Executable file not found in %PATH% golang

Question

package main

import (
    "bytes"
    "fmt"

    //"log"
    "os/exec"
)

func main() {

    cmd := exec.Command("dir")
    var stdout, stderr bytes.Buffer
    cmd.Stdout = &stdout
    cmd.Stderr = &stderr
    err := cmd.Run()
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Printf("cmd.Run: %s failed: %s\n", err, err)
    }
    outStr, errStr := string(stdout.Bytes()), string(stderr.Bytes())
    if len(errStr) > 1 {
        fmt.Printf("out:\n%s\nerr:\n%s\n", outStr, errStr)
    }

    fmt.Printf(outStr)
}

*Hi guys, whenever I try to run this file with go it shows me This error "cmd.Run: exec: "dir": executable file not found in %PATH% failed:". I have golang in my PATH but it still failed *

Perhaps `dir`is not a program but a command from windows shell interpreter — Tiago Peczenyj, Mar 27 '22 at 16:38
So how do I run commands for windows shell interpreter with GO? — SahotaSkywalker, Mar 27 '22 at 16:51
See [Executable files not in path](https://stackoverflow.com/q/44833044/12258482). Use [os.ReadDir](https://pkg.go.dev/os#ReadDir) to get a directory listing. — , Mar 27 '22 at 16:51
There is no reason to call an external command to read a dir. This is either a XY problem or just related to bad PATH and/or dir not being an executable. — Volker, Mar 27 '22 at 17:15

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 27 '22 at 20:15

dir is not an executable file in Windows, rather it is an internal command of Command prompt. You need to pass dir to command prompt. Your command would look like this:

cmd.exe /c dir

You can implement it like this:

args := strings.Split("/c dir"," ")

cmd := exec.Command("cmd.exe",args...)

Pass your command line arguments like this, strings.Split() will split "/c dir" into all substrings separated by " " and returns a slice of the substrings between those separators.

Also if you need to print dir of a specific location you can set the working directory of the command:

cmd.Dir = filepath.Join("C:","Windows")

filepath.Join joins any number of path elements into a single path, separating them with an OS specific Separator.

Add the following packages into your file

import ( "os" "path/filepath" "strings" )

To print the result you can connect your output and error to the standard output, and standard error.

cmd.Stdout = os.Stdout
cmd.Stderr = &os.Stderr

Your overall code would be:

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "os"
    "os/exec"
    "path/filepath"
    "strings"
)

func main() {
    args := strings.Split("/c dir"," ")
    cmd := exec.Command("cmd.exe",args...)

    cmd.Dir = filepath.Join("C:","Windows")
    cmd.Stdout = os.Stdout
    cmd.Stderr = os.Stderr

    err := cmd.Run()
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Printf("cmd.Run: %s failed: %s\n", err, err)
    }

}

Executable file not found in %PATH% golang

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