alias_array.t
+my $has_space = grep /\s/, $perl_exe, $script_name;
+
 foreach my $shell (qw( tcsh csh bsd-csh bash sh zsh cmd.exe command.com ksh 44bsd-csh jsh powershell.exe pwsh fish ))
 {
   subtest $shell => sub {
@@ -36,6 +40,7 @@ foreach my $shell (qw( tcsh csh bsd-csh bash sh zsh cmd.exe command.com ksh 44bs
     my $guess = TestLib::get_guess($shell);
     note $config->generate($guess);
     skip_all "no $shell found" unless defined $shell_path;
+    skip_all "path to perl or test script contains a space" if $has_space;
     skip_all "not testing sh in case it doesn't support aliases" if $shell eq 'sh';
     skip_all "alias may not work with non-interactive cmd.exe or command.com"
       if $shell eq 'cmd.exe' || $shell eq 'command.com';
@@ -61,6 +66,7 @@ subtest 'powershell.exe' => sub {
 
   note $config->generate($guess);
   skip_all "no powershell.exe found" unless defined $shell_path;
+  skip_all "path to perl or test script contains a space" if $has_space;
 
   my $list = get_env($config, $shell, $shell_path, 'myecho1 one two three');
   return unless defined $list;

t/shell_config_generate__alias_array.t

@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ use TestLib;
 my $dir = tempdir();
 
 my $perl_exe = $^X;
-$perl_exe = Win32::GetShortPathName($perl_exe) if $^O eq 'MSWin32';
 
 my $config = eval { Shell::Config::Generate->new };
 isa_ok $config, 'Shell::Config::Generate';
@@ -42,7 +41,7 @@ foreach my $shell (qw( tcsh csh bsd-csh bash sh zsh cmd.exe command.com ksh 44bs
       # protected on those shells.  generate should refuse to produce
       # a broken alias and die with a helpful message instead.
       my $ret = eval { $config->generate($guess) };
-      like $@, qr/word 'has space' contains a space/, 'generate dies with a helpful message';
+      like $@, qr/word '[^']*' contains a space/, 'generate dies with a helpful message';
       is $ret, U(), 'generate did not return a value';
       return;
     }

t/shell_config_generate__space_win32.t

@@ -28,12 +28,26 @@ my($dir1, $file1) = win32_space_be_gone($dir,$file);
 ok -d $dir1, "dir exists $dir1";
 ok -r $file1, "file readable $file1";
 
-unlike $dir1, qr{\s}, "dir has no spaces"
-  or diag "before: $dir\n",
-          "after:  $dir1";
-unlike $file1, qr{\s}, "file has no spaces"
-  or diag "before: $file\n",
-          "after:  $file1";
+note "before: $dir";
+note "after:  $dir1";
+note "before: $file";
+note "after:  $file1";
+
+# short (8+3) names are not created by default on newer versions of
+# Windows, in which case the original paths should be returned as-is.
+if($dir1 =~ /\s/ || $file1 =~ /\s/)
+{
+  note "short names do not appear to be available";
+  is $dir1,  $dir,  "dir unchanged";
+  is $file1, $file, "file unchanged";
+}
+else
+{
+  pass "dir has no spaces";
+  pass "file has no spaces";
+}
+
+is [win32_space_be_gone 'foo', 'bar baz'], ['foo', 'bar baz'], "non-existent path with space is returned unchanged";
 
 my $content = do {
   open my $fh, '<', $file1;