---
name: feedback_windows_quote_stripping
description: On Windows, embedded double-quotes in command args get stripped/mangled twice over — by PowerShell-invoked curl.exe (CommandLineToArgvW) and by the GuruRMM cmd shell layer. Build quoted args without literal embedded double-quotes.
metadata:
  type: feedback
---

On Windows, **embedded double-quotes inside a command argument get silently
stripped or mangled** at two separate layers we hit repeatedly. The body of the
arg survives; the `"` characters vanish, so the receiving program sees broken
syntax (an undefined constant, a usage dump, a parse error) — never a clean error
that points at quoting.

Two confirmed failure layers:
- **`curl.exe` invoked from PowerShell** — Windows re-parses the process command
  line via `CommandLineToArgvW`, which eats the inner `"` in
  `--data-urlencode 'x="y"'`. A pfSense `diag_command.php` PHP body became
  `echo PHPRUNS-OK` -> `echo PHPRUNS` -> "Undefined constant" (cost ~4 wasted RMM
  round-trips). (Howard, 2026-06-16.)
- **GuruRMM `command_type:shell` (cmd.exe) layer** — `shutdown /r /t 60 /c "comment"`
  had its `"comment"` quotes mangled through the agent's cmd layer; shutdown
  rejected the args and dumped usage. Fix was to drop `/c` entirely. (2026-06-16.)

**Why:** It's the same root cause both times — Windows command-line re-tokenization
(`CommandLineToArgvW`) strips a layer of double-quotes that a Unix shell would have
preserved. PowerShell -> native exe, and RMM -> cmd.exe, each add a re-parse.

**How to apply:**
- Don't put **literal embedded double-quotes** inside an arg you pass through
  PowerShell->curl.exe or RMM->cmd. Prefer single-quotes for the outer payload and
  construct any needed `"` from `[char]34` (PowerShell) — keep the command on one
  line.
- For JSON request bodies, use a **single-quoted heredoc** (`<<'JSON'`) with
  `--data-binary @-` (per the Syncro/RMM skill rules) — that bypasses
  command-line re-parsing entirely. This is the reliable path.
- If an arg with quotes is unavoidable, **drop the quoted part** (as with
  `shutdown /c`) or move the value into a file/variable the program reads itself.
- Distinct-but-adjacent gotchas: non-ASCII chars in payload text also break on
  Windows/Git-bash (see [[feedback_ascii_only_api_payloads]]); `/tmp` resolves
  differently between Write and Git-bash (see [[feedback_tmp_path_windows]]);
  PowerShell variable names are case-insensitive (see the errorlog `$gUid`/`$guid`
  incident).