I'm attempting to run "AutoRun.exe" from an iso file mounted to DriveLetter:\
& "${DriveLetter}:\AutoRun.exe"
Using the above method I can properly tell PowerShell to run the executable, but it expects the support files (AutoRun.cfg, etc) to be in the place of execution (in this case my Desktop). I want this to be able to work no matter the location of the PowerShell script.
Any suggestions?
Change the working directory to whereever the required files are located. If they reside in ${DriveLetter}:\ change to that directory:
Set-Location "${DriveLetter}:\"
& "${DriveLetter}:\AutoRun.exe"
If they reside in the same folder as the PowerShell script change to that directory:
Set-Location (Split-Path -Parent $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition)
& "${DriveLetter}:\AutoRun.exe"
or (PowerShell v3 and newer):
Set-Location $PSScriptRoot
& "${DriveLetter}:\AutoRun.exe"
Related
I am new to powershell so this may just be me not understanding something.
I am writing a tool in powershell and have the tool working in c:\Users\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules.
What I would like is the ability to copy the tool to a USB stick and run it from the USB stick.
How can I get the tool to run if its not in the PSModulePath environment variable path?
Or how can I add the USB stick added to the PSModulePath path?
Thanks for the help.
I have a solution that works by placing the following in a .ps1 script and using that to import the dependent modules and call the first function.
#find local directory
$LocalDir = Split-Path $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path -Parent
#prove correct directory found.
Write-Host "Starting module load: $($MyInvocation.MyCommand) in directory = $LocalDir"
#load modules
Import-Module $LocalDir/Module –Force
#call first function
firstfunction
I could not get $PSScriptRoot to work but the Split-Path $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path –Parent code has the advantage in that it also works in ISE.
I then placed the dependent modules in directories below the .ps1 script.
If you want your script to be portable, you will have to carry around the dependent module with you as well. However, in your script, you can make sure to add the full path to the module's parent directory on your USB to the PSModulePath as a process-level environment variable:
$portableModuleDirectory = [System.IO.DirectoryInfo]'./relative/path/to/dependent/module'
$env:PSModulePath += ";$(Split-Path -Parent $portableModuleDirectory.FullName)"
Import-Module ModuleName
However, this is cumbersome to have to do. The best solution here would be to host your own internal nuget feed to push your package to, so you can install the module on any machine you need it on from your network, if you can't upload it to the public PowerShell Gallery (which you should host your own feed/squid proxy for business needs).
Im struggling with a PowerShell challenge, the setup is as follows:
In the C:\update folder I have ReInstall.ps1 powershell script, that will try to run a script in a folder on another drive:
q:\test\install.ps1
In the q:\test folder, I have a Powershell file callled Install.ps1 that tries to include another ps file called InstallFunctions.ps1
. .\installfunctions.ps1
The two Install ps files works nicely when executed from the q:\test\folder.
But if I try to run the ReInstall.ps1 script from the c:\Update folder, it nicely starts the q:\install.ps1, but then fails because it can't find the Installfunctions.ps1.
It tries to find the InstallFunctions.ps1 in the c:\update folder, instead of the q:\test folder.
The term '.\installfunctions.ps1' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, >function, script file, or operable program.
Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path >is correct and try again.
Since the Install ps files are inside a ISO file, and must work in any scenario, I can't change them. So I have to figure out a way to make the Install.ps1 believe it runs from q:\test folder.
You have to retrieve the script folder like this (PS 2.0):
$scriptPath = Split-Path $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition
. "$scriptPath\installfunctions.ps1"
#or . (Join-Path $scriptPath "installfunctions.ps1")
In PS 3.0 $PSScriptRoot holds the info you need:
. "$PSScriptRoot\installfunctions.ps1"
#or . (Join-Path $PSScriptRoot "installfunctions.ps1")
I have a Powershell script to create a self-extracting archive via 7zip. But it's receiving this error:
cannot find specified SFX module
The Powershell code is:
set-alias sz "$env:ProgramFiles\7-Zip\7z.exe
sz a -t7z -sfx -ppassword $fullpath $filetostore
Both variables are valid. I've tried -sfx and -sfx7z.sfx, same error. The 7z.sfx file is indeed in the correct folder with 7zip. I can also verify the alias is working, as the 7zip copyright appears when running the code (so 7zip commandline is being initiated). This command works outside Powershell.
I'm also tried Set-Location into the 7zip folder, but same error. What am I missing?
It seems you should add the 7-zip folder to your PATH environment variable to make things easier :
#find the 7-zip folder path
$7zPath = (Get-ChildItem "C:\Program Files","C:\Program Files (x86)" -Include "7-zip" -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue).FullName
#add it to PATH environment variable
$env:Path += ";$7zPath;"
Then you can run 7z -sfx with no errors about the SFX module.
While Sodawillow has an answer that will work for the active session, a more permanent answer would be to add 7zip to the path for the Environment you are working in:
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("Path",$env:Path+";C:\Program Files\7-zip", [EnvironmentVariableTarget]::User)
The above one-liner should add 7zip to the active user account's path. Change 'User' to 'Machine' for the whole computer, or 'Process' for the currently running window. If you set 'User' or 'Machine', you will need to open a new powershell instance to see the change reflected.
When you use a .NET object from PowerShell, and it takes a filename, it always seems to be relative to C:\Windows\System32.
For example:
[IO.File]::WriteAllText('hello.txt', 'Hello World')
...will write C:\Windows\System32\hello.txt, rather than C:\Current\Directory\hello.txt
Why does PowerShell do this? Can this behaviour be changed? If it can't be changed, how do I work around it?
I've tried Resolve-Path, but that only works with files that already exist, and it's far too verbose to be doing all the time.
You can change .net working dir to powershell working dir: [Environment]::CurrentDirectory = (Get-Location -PSProvider FileSystem).ProviderPath
After this line all .net methods like [io.path]::GetFullPath and [IO.File]::WriteAllText will work without problems
The reasons PowerShell doesn't keep the .NET notion of current working directory in sync with PowerShell's notion of the working dir are:
PowerShell working dirs can be in a provider that isn't even file system
based e.g. HKLM:\Software
A single PowerShell process can have
multiple runspaces. Each runspace can be cd`d into a different file
system location. However the .NET/process "working directory" is
essentially a global for the process and wouldn't work for a
scenario where there can be multiple working dirs (one per runspace).
For convenience, I added the following to my prompt function, so that it runs whenever a command finishes:
# Make .NET's current directory follow PowerShell's
# current directory, if possible.
if ($PWD.Provider.Name -eq 'FileSystem') {
[System.IO.Directory]::SetCurrentDirectory($PWD)
}
This is not necessarily a great idea, because it means that some scripts (that assume that the Win32 working directory tracks the PowerShell working directory) will work on my machine, but not necessarily on others.
When you use filenames in .Net methods, the best practice is to use fully-qualified path names. Or use
$pwd\foo.cer
If you do in powershell console from:
C:\> [Environment]::CurrentDirectory
C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0
you can see what folder .net use.
That's probably because PowerShell is running in System32. When you cd to a directory in PowerShell, it doesn't actually change the working directory of powershell.exe.
See:
PowerTip article on syncing the two directories
Channel9 forum thread
I ran into the same problem a long time ago and now I add the following to the beginning of my profile:
# Setup user environment when running session under alternate credentials and
# logged in as a normal user.
if ((Get-PSProvider FileSystem).Home -eq "")
{
Set-Variable HOME $env:USERPROFILE -Force
$env:HOMEDRIVE = Split-Path $HOME -Qualifier
$env:HOMEPATH = Split-Path $HOME -NoQualifier
(Get-PSProvider FileSystem).Home = $HOME
Set-Location $HOME
}
I have a PowerShell script that does some stuff using the script’s current directory. So when inside that directory, running .\script.ps1 works correctly.
Now I want to call that script from a different directory without changing the referencing directory of the script. So I want to call ..\..\dir\script.ps1 and still want that script to behave as it was called from inside its directory.
How do I do that, or how do I modify a script so it can run from any directory?
Do you mean you want the script's own path so you can reference a file next to the script? Try this:
$scriptpath = $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path
$dir = Split-Path $scriptpath
Write-host "My directory is $dir"
You can get a lot of info from $MyInvocation and its properties.
If you want to reference a file in the current working directory, you can use Resolve-Path or Get-ChildItem:
$filepath = Resolve-Path "somefile.txt"
EDIT (based on comment from OP):
# temporarily change to the correct folder
Push-Location $dir
# do stuff, call ant, etc
# now back to previous directory
Pop-Location
There's probably other ways of achieving something similar using Invoke-Command as well.
There are answers with big number of votes, but when I read your question, I thought you wanted to know the directory where the script is, not that where the script is running. You can get the information with powershell's auto variables
$PSScriptRoot # the directory where the script exists, not the
# target directory the script is running in
$PSCommandPath # the full path of the script
For example, I have a $profile script that finds a Visual Studio solution file and starts it. I wanted to store the full path, once a solution file is started. But I wanted to save the file where the original script exists. So I used $PsScriptRoot.
If you're calling native apps, you need to worry about [Environment]::CurrentDirectory not about PowerShell's $PWD current directory. For various reasons, PowerShell does not set the process' current working directory when you Set-Location or Push-Location, so you need to make sure you do so if you're running applications (or cmdlets) that expect it to be set.
In a script, you can do this:
$CWD = [Environment]::CurrentDirectory
Push-Location $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path
[Environment]::CurrentDirectory = $PWD
## Your script code calling a native executable
Pop-Location
# Consider whether you really want to set it back:
# What if another runspace has set it in-between calls?
[Environment]::CurrentDirectory = $CWD
There's no foolproof alternative to this. Many of us put a line in our prompt function to set [Environment]::CurrentDirectory ... but that doesn't help you when you're changing the location within a script.
Two notes about the reason why this is not set by PowerShell automatically:
PowerShell can be multi-threaded. You can have multiple Runspaces (see RunspacePool, and the PSThreadJob module) running simultaneously withinin a single process. Each runspace has it's own $PWD present working directory, but there's only one process, and only one Environment.
Even when you're single-threaded, $PWD isn't always a legal CurrentDirectory (you might CD into the registry provider for instance).
If you want to put it into your prompt (which would only run in the main runspace, single-threaded), you need to use:
[Environment]::CurrentDirectory = Get-Location -PSProvider FileSystem
This would work fine.
Push-Location $PSScriptRoot
Write-Host CurrentDirectory $CurDir
I often used the following code to import a module which sit under the same directory as the running script. It will first get the directory from which powershell is running
$currentPath=Split-Path ((Get-Variable
MyInvocation -Scope
0).Value).MyCommand.Path
import-module "$currentPath\sqlps.ps1"
I made a one-liner out of #JohnL's solution:
$MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path | Split-Path | Push-Location
Well I was looking for solution for this for a while, without any scripts just from CLI. This is how I do it xD:
Navigate to folder from which you want to run script (important thing is that you have tab completions)
..\..\dir
Now surround location with double quotes, and inside them add cd, so we could invoke another instance of powershell.
"cd ..\..\dir"
Add another command to run script separated by ;, with is a command separator in powershell
"cd ..\..\dir\; script.ps1"
Finally Run it with another instance of powershell
start powershell "cd..\..\dir\; script.ps1"
This will open new powershell window, go to ..\..\dir, run script.ps1 and close window.
Note that ";" just separates commands, like you typed them one by one, if first fails second will run and next after, and next after... If you wanna keep new powershell window open you add -noexit in passed command . Note that I first navigate to desired folder so I could use tab completions (you couldn't in double quotes).
start powershell "-noexit cd..\..\dir\; script.ps1"
Use double quotes "" so you could pass directories with spaces in names e.g.,
start powershell "-noexit cd '..\..\my dir'; script.ps1"