SMS: Programs Can't Be Run From a Package Subdirectory with Spaces in the Name

ID: Q235767

The information in this article applies to:

SYMPTOMS

Microsoft's Systems Management Server version 2.0 offers an administrator the option of browsing to the location where the source files are when creating packages.

When an administrator uses the browse button and traverses the directory structure to the source file, a bad source path will be created if any of the directory names contain at least two words with a space between them. Normally, an administrator would surround the directory name with double quotes in order to let the Operating System know that this is the name of a single directory.

An example of this might be:


x:\WINNT\Software\Source Files
The directory SOURCE FILES would cause a problem if the Administrator did not catch this and add double quotes around the directory name. Once the Administrator caught the omission, the path would appear like the following:


x:\WINNT\Software\"Source Files"
When the Administrator confirms the source path in the Admin Console, it would be correct on appearance based on what the Windows Explorer might display. The system would not automatically surround the directory name with double quotes. When the instruction file is called to execute the package an Advertisement and the source path run, this would generate a failure since the path in the Instruction file would be incorrect.

This issue is more likely to arise in an environment running Windows 2000 since the number of paths with spaces is dramatically increased from that of Windows NT Server 4.0.


STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Systems Management Server version 2.0. This problem has been corrected in the latest U.S. service pack for Systems Management Server version 2.0. For information on obtaining the service pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

S E R V P A C K


MORE INFORMATION

Errors for this type of problem would normally appear within the Smsapm32.log file on the client computer.

Additional query words: prodsms 


Keywords          : kbSMS200 kbSMS200bug 
Version           : winnt:2.0
Platform          : winnt 
Issue type        : kbbug

Last Reviewed: July 9, 1999