Command Parsing

Drop uses a cross-platform, POSIX inspired command parsing for a consistent way to define launch commands in a single string.

The basic format is:

MY_ENV_KEY=myvalue MY_OTHER_ENV_KEY=myothervalue mycommand --myargs --myotherargs "other string"

Drop will split this into three parts:

Environment variables	Collects anything that has a = at the start. (MY_ENV_KEY=myvalue MY_OTHER_ENV_KEY=myothervalue)
Command	The next value (mycommand)
Arguments	Everything else (--myargs --myotherargs "other string")

These will be passed in platform-specific process creation functions.

Platform-specific behaviour

On Linux and macOS (Unix), the command will be reassembled into a single string, and then executed on the system shell, meaning shell expansions and other utilities work. Drop will respect quotes (") to preserve spaces.

On Windows, the command isn’t reassembled, and environment variables, command, and args are passed directly to the process creation.

Format args

Key	Value description
{dir}	The current working directory/install directory.
{exe}	The relative name of the executable. The command from above parsing.
{abs_exe}	The absolute path of the executable, the command appended to the install directory