Run Shift+F5 = Shell execure current file missing after update 7.6.3

PeterJones

I don’t remember the last time “Shell execute current file” was in the Run menu by default. In all my portable copies from 7.2.2 to 7.6.3, I couldn’t find anything from “shell”, “execute”, or “current file” that looked liked “shell execute current file” – my guess is that you (or someone) had customized your shortcuts.xml to include that.

I have two suggestions for re-creating the behavior I am assuming you mean: Close all instances of Notepad++; open one new instance; open %appdata%\notepad++\shortcuts.xml; edit the <UserDefinedCommands> to include one or both of:

    <Command name="Execute This File" Ctrl="no" Alt="no" Shift="yes" Key="116">cmd /c &quot;$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)&quot;</Command>
    <Command name="Shell Execute This File" Ctrl="no" Alt="yes" Shift="yes" Key="116">cmd /k &quot;$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)&quot;</Command>

save the file. Exit notepad++. Re-run notepad++.

Now one or both of “Execute This File” and/or “Shell Execute This File” will appear in your Run menu – as defined, with the first being Shift+F5 and the second Alt+Shift+F5 (*). The first will run the current file using your default file-association for that file type inside a cmd.exe window, and the window will disappear when the file is done executing; the second will run the current file using your default file-association for that file type inside a cmd.exe window, and the window will remain open after running the file, and you can use that window as a normal windows command-line environment.

*: you can easily swap those associations when you paste it in by editing the parameters in the <command> tag. Or, after reload, Run > Modify Shortcut / Delete Command, and edit the keyboard shortcut there

Alan Kilborn

Didn’t there used to be some menu command to open the current file with the “default application”. I can’t find any such option right now, but I seem to remember it. This is what the OP’s “shell execute” phraseology makes me think of.

PeterJones

Yeah, I thought there was, too, but my grep of a wide range of shortcuts.xml versions couldn’t find it. I assume it was implemented similar to what i showed above.

Going through the change history on shortcuts.xml, I couldn’t find any previous versions that had something similar in shortcuts.xml – so I guess if it was there, it was either really old (pre-github), or was implemented elsewhere than shortcuts.xml/Run-menu

guy038

Hi, @oliver-majchrzak, @alan-kilborn, @peterjones and All,

Alan, are you searching for this command :

File > Open in Default Viewer" which opens current file with its default associated application

BTW, there are, also, these two commands, which may be sometimes useful :

File > Open Containing Folder > Explorer , which opens an Explorer instance in the folder of the current file and selects current file
File > Open Containing Folder > cmd which opens a CMD console window, in the folder of the current file

Cheers,

guy038

Alan Kilborn

@guy038 said:

File > Open in Default Viewer"

Yes, that’s the one. It doesn’t appear in my older, very STABLE version of N++. Perhaps that is why I could not find it. I guess it is really unrelated to the OP’s OP.

PeterJones

Interesting, I hadn’t noticed that feature when it arrived, so I just went digging through commits and release history.

That feature was added in commit fbbe934 on Aug 13, 2017, which means it was in v7.5.

I love when I learn something new, so thanks @guy038. It’s a little less pleasant when I should have learned it in the past, but it’s better than not learning it. ;-)

Alan Kilborn

@PeterJones

I simply recall it being mentioned recently here in the Community. Nice digging of you to track down its history.

Oliver Majchrzak

@PeterJones Thanks for the hint. Though, when executing the current file with “Shift+F5” (in my case a dos batch) the file is executed at the directory “%appdata%\notepad++" where the “shortcuts.xml” file is but not in the path where the current file is (”$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)"). How can I fix this?

Meta Chuh

@Oliver-Majchrzak

you can change to your document’s drive letter and path, by adding and combining cd /d "$(CURRENT_DIRECTORY)" followed by && and your desired command.

(note: the cd option /d will also change to the correct drive letter (e.g. F:\), if your document is on another drive than c:, like a different hdd, usb, or network drive.)

here are @PeterJones shortcuts.xml, <UserDefinedCommands> from above, with added cd commands.

		<Command name="Execute This File" Ctrl="no" Alt="no" Shift="yes" Key="116">cmd /c cd /d "$(CURRENT_DIRECTORY)" && "$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)"</Command>
		<Command name="Shell Execute This File" Ctrl="no" Alt="yes" Shift="yes" Key="116">cmd /k cd /d "$(CURRENT_DIRECTORY)" && "$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)"</Command>

PeterJones

@Oliver-Majchrzak ,

Alternately, if you’ve got a batch file that critically needs its current directory to be the same as the directory it’s in, that should be handled in the batch file itself. For example,

@cd /d %~dp0

(note that %~dp0 is using the “parameter extensions” on the %0 (which is the .bat’s pathname) as described at https://ss64.com/nt/syntax-args.html, to extract the drive and path, but not the filename).

With that near the beginning of your batch script, you won’t need to change directory externally.