Trying to invoke cmd via powershell and pass on arguments that will change directory on cmd to c:\pilot
Sample code that I tried doing this via start-process:
Start-Process "C:\Users\su\AppData\Roaming\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\System Tools\Command Prompt.lnk" -ArgumentList 'C:\pilot'
so after running this, it appears to pop up a new cmd window, but doesn't change the directory to c:\pilot, is there a special format in sending arguments to cmd?
From an earlier revision of your question:
ultimately I am trying to change directory and also pass on an command for execution on the 2nd window without closing the second window.
The following opens a stay-open cmd.exe console window ("Command Prompt") in working directory C:\pilot and executes command date /t
Start-Process cmd -WorkingDirectory C:\pilot -ArgumentList '/k', 'date /t'
Related
So I am trying to write a script that allows me to open several cmd command prompt and write in them the same command but with different variables.
The solution that I came with was to write a PowerShell script that calls inside a loop a cmd file and pass a variable each time to the cmd file but I'm stuck, the PowerShell script execute only one cmd.
Can someone help to figure this out ?
Thanks :)
You can use the following :
cmd.exe /c [command]
for example
$x = 1..100
foreach ($n in $x){cmd.exe /c ping 192.168.1.$n}
mohamed saeed's answer shows you to execute cmd.exe commands synchronously, in sequence in the current console window.
If, by contrast, you want to open multiple interactive cmd.exe sessions, asynchronously, each in its separate, new window, use cmd.exe's /k option and invoke cmd.exe via Start-Process:
# Open three new interactive cmd.exe sessions in new windows
# and execute a sample command in each.
'date /t', 'ver', "echo $PSHOME" | ForEach-Object {
# Parameters -FilePath and -ArgumentList implied.
Start-Process cmd.exe /k, $_
}
Note:
Unless your cmd.exe console windows have the Let the system position the window checkbox in the Properties dialog checked by default, all new windows will fully overlap, so that you'll immediately only see the last one opened.
The last new window opened will have the keyboard focus.
The commands passed to /k are instantly executed, but an interactive session is then entered.
If you would like to keep in purely batch, you can use the start command. The /k switch keeps the command line open. You would use /c if you want to carry out the command and terminate :
start "" %comspec% /k ping 192.168.1.1
From powershell, you can use the Start-Process command with an ArgumentList:
Start-Process cmd.exe -ArgumentList "/k ping 192.168.1.1"
So I am building a script that launches an executable in the common files folder of x86 folder. The issue I am having is the script uses the (x86) as if the x86 is a command that should be run first. Does anyone have any ideas on how to prevent that?
$Pulse = "${env:CommonProgramFiles(x86)}\Pulse Secure\JamUI\JamCommand.exe"
$ImportFile = '"-importfile "C:\Program Files (x86)\MyFile.preconfig"'
Start-Process powershell -ArgumentList "-noexit", "-noprofile", "-command &{Start $Pulse, $ImportFile}" -Verb Runas
As Mathias notes, there is no strict need to launch another PowerShell instance with elevation (run as admin, -Verb RunAs), because you can directly elevate the target executable, JamCommand.exe; however, if you want to run the executable in another PowerShell session that stays open afterwards - as your use of -noexit suggests - you indeed do:
$pulse = "${env:CommonProgramFiles(x86)}\Pulse Secure\JamUI\JamCommand.exe"
$importFileArg = '-importfile "C:\Program Files (x86)\MyFile.preconfig"'
Start-Process -Verb RunAs powershell #"
-noexit -noprofile -c & "$pulse" $importFileArg
"#
Note:
This runs JamCommand.exe directly in the elevated PowerShell session, synchronously (assuming it is a console application), and the interactive session is only entered after that program exits. (Your attempt contains another Start-Process call (via alias Start), which would make a console program run in yet another console window, which auto-closes when the program exits.)
All pass-through arguments are encoded in a single (here)-string passed to the (positionally implied) -ArgumentList parameter, which allows direct control of the command line that is used to launch process, and is generally the most robust approach due to a long-standing bug in how passing arguments individually, as elements of an array is handled - see this answer.
I am trying to run an executable through powershell to run headless, to install a program onto a VM/LocalHost machine. I can get the wizard to open, but for whatever reason I cannot get it to run headless. Here is the cmd line that I run that works:
start /WAIT setup.exe /clone_wait /S /v" /qn"
This is my attempts in powershell
Start-Process .\setup.exe /S -Wait -PassThru
Start-Process .\setup.exe /S /v /qn -Wait -PassThru
Start-Process setup.exe -ArgumentList '/clone_wait /S /v /qn' -Wait
In the cmd line instance the application installs without issue - in the powershell instance the wizard opens and is on the first "Next" prompt. Any help would be appreciated!
I also attempted to add the additional parameters "/v" and "/qn" which return an error : Start-Process : A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument '/v'
The bottom attempt runs but it's not waiting for the installation to complete
You may be overthinking it. Remember that PowerShell is a shell. One of the purposes of a shell is to run commands that you type.
Thus: You don't need Start-Process. Just type the command to run and press Enter.
PS C:\> .\setup.exe /clone_wait /S /v /qn
Now if the executable (or script) you want to run contains spaces in the path or name, then use the call/invocation operator (&) and specify the quotes; for example:
PS C:\> & "\package files\setup.exe" /clone_wait /S /v /qn
(This behavior is the same no matter whether you are at the PowerShell prompt or if you put the command in a script.)
This worked for me. You need to quote the whole argumentlist, plus embed double quotes to pass what you want to /v.
start-process -wait SetupStata16.exe -ArgumentList '/s /v"/qb ADDLOCAL=core,StataMP64"'
Running the command normally and then using wait-process after might be a simpler alternative, if you're sure there's only one process with that name:
notepad
wait-process notepad
To follow-up to all that you have been given thus far. Running executables via PowerShell is a well-documented use case.
PowerShell: Running Executables
Solve Problems with External Command Lines in PowerShell
Top 5 tips for running external commands in Powershell
Using Windows PowerShell to run old command-line tools (and their
weirdest parameters)
So, from the first link provides more validation of what you've been given.
5. The Call Operator &
Why: Used to treat a string as a SINGLE command. Useful for dealing with spaces.
In PowerShell V2.0, if you are running 7z.exe (7-Zip.exe) or another command that starts with a number, you have to use the command invocation operator &.
The PowerShell V3.0 parser do it now smarter, in this case you don’t need the & anymore.
Details: Runs a command, script, or script block. The call operator, also known as the "invocation operator," lets you run commands that are stored in variables and represented by strings. Because the call operator does not parse the command, it cannot interpret command parameters
Example:
& 'C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe' "c:\videos\my home video.avi" /fullscreen
Things can get tricky when an external command has a lot of parameters or there are spaces in the arguments or paths!
With spaces you have to nest Quotation marks and the result it is not always clear!
In this case it is better to separate everything like so:
$CMD = 'SuperApp.exe'
$arg1 = 'filename1'
$arg2 = '-someswitch'
$arg3 = 'C:\documents and settings\user\desktop\some other file.txt'
$arg4 = '-yetanotherswitch'
& $CMD $arg1 $arg2 $arg3 $arg4
# or same like that:
$AllArgs = #('filename1', '-someswitch', 'C:\documents and settings\user\desktop\some other file.txt', '-yetanotherswitch')
& 'SuperApp.exe' $AllArgs
6. cmd /c - Using the old cmd shell
** This method should no longer be used with V3
Why: Bypasses PowerShell and runs the command from a cmd shell. Often times used with a DIR which runs faster in the cmd shell than in PowerShell (NOTE: This was an issue with PowerShell v2 and its use of .Net 2.0, this is not an issue with V3).
Details: Opens a CMD prompt from within powershell and then executes the command and returns the text of that command. The /c tells CMD that it should terminate after the command has completed. There is little to no reason to use this with V3.
Example:
#runs DIR from a cmd shell, DIR in PowerShell is an alias to GCI. This will return the directory listing as a string but returns much faster than a GCI
cmd /c dir c:\windows
7. Start-Process (start/saps)
Why: Starts a process and returns the .Net process object Jump if -PassThru is provided. It also allows you to control the environment in which the process is started (user profile, output redirection etc). You can also use the Verb parameter (right click on a file, that list of actions) so that you can, for example, play a wav file.
Details: Executes a program returning the process object of the application. Allows you to control the action on a file (verb mentioned above) and control the environment in which the app is run. You also have the ability to wait on the process to end. You can also subscribe to the processes Exited event.
Example:
#starts a process, waits for it to finish and then checks the exit code.
$p = Start-Process ping -ArgumentList "invalidhost" -wait -NoNewWindow -PassThru
$p.HasExited
$p.ExitCode
#to find available Verbs use the following code.
$startExe = new-object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo -args PowerShell.exe
$startExe.verbs
We are migrating perl script to powershell script.
In Perl the code is as shown below
$rc='D:\\EmailConnector\\run.bat> $EmailConnector_log;';
I tried as shown below but not working
StartProcess "cmd.exe" "/c D:\EmailConnector\run.bat> $EmailConnector_log"
When I tried as shown below the .bat script ran, but I want to update the log file. Could you help me on this.
StartProcess run.bat -workingdirectory "D:\EmailConnector"
The .bat file consist of jar file for email functionality. But we want to get log in log file.
Use the call operator (&), like this:
& 'D:\EmailConnector\run.bat' > $EmailConnector_log
The return value of the batch script is automatically put into the variable $LastExitCode.
Is that what you mean?
Start-Process "cmd" -ArgumentList '/c','D:\EmailConnector\run.bat' -WorkingDirectory "D:\EmailConnector"
or this one if you need another argument for logfile
Start-Process "cmd" -ArgumentList '/c','D:\EmailConnector\run.bat','EmailConnector_log' -WorkingDirectory "D:\EmailConnector"
Or, since there are no spaces in the path, you can just execute the batch file directly from PowerShell:
D:\EmailConnector\run.bat > $EmailConnector_log
This is one of the advantages of PowerShell being both a "shell" and a "scripting language". Execution of batch, cmd, vbs, exe files is straightforward - usually. Parameter passing can be an issue but these days that is easily solved with the stop parsing operator: --%.
I'm writing a Powershell script that takes in a text file as a parameter. The text file looks similar to this:
echo "1"
echo "2"
echo "3"
What I would want is for each line to be executed in a new Powershell instance. So in the example above, 3 additional instances would be created and each of the 3 would execute one line from the text file. I'm able to launch instances, but I cannot get the instances to treat the lines in the file as commands.
$textFile=$args[0] #File with Powershell commands
foreach($cmdd in get-content $textFile){
cmd /c start powershell -NoExit -command {param($cmdd) iex $cmdd} -ArgumentList $cmdd
}
Running this code opens the instances, prints a lot of information, and then immediately closes. It closes so quickly that I cannot see what the info is. However, since the text file is only composed of printing the numbers 1, 2, and 3, I don't think that it's working correctly. Is there also a way to keep the windows from closing after execution?
If you're launching additional instances of PowerShell from PowerShell, you won't need to call cmd. Try using Start-Process:
$textFile=$args[0] #File with Powershell commands
foreach($cmdd in get-content $textFile){
Start-Process -FilePath powershell -ArgumentList "-NoExit -Command $cmdd"
}
This will leave newly created instances open as you have asked.
Switch from CMD /C to CMD /K to leave the command session open after the command finishes.