Calling cmd.exe from bash results in special escaping/transformation of input arguments

[andrewluotechnologies]

I'm attempting to run this Win32 command through bash:

cmd.exe /c for %A in ("C:\Documents and Settings") do @echo %~sA

The correctly escaped command for bash is:

cmd.exe /c for %A in '("C:\Documents and Settings")' do @echo %~sA

However, this results in this error:

"("C:\Documents was unexpected at this time.

Using this command from bash:

cmd.exe /c echo for %A in '("C:\Documents and Settings")' do @echo %~sA

I can see that the command was transformed into:

for %A in "("C:\Documents and Settings")" do @echo %~sA

The "(\" should be just (" and the \")" should be )"

However, this appears to be special escaping for cmd.exe. If I run another executable, in this case a C++ executable that just prints out the arguments, I get the correct arguments:

test.exe /c for %A in '("C:\Documents and Settings")' do @echo %~sA

C:\Users\Andrew\source\repos\test\x64\Release\test.exe
/c
for
%A
in
("C:\Documents and Settings")
do
@echo
%~sA

The source for test.exe is below:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
	for (int n(0); n < argc; ++n)
	{
		::std::cout << argv[n] << ::std::endl;
	}
	return 0;
}

Details of my environment:
uname -a:

Linux DESKTOP 4.4.0-17763-Microsoft #194-Microsoft Mon Dec 03 17:58:00 PST 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

ver:

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17763.195]

[andrewluotechnologies]

I confirmed that this still occurs in a recent insider build:
uname -a:
Linux DESKTOP-HLO5ULF 4.4.0-18917-Microsoft #1000-Microsoft Fri Jun 07 19:42:00 PST 2019 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

ver:
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18917.1000]

Also tested in WSL2 with same results.
uname -a for WSL2:
Linux DESKTOP-HLO5ULF 4.19.43-microsoft-standard #1 SMP Mon May 20 19:35:22 UTC 2019 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[microsoft-github-policy-service]

This issue has been automatically closed since it has not had any activity for the past year. If you're still experiencing this issue please re-file this as a new issue or feature request.

Thank you!