I wrote a script that loops over a folder and converts files using WinSCP
WinSCP.exe /keygen $filePath /output=$filePathdest
The script works but leaves several WinSCP windows open stating what it completed it's task. I would like to suppress this or force PowerShell to close all of its children when finished. Is this possible?
Use winscp.com instead of winscp.exe.
winscp.com /keygen $filePath /output=$filePathdest
The winscp.com is a console application with the same functionality as winscp.exe. Being a console application it inherits the console from PowerShell and does not open its own. It also does not wait for key press when done.
Related
just for understanding this.
I want to open my Powershell in a certain folder. As I didn´t find out how, I tried to put a batch file with just "cd ....." in it in the default folder where PowerShell opens.
When I execute the batch, though, I end up where I started from.
It seems that the batch gets excuted in a subshell which doesn´t affect the Parentshell.
How can I execute the stuff in the batchfile in parentshell ?
Thanks in advance!
You cannot. Batch files are executed by cmd, not PowerShell, so there will always be a new process for them.
With a PowerShell script you can use dot-sourcing
. Script.ps1
To execute the script in your current scope, which is most similar to how batch files are executed by cmd by default.
If you want to open your Powershell in a certain folder, you can set that up in your Powershell profile. In Powershell, type $profile and that will give you the location of your profile file. Edit that file and use Set-Location:
Set-Location 'C:\Some\Place'
Powershell will execute whatever is in your profile script every time you open a new Powershell session.
When you're in file explorer you can click on File > Open Windows Powershell(or its icon in the Quick Access Toolbar) to start an instance of Powershell in the directory that your file explorer is in. I would like to then automatically run a simple command in this directory and close the Powershell window after it is done.
I have tried adding my command to my Powershell Profile but it executes before the path variable has been set and it runs with $pwd being equal to C:\Users\MyUsername (my home directory) or C:\WINDOWS\system32 (seems to be a race condition of some sort, no idea why it does one or the other). To the best of my understanding this is because the file explorer "open in powershell button" opens powershell and THEN cd's to the directory I was in in file explorer. So when the profile.ps1 is ran it is using the only directories it knows if since the cd call hasn't been made yet. This is similar to running the command start powershell.exe in cmd vs start powershell.exe -command "cd 'C:\wherever'". The former correctly runs my profile command while the latter uses the current directory of cmd and not the C:\wherever.
So, obviously the $pwd variable is being assigned at different times in the case of opening it from cmd and opening it from file explorer. Is there some way to delay the execution of a command in the profile until after the shell has fully loaded? Simply sleeping the script doesn't help.
Alternatively, if anyone knows how to edit the registry so that I can change the behavior of clicking File > Open Windows Powershell (since it must have access to some variable storing the current directory and I assume it calls the Powershell executable with this variable as an argument being cd'd to), that would work too.
Then again I could be incredibly naive about how File > Open Windows Powershell and the Powershell instantiation process works.
Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you!
I figured it out in the most hacky, gross way ever, but without easy access to Windows internals this is the only working method I could find. I set up my powershell profile to make my window title my prompt like so:
function Prompt
{
$host.ui.RawUI.WindowTitle = $(get-location)
“PS> “
}
Then I set up a task in the Task Scheduler that was triggered by powershell reaching its prompt (there are 3 possible hooks, when the console is starting up, when it starts an IPC listening thread, and when the console is ready for input). I used the Event Viewer to do this (I was going to post screenshots but I don't have 10 reputation yet).
Then, I set the action on this task to run the script shown below, which reads from the window title of my first instance of powershell
Start-Sleep -s 1
$A = Get-Process -Name powershell | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Id -ne $PID}
$B = $A.MainWindowTitle
& C:\Program` Files\MyProgram\MyProgram.exe "$B"
stop-process -Id $A.Id
stop-process -Id $PID
This whole menagerie of events properly runs my program with the current file explorer directory as an argument (and then closes powershell) when I click the little powershell icon on the quick access toolbar in file explorer.
Found a much cleaner and faster way to do this. All I had to do was set up my profile to look like this, no tasks or second instance of powershell required
function Prompt
{
& C:\Program` Files\MyProgram\MyProgram.exe "$pwd"
stop-process -Id $PID
}
I encountered a challenge that I failed to resolve the way I wanted it to do.
I got a file that contains a powershell script, but that file does not have the extension assigned to powershell. The question is: How can I execute a powershell in a script file with the wrong file extension (or none)?
Invoke-Expression does not seem to work because it always executes the default action assigned to the file type. If I give that cmdlet a *.txt file the editor pops open.
I know that I can resolve that by renaming the script file or naming it properly in the first place. This is what I ended up doing.
Still I wonder if it is possible to execute a file as a script with the wrong file extension without modifying, renaming or coping the file. And if it is not working… why is that?
Powershell is designed such that executing or dot sourcing a file requires a .ps1 extension, and Powershell.exe will refuse to run any file that doesn't have that extension.
One way to invoke Powershell code from a non-ps1 file is to launch Powershell.exe using STDIN, and pipe your script to it. This requires a new shell, so is not very good for launching scripts from within an existing scripting environment.
Powershell.exe - < thescript.txt
Another way is to create a temporary .ps1 file and execute that. This has the advantage of using the current scripting environment, but requires a temporary file.
Copy-Item -Path '.\thescript.txt' -Dest '.\temp.ps1'
. .\temp.ps1
del .\temp.ps1
In my opinion, the file extension restriction is silly, but that's how it was designed. Apocryphally, this is for security reasons, but I can find no citation to back it up.
Or you use Get-Content to read the file and then invoke that with Invoke-Expression or Invoke-Command -ScriptBlock.
I am using
Start-Process "<PathToFile>.bat"
For .bat files from a lengthy script in Powershell (v3). However, the commandline window pops up for a moment and is immediately closed and the process that normally runs on the commandline, runs in the background with no indication wether it's finished or if any errors occured.
Is there a way to force the command window to stay open until the user exits the window (after the .bat ran)? I suppose even if there is a way that the command window stays open, the PS script will continue to run in the background?
As said by Alex K CMD /K opens a CMD window and then keeps it open.
If you use CMD /C it will call the file, run the commands/process and then exit.
Sadly, it never worked for me with cmd /c. Since I also needed parameters to be handed over to the programm called from the commandline, I opted to write a temporary proxy bat that held the call to the program and the parameters.
Pseudocode here:
"ProgramName /Parameters" | Out-File DirOfTempBatFile -Encoding ascii
$output = Start-Process DirOfTempBatFile -wait
This calls the program (sqlplus with parameters) with keeping the command window open. Additionally, you can access the output of the sqlplus debug messages via $output.
I have some PowerShell scripts which create temporary files. I want to keep them around until the user closes the console. Is there a way to pick up on the console window closing and run a clean-up script or script-block?
Look at the "Register-EngineEvent" cmdlet:
Powershell profile "on exit" event?
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh849967.aspx
PS:
You can also use Register-ObjectEvent and Register-CimIndicationEvent cmdlets to react to .NET and WMI events, respectively:
http://www.powershellcookbook.com/recipe/WguS/create-and-respond-to-custom-events