Command to run PowerShell command from Windows CMD - powershell

Consider:
(Get-Content Rel_DDL.SQL) | ForEach-Object {
$_ -replace "SWIFT [\d\.]+", "SWIFT 2.4.0"
} | Set-Content Rel_DDL.SQL
The above PowerShell code replaces SWIFT 2.3.0 with SWIFT 2.4.0 in a SQL file, which when I run through PowerShell works fine.
I want to run the PowerShell command through Windows CMD, but I am getting errors.

You can use the Powershell.exe command in CMD Windows with the -command parameter. Did you try it?
-Command
Executes the specified commands (and any parameters) as though they were
typed at the Windows PowerShell command prompt, and then exits, unless
NoExit is specified. The value of Command can be "-", a string. or a
script block.
If the value of Command is "-", the command text is read from standard input.
If the value of Command is a script block, the script block must be enclosed in braces ({}).
You can specify a script block only when running PowerShell.exe in Windows PowerShell. The results of the script block are returned to the parent shell as deserialized XML objects, not live objects.
If the value of Command is a string, Command must be the last parameter in the command, because any characters typed after the command are interpreted as the command arguments.
To write a string that runs a Windows PowerShell command, use the format: "& {}" where the quotation marks indicate a string and the invoke operator (&) causes the command to be executed.

Use the powershell command in that .bat script. I would not write to the same file as used for the input. Yes, I know this works because Get-Content reads the entire file, but it is not a good practice.
powershell -NoProfile -Command "(Get-Content Rel_DDL.SQL) |" ^
"ForEach-Object { $_ -replace 'SWIFT [\d\.]+', 'SWIFT 2.4.0' } |" ^
"Out-File -FilePath Rel_DDL2.SQL -Encoding Default"

Related

On WSL2 how do I get a powershell command's output to print to stdout

In WSL2 I want to run a powershell command and get the output of the command to print to stdout on my WSL2.
I have tried many variants but it seems I always just get the command given back and not its output:
$ pwsh.exe -Command {Get-Date}
Get-Date
$ pwsh.exe -Command '{Write-Output "hello"}'
Write-Output "hello"
You should not use curly braces here :
pwsh.exe -Command 'Get-Date'
Philippe's helpful answer provides the crucial pointer:
When calling pwsh, the PowerShell (Core) CLI, from outside PowerShell:
Do not use { ... } to enclose your command(s) - that only works from inside PowerShell.
Inside PowerShell, { ... } creates a script block literal, which is a reusable piece of PowerShell code that can be invoked on demand.
If you pass { ... } to pwsh from inside PowerShell, special processing happens behind the scenes, which notably preserves type fidelity in the output as much as possible - see this answer for details.
It should be noted that calling the PowerShell CLI from PowerShell is rarely necessary, except, for instance, on Windows, if you want to call the respective other PowerShell edition's CLI.
Instead, pass your command(s) as-is, inside a string.
If you pass a string to -Command from outside PowerShell with { ... } embedded, what happens is that PowerShell creates a script block and - in the absence of invoking it, with & or . - its string representation is output, which is the block's verbatim content (excluding { and }) - that is what you saw.
As an aside: There are many examples out there that use "& { ... }" as a -Command argument; while that technically works, it is unnecessary, and passing just "..." (or '...', from POSIX-compatible shells) is sufficient.
Thus:
# Simple case: no quoting necessary
$ pwsh.exe -Command Get-Date
# Command string that requires quoting:
$ pwsh.exe -Command 'Write-Output "hello"'

How do I have to change PowerShell variables code so that I can run it via CMD?

How do I have to change PowerShell code so that I can run it via CMD?
I came up with the following code:
$text_auslesen = Get-Content $env:APPDATA\BIOS-Benchmark\PowerShell-Protokoll-Auswertung.txt
$text_auslesen.Replace("Count :","") > $env:APPDATA\BIOS-Benchmark\Count_only.txt
$text_auslesen = Get-Content $env:APPDATA\BIOS-Benchmark\PowerShell-Protokoll-Auswertung.txt
$text_auslesen.Replace("Average :","") > $env:APPDATA\BIOS-Benchmark\Durchschnitt_only.txt
If I copy and paste it completely into a powershell, it can run. But now I have to put the code next to other code in a batch file. How do I have to adjust the code so that the cmd.exe executes the whole thing?
I suspect setting the variables via Powershell code is problematic here.
Unfortunately, a PS1 file is out of the question for my project.
To execute PowerShell commands from a batch file / cmd.exe, you need to create a PowerShell child process, using the PowerShell CLI (powershell.exe for Windows PowerShell, pwsh for PowerShell (Core) 7+) and pass the command(s) to the -Command (-c) parameter.
However, batch-file syntax does not support multi-line strings, so you have two options (the examples use two simple sample commands):
Pass all commands as a double-quoted, single-line string:
powershell.exe -Command "Get-Date; Write-Output hello > test.txt"
Do not use quoting, which allows you to use cmd.exe's line continuations, by placing ^ at the end of each line.
powershell.exe -Command Get-Date;^
Write-Output hello ^> test.txt
Note:
In both cases multiple statements must be separated with ;, because ^ at the end of a batch-file line continues the string on the next line without a newline.
Especially with the unquoted solution, you need to carefully ^-escape individual characters that cmd.exe would otherwise interpret itself, such as & and >
See this answer for detailed guidance.
Powershell -c executes PowerShell commands. You can do this from cmd, however, it looks like it needs to be run as administrator.
PowerShell -c "$text_auslesen = Get-Content $env:APPDATA\BIOS-Benchmark\PowerShell-Protokoll-Auswertung.txt;
$text_auslesen.Replace('Count :','') > $env:APPDATA\BIOS-Benchmark\Count_only.txt;
$text_auslesen = Get-Content $env:APPDATA\BIOS-Benchmark\PowerShell-Protokoll-Auswertung.txt;
$text_auslesen.Replace('Average :','') > $env:APPDATA\BIOS-Benchmark\Durchschnitt_only.txt"
It is possible to execute the PowerShell code in a batch file, but technically what you are doing is pulling a copy of it out and executing it someplace else. Here are 3 methods that I know of.
mklement0's answer addresses executing a copy of it that is passed as a parameter to PowerShell.
You could build a ps1 file from CMD, and then execute that ps1 file by passing it as a parameter to PowerShell.
And the method I've worked with the most is to pass specially designed PowerShell code to PowerShell that, when it runs, will load all, or part, of the current CMD file into memory and execute it there as a ScriptBlock. I have tried loading parts of the current CMD file, but my experience has been that this gets too complicated and I just stick with loading the entire current CMD file.
That last method is what I'm presenting here. The trick is to make the batch/CMD portion of the script look like a comment that is ignored by PowerShell, but still runs without throwing error messages in CMD. I'm not sure where I first found this trick, but it goes like this:
First, place <# : at the start of script. PowerShell sees this as the start of a comment, but CMD seems to ignore this line. I think CMD is trying to redirect < the contents of a non-existing file : to a non-existing command. But what does CMD do with the #? It works, and that's the important thing.
Place your batch code in lines following the <# :.
You end the batch/CMD part with a GOTO :EOF.
You then end the PowerShell comment with #>, but visually I find it easier to find <#~#>, which does the same job.
The rest of the file is your PowerShell code.
This version treats the PowerShell code as a function with defined parameters. The batch part builds %ARGS% and passes, with double quotes intact, to a PowerShell ScriptBlock that in turn is wrapped in another ScriptBlock. The PowerShell function is called twice with the same SourceFile parameter, but different DestinationFile and TextToRemove parameters. Perhaps there is a simpler way to reliably pass double quotes " in arguments passed to a ScriptBlock from batch, but this is the method I got working.
<# :
#ECHO OFF
SET f0=%~f0
SET SourceFile=%APPDATA%\BIOS-Benchmark\PowerShell-Protokoll-Auswertung.txt
SET ARGS="%SourceFile%" "%APPDATA%\BIOS-Benchmark\Count_only.txt" "Count :"
PowerShell -NoProfile -Command ".([scriptblock]::Create('.([scriptblock]::Create((get-content -raw $Env:f0))) ' + $Env:ARGS))"
SET ARGS="%SourceFile%" "%APPDATA%\BIOS-Benchmark\Durchschnitt_only.txt" "Average :"
PowerShell -NoProfile -Command ".([scriptblock]::Create('.([scriptblock]::Create((get-content -raw $Env:f0))) ' + $Env:ARGS))"
GOTO :EOF
<#~#>
param (
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true, Position = 0)]
[string]$SourceFile,
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true, Position = 1)]
[string]$DestinationFile,
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true, Position = 2)]
[string]$TextToRemove
)
(Get-Content $SourceFile).Replace($TextToRemove, '') > $DestinationFile
This script passes a single parameter that, in PowerShell, is used by the Switch command to decide which section of PowerShell you intend on executing. Since we are not passing double quotes " in the args, the PowerShell lines can be greatly simplified. Information could still be passed to PowerShell by defining environmental variables in batch and reading them in PowerShell.
<# :
#ECHO OFF
SET f0=%~f0
PowerShell -NoProfile -Command .([scriptblock]::Create((get-content -raw $Env:f0))) Script1
PowerShell -NoProfile -Command .([scriptblock]::Create((get-content -raw $Env:f0))) Script2
GOTO :EOF
<#~#>
switch ($args[0]) {
'Script1' {
(Get-Content $env:APPDATA\BIOS-Benchmark\PowerShell-Protokoll-Auswertung.txt).Replace("Count :", '') > $env:APPDATA\BIOS-Benchmark\Count_only.txt
break
}
'Script2' {
(Get-Content $env:APPDATA\BIOS-Benchmark\PowerShell-Protokoll-Auswertung.txt).Replace("Average :", '') > $env:APPDATA\BIOS-Benchmark\Durchschnitt_only.txt
break
}
default {}
}
The -c parameter is intended to solve this scenario.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_pwsh?view=powershell-7.2#-command---c
If possible, it would be more efficient to invoke PowerShell\Pwsh directly rather than using a cmd wrapper.

Multiline powershell function inside batch script

I want to run .bat-script which calls some powershell function inside it. Function is not so small, so I want to split it. But I cannot do it, escape symbols doesn`t help ( ` ,^).
Script example:
set file=%1
set function="$file=$Env:file; ^
$hash = CertUtil -hashfile $file SHA256 | Select -Index 1"
powershell -command %function%
You can leave the quote at the end of each line like so:
set file=%1
set function="$file=$Env:file; "^
"$hash = CertUtil -hashfile $file SHA256 | Select -Index 1; "^
"example break line further...."
powershell -command %function%
The ^ works as multiline character but it also escapes the first character, so also a quote would be escaped.
Do not mix batchfile syntax with PowerShell. As #Stephan mentioned $function= won't work in batch file. You need to use set function= instead. Let's say I want to execute the following:
Get-Process
Get-ChildItem
Then the code should look like this:
set function=Get-Process; ^
Get-ChildItem;
And you start PowerShell with:
powershell -noexit -command %function%
-noexit added so that you can verify that the code was successfully executed.
Also keep in mind that what you pass to PowerShell is batch multiline and in PowerShell it's visible as one line so you have to remember about semicolon (which you actually do but I'm leaving this comment here for future readers).
There's also another option how to pass variable from batch script to PowerShell. You can do it like this:
set name=explorer
set function=get-process $args[0]; ^
get-childitem
powershell -noexit -command "& {%function% }" %name%
Explanation:
$args[0] represents first argument passed to the scriptblock. To pass that argument, add %name% after the scriptblock while starting powershell. Also, as pointed out in this answer (credits to #Aacini for pointing this out in comments), you have to add & operator and keep your scriptblock inside curly brackets { }.
Sidenote: to be honest, I'd avoid running scripts like this. Much simpler way would be to just save the file as .ps1 and run this in your batch file:
powershell -noexit -file .\script.ps1

Passing newline character to PowerShell via Cmd

I'm trying to run a PowerShell script from Windows cmd.exe. The input to the PowerShell script is a string, which contains newline characters using PowerShell backtick escaping - i.e:
`r`n
For demonstration purposes, the input string is then written to the console, and also dumped to a file.
The issue I have is that when the script is run from cmd.exe using the syntax
powershell.exe script.ps1 "TEST`r`nTEST"
The newline characters in the string are not treated as newline, and are included literally in both the console output and the output text file.
TEST`r`nTEST
However, if I run this from a PowerShell environment, I get the expected result (i.e. the newline characters are parsed correctly, and a newline is inserted in the appropriate location).
TEST
TEST
Similarly, if I pass in \r\n instead of the escaped newline characters through Windows cmd.exe, and do a .replace in the PowerShell script
$date = $data.replace("\r\n","`r`n")
I get the expected output:
TEST
TEST
Is anyone able to shed some light on why this happens?
The test script is as follows:
param([string]$data) # data to send
Write-Host $data
[IO.File]::WriteAllText('d:\temp.txt', $data)
return 0
And the file is called from the command line as:
powershell.exe script.ps1 "TEST`r`nTEST"
The script is running on Windows Server 2012 R2, using PowerShell v4.0
tl;dr
Use -Command and pass the entire PowerShell command as a single string; e.g.:
C:\> powershell -NoProfile -Command "script.ps1 \"TEST`r`nTEST\""
TEST
TEST
Note how the internal " instances are escaped as \", which PowerShell requires when called from the outside (alternatively, for full robustness, use "^"" (sic) in Windows PowerShell and "" in PowerShell (Core) v6+).
In your specific case,
powershell -NoProfile -Command script.ps1 "TEST`r`nTEST" would have worked too, but generally that only works as intended if the string has no embedded spaces.
Given that -Command is the default up to PSv5.1, your command - as currently posted - should work as-is.
As of PowerShell v5.1, arguments passed to powershell.exe from the outside:
ARE subject to interpretation by PowerShell, including string interpolation, by default and when you use -Command (i.e., specifying neither -File nor -Command currently defaults to -Command).
Caveat: The default behavior will change in v6: -File will be the default then - see the relevant change on GitHub.
are NOT subject to interpretation if you use -File to invoke a script - (after potential interpretation by cmd.exe) PowerShell treats all arguments as literal strings.
Caveat: This behavior is currently being discussed with respect to v6, given that it is overtly problematic in at least one case: trying to pass Boolean values.
Optional reading: Why you should pass the entire PowerShell command as a single argument when using -Command:
When you use -Command with multiple arguments, PowerShell essentially assembles them into a single command line behind the scenes before executing it.
Any "..."-quoting around the individual arguments is lost in the process, which can have unexpected results; e.g.:
C:\> powershell -NoProfile -Command "& { $args.count }" "line 1`r`nline 2"
3 # !! "line 1`r`nline 2" was broken into 3 arguments
Given that the outer "..." quoting was removed in the process of parsing the command line, the actual command line that PowerShell ended up executing was:
C:\ PS> & { $args.Count } line 1`r`nline 2
3
To illustrate why, let's look at an equivalent command that uses explicit quoting:
C:\ PS> & { $args.Count } "line" "1`r`nline" "2"
In other words: After the enclosing " were removed, the resulting token was broken into multiple arguments by spaces, as usual.
The parameter will need to be reinterpreted as a PowerShell string. Will this get you down the road?
The reason your -replace did not work is that the original string actually contains a backtick. It needs to be escaped in the search string.
C:\src\t>type p1.ps1
Param([string]$s)
Write-Host $s
$p = Invoke-Expression `"$s`"
Write-Host $p
$p2 = $s -replace "``r``n","`r`n"
Write-Host $p2
C:\src\t>powershell -noprofile -file .\p1.ps1 "TEST`r`nTEST"
TEST`r`nTEST
TEST
TEST
TEST
TEST
Carriage return and Linefeed are bytes with values 13 and 10, you can't write them, you can't see them.
As a convenience, when writing PowerShell code, the language will let you write:
"`r`n"
in a double quoted string, and when processing PowerShell source code (and at no other time), it will read those and replace them with bytes value 13 and 10.
It is this line of code in the PowerShell tokenizer which does it.
There is nothing special about backtick-n to the cmd.exe interpreter, and nothing special about having it in a string - you can put it there in a single quoted string
'`n'
or replacing it in a string - except that you have to note when the replacement happens. e.g. in your comment:
For example, if you pass in 'r'n and then replace 'r'n with 'r'n, the 'r'n is still output literally
Because your code
-replace "`r`n"
becomes
-replace "[char]13[char]10"
and your string passed in from outside contains
`r`n
and they don't match. Backtick-n in a string isn't magic, strings are not all interpreted by the PowerShell engine as PowerShell code, nor are parameters, or anything. And it's only in that context - when you write your -replace code, that is when the swap for actual newline characters happens.

How to run a command correct for CMD in remote box using PowerShell?

I need to run a remote command with help of PowerShell from CMD. This is the command I call from CMD:
powershell -command "$encpass=convertto-securestring -asplaintext mypass -force;$cred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList myuser,$encpass; invoke-command -computername "REMOTE_COMPUTER_NAME" -scriptblock {<command>} -credential $cred;"
in place of <command> (including < and > signs) can be any command which can be run in cmd.exe. For example there can be perl -e "print $^O;" or echo "Hello World!" (NOTE: There cannot be perl -e 'print $^O;', because it is incorrect command for CMD due to the single quotes). So it appears the command perl -e "print $^O;" and any other command which contains double quotes doesn't handled as expected. Here I expect it to return OS name of remote box from perl's point of view, but it prints nothing due to obscure handling of double quotes by PowerShell and/or CMD.
So the question is following, how to run command correct for CMD in remote box using PowerShell?
There are several possible problems with the command line in the OP. If the command line in the OP is being executed from Powershell itself the $encpass and $cred will get substituted before the (sub-instance) of powershell is invoked. You need to use single quotes or else escape the $ signs, for example:
powershell -command "`$encpass=2"
powershell -command '$encpass=2'
If, instead of using Powershell, the command line is executed from CMD, then ^ has to be escaped, because it is the CMD escape character.
And quoting " is a good idea as well. In a few tests that I did I had to use unbalanced quotes to get a command to work, for example, from powershell:
powershell -command "`$encpass=`"`"a`"`"`"; write-host `$encpass"
worked, but balanced quotes didn't.
To avoid all this, probably the most robust way to do this is given in powershell command line help: powershell -?:
# To use the -EncodedCommand parameter:
$command = 'dir "c:\program files" '
$bytes = [System.Text.Encoding]::Unicode.GetBytes($command)
$encodedCommand = [Convert]::ToBase64String($bytes)
powershell.exe -encodedCommand $encodedCommand
However there is a new feature in PS 3.0 that is also supposed to help, but I don't think it will be as robust. Described here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/archive/2012/06/14/new-v3-language-features.aspx, near the middle of the blog.