# find\_program issue with space in filename

**URL:** <https://discourse.cmake.org/t/find-program-issue-with-space-in-filename/1365>\
**Category:** Code\
**Created:** [June 10, 2020, 7:58pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/find-program-issue-with-space-in-filename/1365 "2020-06-10T19:58:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fry](https://discourse.cmake.org/user_avatar/discourse.cmake.org/fry/32/613_2.png) [@fry](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/fry)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2020, 7:58pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/find-program-issue-with-space-in-filename/1365/1 "2020-06-10T19:58:11Z")

</div>

I have the following code:

```
find_program(
    RECON_EXE
    NAMES "Reason Recon" "Reason Recon 11 RESDK41 Logging"
    PATHS "/Applications/Reason Recon" "/Applications" "c:/Program Files/Propellerhead/Reason Recon"
)
message(STATUS "RECON_EXE=${RECON_EXE}")

```

And the output is

```
RECON_EXE=/Applications/Reason Recon 11 RESDK41 Logging.app/Contents/MacOS/Reason%20Recon

```

The actual filename does not have a `%20` character but a space instead.

The issue is that using

```
add_custom_target(validate
    COMMAND ${RECON_EXE} ....
)

```

then fails:

```
/bin/sh: /Applications/Reason Recon 11 RESDK41 Logging.app/Contents/MacOS/Reason%20Recon: No such file or directory

```

Is this an issue with `find_program` or is it something I am doing wrong?

Thanks  
Yan

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![craig.scott](https://discourse.cmake.org/user_avatar/discourse.cmake.org/craig.scott/32/20_2.png) [@craig.scott](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/craig.scott)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2020, 9:35pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/find-program-issue-with-space-in-filename/1365/2 "2020-06-10T21:35:36Z")

</div>

That looks like a bug to me. Could you please report it in CMake’s issue tracker:

[https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake/-/issues](https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake/-/issues)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fry](https://discourse.cmake.org/user_avatar/discourse.cmake.org/fry/32/613_2.png) [@fry](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/fry)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2020, 11:01pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/find-program-issue-with-space-in-filename/1365/3 "2020-06-10T23:01:10Z")

</div>

As you suggested, I opened a ticket [https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake/-/issues/20817](https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake/-/issues/20817)

Thanks