I created a user environment variable testPurpose:
My script either doesn't display it if I call it like this:
$env:testPurpose
or if I try this way
$x = "testPurpose"
(get-item env:$x).Value
I get this error:
get-item : Cannot find path 'Env:\testPurpose' because it does not exist.
Using gci env:* | sort-object name, I can clearly see it has been created for sure
So why can't I retrieve it? If I try this:
$env:ProgramData
I get back program data location printed just fine!
So I am positive it's not a command issue
Try restarting the PowerShell session.
Environment variables are loaded only at the start of the session, or run within the context of the session.
You might have created them in the running process, which are only available to that session. They also go away after yo close that PS window. Try making it a machine-wide variable which should persist.
Note: I am not sure why you would want to create these rather than just creating the variable in the script, but to each their own.
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("testPurpose", "TESTING", "Machine")
(Get-Item "env:testPurpose").Value
$testPurpose = "testPurpose"
(Get-Item env:$testPurpose).Value
Related
I have a command which runs a program in silent mode, it uses an XML file for the data repository and a word template to create multiple word documents based on a filter xml file.
The command I use is:
"P:\ath to\executable" -Username:Admin -Password:Pa55w0rd -Datadefinition:"C:\Data.xml" -Datafilter:"C:\Filter.xml" -wordtemplate:"C:\Batch\Paul1.dotx" -Targetdocument:="C:\Batch\Paul1.pdf" -filetype:PDF -Log:"C:\Logs\error.log" -Usage:DOCGENSILENT
I need to run this as a PowerShell script which I have mostly managed:
set-executionpolicy unrestricted
$datadefinition = Get-Content "C:\Data file.xml"
$datafilter = Get-Content "C:\Filter for data file.xml"
$wordTemplate = Get-Content "C:\"C:\Template\Paul1.dotx"
$targetFolder = Get-Content "C:\"C:\Paul\Paul.pdf"
Stop-Job = "Executable path" -Username:Admin -Password:Pa55w0rd -Datadefinition:%dataDefinition% -Datafilter:%dataFilter% -wordtemplate:%wordTemplate% -Targetdocument:%targetFolder% -filetype:docx -Log:%logPath% -Usage:DOCGENSILENT
Stop-Job 1
set-executionpolicy restricted
Write-Host -NoNewLine "Press any key to continue..."
$null = $Host.UI.RawUI.ReadKey("NoEcho,IncludeKeyDown")
My issue is that the script starts the executable but then doesnt pass the Variables, can anyone guide me in the right direction to fix this?
Getting this working depends on the behavior of your executable. Some things I noticed:
Shouldn't this:
$wordTemplate = Get-Content "C:\"C:\Template\Paul1.dotx"
be this:
$wordTemplate = "C:\Template\Paul1.dotx"
Are you sure you need Get-Content? (Aside from that, the path and quoting in your sample are not correct.)
Shouldn't this:
$targetFolder = Get-Content "C:\"C:\Paul\Paul.pdf"
be this:
$targetDocument = "C:\Paul\Paul.pdf"
I doubt Get-Content is correct here, since presumably your output file doesn't exist yet? I also renamed the variable so it makes more sense in your command.
In fact, are you sure you need Get-Content for any of those? Aren't you specifying filenames, not the content of the files?
In PowerShell, variables are prefixed with $ rather than being surrounded by %.
Using Set-ExecutionPolicy within a script to enable scripts to run is pointless, because the script is already running. (That is, if execution policy prevented script execution, PowerShell wouldn't let you run the script in the first place.)
If my guesses regarding your variables are correct, I think your script should look something like this (note also that I specified a $logFile variable, which I didn't see in your script):
$datadefinition = "C:\Users\Administrator\data\Sample Model_146_object type(s).xml"
$datafilter = "C:\Users\Administrator\data\Sample Model_146_object type(s).xml"
$wordtemplate = "C:\Users\Administrator\Templates\Base object.docx"
$targetdocument = "C:\Users\Administrator\Result\sample test15"
$logfile = "C:\Users\Administrator\Logs\C4W Error.log"
& "C:\Program Files (x86)\Communicator4Word.exe" -Username:Admin -Password: -Datadefinition:$datadefinition -Datafilter:$datafilter -wordtemplate:$wordtemplate -Targetdocument:$targetdocument -filetype:docx -Log:$logfile -Usage:DOCGENSILENT
I don't know the behavior of Communicator4Word.exe when you use -Password: with no password after it. (Is that a syntax error, or should you just omit -Password: altogether?)
I've made a script to automatically change and/or create the default Outlook signature of all the employees in my company.
Technically, it gets the environment variable username where the script is deployed, access to the staff database to get some information regarding this user, then create the 3 different files for the signature by replacing values inside linked docx templates. Quite easy and logical.
After different tests, it is working correctly when you launch the script directly on a computer, either by using Powershell ISE, directly by the CMD or in Visual Studio. But when we tried to deploy it, like it will be, by using SCCM, it can't get any environment variable.
Do any of you have an idea about how to get environment variables in a script when it is deployed by SCCM ?
Here is what I've already tried :
$Name = [Environment]::UserName
$EnvVarUserName = Get-Item Env:\USERNAME
Even stuff like this :
$proc = gwmi win32_process -Filter "Name = 'explorer.exe'"
$report = #()
ForEach ($p in $proc)
{
$temp = "" | Select User
$temp.user = ($p.GetOwner()).User
$report += $temp
}
Thanks in advance and have a nice day y'all !
[EDIT]:
I've found a way of doing this, not the best one, but it works. I get the name of the machine, check the DB where when a laptop is connected to our network it stores the user id and the machine, then get the info in the staff DB.
I will still check for Matt's idea which is pretty interesting and, in a way, more accurate.
Thank you all !
How are you calling the environmental variable? $Env:computernamehas worked for me in scripts pushed out via SCCM before.
Why don't you enumerate the "%SystemDrive%\Users" folder, exclude certain built-in accounts, and handle them all in one batch?
To use the UserName environment variable the script would have to run as the logged-in user, which also implies that all of your users have at least read access to your staff database, which, at least in our environment, would be a big no-no.
I have a script that monitors the filesystem using FileWatcher.IO in Powershell.
Currently it finds the user that made the file with:
$owner = (Get-Acl $path).Owner
And it finds the computer that the file was made on with:
$Computer = get-content env:computername
But I'd also like to obtain what machine the file was created from. For instance, if a user is logged into a terminal server, I can see the file is made on the terminal server. But I want to know the host name of the local machine that made the file on the terminal server.
Is this possible? I've been searching the msdn PSEventArgs Class page without much success.
That information is not going to be stored in the file or its metadata, so no there's no straightforward way to get at it.
By the way, you can just use $env:computername directly as a variable; there's no need to use Get-Content.
I would like to execute code that is specific to remote PSSessions. That is, the code doesn't apply locally, but applies to all remote sessions.
Is there any environment variable, function or cmdlet that would effectively return true if I'm in an active PSSession and false if I'm running locally?
Check if the $PSSenderInfo variable exists. From about_Automatic_Variables:
$PSSenderInfo
Contains information about the user who started the PSSession,
including the user identity and the time zone of the originating
computer. This variable is available only in PSSessions.
The $PSSenderInfo variable includes a user-configurable property,
ApplicationArguments, which, by default, contains only the
$PSVersionTable from the originating session. To add data to the
ApplicationArguments property, use the ApplicationArguments parameter
of the New-PSSessionOption cmdlet.
You could also test using this:
If ( (Test-Path variable:PSSenderInfo)
-and ($Null -ne $PSSenderInfo)
-and ($PSSenderInfo.GetType().Name -eq 'PSSenderInfo') ) {
Write-Host -Object "This script cannot be run within an active PSSession"
Exit
}
This was not my initial finding, but it helped with "variable PSSenderInfo not set" issue, if it doesn't exist.
I am using PSUnit for testing purposes in Powershell 2.0. Because my tests need to connect to a database server I would like to be able to pass the server and database name into the test script. This would then allow developers to run the test scripts on their local machine with a local database while at the same time making it possible to run it on a server. The database may also change depending on the environment.
The PSUnit.Run script doesn't seem to allow you to include parameters with the test script name. Have I missed anything? Is there a workaround for this?
Thanks!
The only way that I was able to find to do this was to include tags at the start of my test script, then search and replace the correct values in place of those tags. For example, in my case my test script included this code at the top of the script:
[string]$ServerName=<ServerName>
[string]$TargetDatabaseName=<TargetDatabaseName>
That is the literal code. Then, in my script where I called the tests I included this code:
foreach ($testPSScript in Get-ChildItem "$testScriptDir\*.ps1") {
(Get-Content $testPSScript.FullName) |
ForEach-Object {$_ -replace "<ServerName>", "'$ServerName'"} |
ForEach-Object {$_ -replace "<TargetDatabaseName>", "'$DatabaseName'"} |
Set-Content $testPSScript.FullName -Force
PSUnit.Run.ps1 -PSUnitTestFile "$testPSScript"
}
You have to remember to overwrite your test script(s) with the original version each time, otherwise it will include the values that you used in your last run instead of the tags and you won't be able to change the values.
Why don't you just include the 2 variables ([string]$ServerName & [string]$TargetDatabaseName) in 'profile.ps1' file & use these in your test cases. These would be available there and you can configure them anytime in the ps1 file.
This seems to be easier & more intuitive than writing a separate script for this task.
Just append any such info to PowerShell profile.