How to resolve drush error: the file name, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect

Question

I've adding and removing modules with drush when something went wrong. I'm using the latest version of Acquia devdesktop and now when I run any drush command I get the error "the file name, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect." This error seems to be specific to the site I am working on, as drush works outside of the site folder. How can I fix this?

UPDATE: so, I deleted what I thought were the offending folders but the problem persists.

Update2: ran the drush debug command and I didn't see anything meaningful or diagnostic in the results.

Starting Drush preflight. [0.21 sec, 1.68 MB]                        [preflight]
Loading drushrc "C:\Program Files\Dev                                [bootstrap]
Desktop\drush\vendor\drush\drush\drushrc.php" into "drush" scope.
[0.22 sec, 1.69 MB]
Cache MISS cid:                                                          [debug]
8.0.0-rc1-commandfiles-0-d122bbeed82161c117b94e5f9e65d6f6 [0.33 sec,
1.72 MB]
Cache SET cid:                                                           [debug]
8.0.0-rc1-commandfiles-0-d122bbeed82161c117b94e5f9e65d6f6 [0.41 sec,
1.74 MB]
Scanning into C:\ProgramData/Drush/etc/drush for                     [sitealias]
/.*aliases\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [0.51 sec, 3.41 MB]
Scanning into C:\ProgramData/Drush/etc/drush for                     [sitealias]
/self\.alias\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [0.51 sec, 3.41 MB]
Scanning into C:\Program Files\Dev                                   [sitealias]
Desktop\drush\vendor\drush\drush\includes/.. for
/.*aliases\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [0.52 sec, 3.41 MB]
Scanning into C:\Program Files\Dev                                   [sitealias]
Desktop\drush\vendor\drush\drush\includes/.. for
/self\.alias\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [0.62 sec, 3.42 MB]
Scanning into C:\Users\Nick/.drush for /.*aliases\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/[sitealias
[0.71 sec, 3.42 MB]
Scanning into C:\Users\Nick/.drush for                               [sitealias]
/self\.alias\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [0.71 sec, 3.42 MB]
Scanning into C:\Users\Nick/.acquia/DevDesktop/Drush/Aliases for     [sitealias]
/.*aliases\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [0.72 sec, 3.42 MB]
Scanning into C:\Users\Nick/.acquia/DevDesktop/Drush/Aliases for     [sitealias]
/self\.alias\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [0.72 sec, 3.42 MB]
Scanning into C:\Users\Nick\Sites\devdesktop\psr/../drush for        [sitealias]
/.*aliases\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [0.72 sec, 3.42 MB]
Scanning into C:\Users\Nick\Sites\devdesktop\psr/../drush for        [sitealias]
/self\.alias\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [0.72 sec, 3.42 MB]
Scanning into C:\Users\Nick\Sites\devdesktop\psr/drush for           [sitealias]
/.*aliases\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [0.73 sec, 3.42 MB]
Scanning into C:\Users\Nick\Sites\devdesktop\psr/drush for           [sitealias]
/self\.alias\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [0.73 sec, 3.42 MB]
Scanning into C:\Users\Nick\Sites\devdesktop\psr/sites/all/drush for [sitealias]
/.*aliases\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [0.73 sec, 3.42 MB]
Scanning into C:\Users\Nick\Sites\devdesktop\psr/sites/all/drush for [sitealias]
/self\.alias\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [0.73 sec, 3.42 MB]
Scanning into C:\Users\Nick\Sites\devdesktop\psr/sites/default for   [sitealias]
/.*aliases\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [0.73 sec, 3.42 MB]
Scanning into C:\Users\Nick\Sites\devdesktop\psr/sites/default for   [sitealias]

/self\.alias\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [0.73 sec, 3.43 MB]
Begin redispatch via drush_invoke_process(). [1.32 sec, 5.17 MB]        [notice]
Scanning into C:\ProgramData/Drush/etc/drush for                     [sitealias]
/.*aliases\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [1.32 sec, 5.17 MB]
Scanning into C:\ProgramData/Drush/etc/drush for                     [sitealias]
/self\.alias\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [1.33 sec, 5.17 MB]
Scanning into C:\Program Files\Dev                                   [sitealias]
Desktop\drush\vendor\drush\drush\includes/.. for
/.*aliases\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [1.33 sec, 5.17 MB]
Scanning into C:\Program Files\Dev                                   [sitealias]
Desktop\drush\vendor\drush\drush\includes/.. for
/self\.alias\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [1.41 sec, 5.17 MB]
Scanning into C:\Users\Nick/.drush for /.*aliases\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/[sitealias]
[1.5 sec, 5.17 MB]
Scanning into C:\Users\Nick/.drush for                               [sitealias]
/self\.alias\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [1.5 sec, 5.17 MB]
Scanning into C:\Users\Nick/.acquia/DevDesktop/Drush/Aliases for     [sitealias]
/.*aliases\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [1.5 sec, 5.18 MB]
Scanning into C:\Users\Nick/.acquia/DevDesktop/Drush/Aliases for     [sitealias]
/self\.alias\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [1.51 sec, 5.18 MB]
Scanning into C:\Users\Nick\Sites\devdesktop\psr/../drush for        [sitealias]
/.*aliases\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [1.51 sec, 5.18 MB]
Scanning into C:\Users\Nick\Sites\devdesktop\psr/../drush for        [sitealias]
/self\.alias\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [1.51 sec, 5.18 MB]
Scanning into C:\Users\Nick\Sites\devdesktop\psr/drush for           [sitealias]
/.*aliases\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [1.51 sec, 5.18 MB]
Scanning into C:\Users\Nick\Sites\devdesktop\psr/drush for           [sitealias]
/self\.alias\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [1.51 sec, 5.18 MB]
Scanning into C:\Users\Nick\Sites\devdesktop\psr/sites/all/drush for [sitealias]
/.*aliases\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [1.52 sec, 5.18 MB]
Scanning into C:\Users\Nick\Sites\devdesktop\psr/sites/all/drush for [sitealias]
/self\.alias\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [1.52 sec, 5.18 MB]
Scanning into C:\Users\Nick\Sites\devdesktop\psr/sites/default for   [sitealias] 
/.*aliases\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [1.52 sec, 5.18 MB]
Scanning into C:\Users\Nick\Sites\devdesktop\psr/sites/default for   [sitealias]
/self\.alias\.drush(8|)rc\.php$/ [1.52 sec, 5.18 MB]
Backend invoke: "C:\\Users\\Nick\\Sites\\devdesktop\\psr\\drush"       [command]
--root="C:\\Users\\Nick\\Sites\\devdesktop\\psr" --local --debug
--verbose  core-status 2>&1 [1.53 sec, 5.19 MB]
Calling proc_open("C:\\Users\\Nick\\Sites\\devdesktop\\psr\\drush"  --root="C:\\
Users\\Nick\\Sites\\devdesktop\\psr" --local --debug --verbose  core-status 2>&1
);
The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.
End redispatch via drush_invoke_process(). [1.55 sec, 5.18 MB]          [notice]

Answer 1

This error just happen to me.

Not sure about how to fix this error. But for workaround, I install drush via composer and use that Drush. Not the one installed from Acquia Dev Desktop.

Because I use Drupal Comoposer project template, this is the command I run:

D:\Sites\myweb\web>..\vendor\bin\drush.bat cr --root="D:\\Sites\\myweb\\web"
Cache rebuild complete.    

Answer 2

I had the same error in a new Drupal project which installed drush (8.1.8) for that project via composer (inside the project/vendor folder).

The command 'drush status' showed that I was using an older, global installed version of drush (inside C:\Users\Gebruiker\AppData\Roaming\Composer\vendor\drush\drush).

I edited my environment variables, edited the PATH variable, and changed the global drush path to my projects drush path. Then closed all command windows and my IDE and reopened my IDE and project.

The command drush status now showed the correct drush version (8.1.8) and all drush commands are now working fine.

Answer 3

Hopefully, you should be able to discover which file/directory name is causing the problem, by making Drush print some debugging info:

drush -d -d status