proper escaping with guestcontrol; Windows guest/Linux host

[wxl]

Trying to write a little script that ensures our standard fonts are installed properly (we have had a couple corrupt font files, which is hard to detect by command line):

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash

cd Fonts
for font in *; do
   # remove old fonts
   vboxmanage guestcontrol "XP" execute --image "c:\\windows\\system32\\cmd.exe" --username Admin --passwordfile pw --wait-stdout "/c del c:\\windows\\fonts\\${font}"
   fontname="$(echo $font | awk -F '.' '{print $1}')"
   # copy over new fonts
   vboxmanage guestcontrol "XP" execute --image "c:\\windows\\system32\\cmd.exe" --username Admin --passwordfile pw --wait-stdout --wait-stderr "/c copy s:\\fonts\\${font} c:\\windows\\fonts"
   # register new fonts
   vboxmanage guestcontrol "XP" execute --image "c:\\windows\\system32\\reg.exe" --username Admin --passwordfile pw --wait-stdout --wait-stderr "add \"HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\Fonts\" /v \"${fontname} (TrueType)\" /d ${font} /f"
done

Unfortunately, my problem is with the last command. Something is amiss with the escaping. I didn't want the shell to interpret the double quotes or the backslashes, so I thought this would be the right escaping, but it simply doesn't work. Does anyone know how we are supposed to deal with the shell's special characters and passing them over properly? Surely someone else does registry editing via the command line???

BTW, Windows gives me back "Error: Bad operation. Use /? for help"

FWIW running Kubuntu 14.04.2 with Windows XP SP3 with VirtualBox 4.3.28-100309~Ubuntu~raring.

[noteirak]

What about with single quotes instead for the inner string?

[wxl]

Single quotes would eliminate the shell from interpreting the font variable, so that would not be ideal. Even without using variables, it still doesn't work.

[frank]

Which version of the VirtualBox Guest Additions did you install in your WinXP guest?

[wxl]

I have looked all over to find this and have not had a lot of luck. What I can tell you is I'm running 4.3.28-100309~Ubuntu~raring.

[Perryg]

With the guest open click on the machine tab at the top and then session information, or you can look in the guests log file and it will tell you there as well.

[wxl]

And I swear I looked there before. Oh well, I see it now. 4.3.28 r100309, consistent with the version of VirtualBox.