I'm trying to execute a .VB script along with some other arguments.
I'm calling system("$cmd"), where
my $cmd = "Report.exe $app_env $rpt_Dir $eff_date";
and
my $rpt_Dir = "\\\\server\\folder\\Target Report\\test";
The problem I am having is that (I think) the space between "Target Report" is making the script treating it as 2 arguments.
And the reason why I didn't just surround the path with "" and pass it as an argument instead of saving it to a variable is that the path changes based on the date.
And it's not a first choice that I change the code in the .VB script.
On Windows, the system call uses cmd.exe to process commands, so you need double quotes around any parameters that contain spaces
Set your $cmd up like this
my $cmd = qq{Report.exe $app_env "$rpt_Dir" $eff_date};
The qq{...} construction is identical to ordinary double quotes, but it allows you to choose your own delimiters so that you don't have to escape any embedded double quotes
Then you can write
system($cmd);
It is wrong to put quotes around a solitary scalar variable
You can pass an array of args to system. If you do this, you won't be tripped over by quote interpolation.
system ( "Report.exe", $app_env, $rpt_Dir, $eff_date );
You can simply enclose the $rpt_Dir variable in single quotes:
my $cmd = "Report.exe $app_env '$rpt_Dir' $eff_date";
and it will be treated as a single arguement
Related
Here is the command that works in command prompt.
C:\Temp\Agent.exe CustomerId={9c0-4ab1-123-102423a} ActivationId={9c0-4ab1-123-102423a} WebServiceUri=https://Agent/
Here is the error. (I have tried invoke-command and arguments but I think the { is causing issues.
Error:
Agent.exe: The command parameter was already specified.
You are certainly not required to use Start-Process (although it may "work," with some limitations, in some scenarios). The simplest and most straightforward answer is to quote the arguments:
C:\Temp\Agent.exe 'CustomerId={9c0-4ab1-123-102423a}' 'ActivationId={9c0-4ab1-123-102423a}' 'WebServiceUri=https://Agent/'
If the executable you want to run is in a path that contains spaces (or the executable filename itself contains spaces), quote the command and use the & (call/invocation) operator; e.g.:
& 'C:\Temp Dir\Agent.exe' 'CustomerId={9c0-4ab1-123-102423a}' 'ActivationId={9c0-4ab1-123-102423a}' 'WebServiceUri=https://Agent/'
Remarks:
If you need string interpolation (i.e., automatic expansion of $variable names inside strings), then use " instead of ' as your quote character. Use ' instead of " (as in the examples above) to prevent string interpolation.
Parameter quoting in this case is required because the { and } symbols have special meaning in PowerShell.
The proper way to run external programs is to use Start-Process. It gives you a couple of additional options like a separate ArgumentList parameter, running-as another user, or redirecting outputs:
Start-Process -FilePath 'C:\Temp\Agent.exe' -ArgumentList #(
# Arguments are space-separated when run. You could also just use one big string.
'CustomerId={9c0-4ab1-123-102423a}',
'ActivationId={9c0-4ab1-123-102423a}',
'WebServiceUri=https://Agent/'
)
I'm trying to make a GUI that will print the information from a textbox into a .txt in a way that I will try to explain as well as I can.
$TextBox_UsbName.text = "TestingTesting"
$Button_SetUsbName.Add_Click({ $Value_UsbName = $TextBox_UsbName.text; add-content -path $Value_NewScriptPath -value "$usbname = $Value_UsbName" })
After this is run I was hoping the text file would contain this:
$usbname = "TestingTesting"
I am still new to Powershell as well as coding in general and now I am really stuck I have tried a lot of different ways.
Any ideas and help would be much appreciated.
Edit: My result is
=
In Powershell double quoted string literals, string interpolation takes place each time an unescaped $ appears with a valid identifier characters after it. To introduce a literal $ that should not be parsed as part of an interpolated variable, you should escape it with a backtick, `.
Here is some quick string interpolation help:
How do I expand an expression in a string?
Windows PowerShell will expand a variable or an expression in a string.
Variables look like: $variable
Expressions look like: $(expression)
So, your "$usbname = $Value_UsbName" is interpreted by the engine as value of $usbname variable followded with = enclosed with spaces, and then a value of $Value_UsbName variable.
What you want to add is a literal $usbname substring and the value of $TextBox_UsbName.text expression.
So, either use
"`$usbname = $($TextBox_UsbName.text)"
Or just concatenate values (in a culture independent way):
$usbname + ' = ' + $TextBox_UsbName.text
I've been searching all over the place and since I'm taking my first steps in PERL this might be one of he dumbest questions but here it goes.
So I'm creating a script to manage my windows and later bind it to keyboard shortcuts, so I I'm trying to run a command and passing some variables:
my $command = `wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -e 0,0,0,$monitors->{1}->{'width'}/2,$monitors->{1}->{'height'}`;
But I get an error saying I'm not passing the right parameters to the command, but if I do this, everything works great:
my $test = $monitors->{1}->{'width'}/2;
my $command = `wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -e 0,0,0,$test,$monitors->{1}->{'height'}`;
So do I really have to do this? assign it first to a variable and then pass it, or there's a more elegant way of doing it?
The backticks operator (or the qx{}) accepts A string which is (possibly) interpolated. So accepts string and not expression like $var/2.
Thats mean than the $variables ($var->{1}->{some} too) are expanded but not the arithmetic expressions.
Therefore your 2 step variant works, but not the first.
If you want evaluate an expression inside the string you can use the next:
my $ans=42;
print "The #{[ $ans/2 ]} is only the half of answer\n";
prints
The 21 is only the half of answer
but it is not very readable, so better and elegant is what you're already doing - calculate the command argument in andvace, and to the qx{} or backticks only pass the calculated $variables.
I'm trying to set a variable I previously set in a Perl script as an environment variable, but it seems to not realize the parameter I'm passing in is a variable and not the actual path I want.
For example, when I run this:
$ENV{'ENV_VARIABLE'}='\'$file_path\'';
print($ENV{'ENV_VARIABLE'});
I only get:
'$file_path'
Is there any way I can tell it that what I'm passing in is actually a variable and not a literal string?
In Perl, single quoted strings do not interpolate variables. You want to use a double quote:
$ENV{'ENV_VARIABLE'}= "'$file_path'";
In that line, the rvalue is interpreted as q{'} . $file_path . q{'} where q{'} is a fancy way of writing '\'', which is a bit harder to read.
Powershell tab expansion functions take 2 parameters, the line so far, and the "current word". The function should return a replacement for the current word.
From experiment, it seems to me that the current word is passed to the function without any quotes, and the returned word is inserted into the line with the same quoting as the original. So, for example, if I type
PS> foo "bar"<TAB>
I will get the string bar passed to my tab expansion function (without quotes), and my returned value will be placed back on the line in double quotes.
This behaviour causes problems in certain cases. For example, partial completion of file names, where I might type C:\Pro<TAB> to get "C:\Program Files", but I then need to delete the final quote to expand further (say, by typing \Micro and then hitting TAB again.
Also, returning an expanded value containing quotes can be very messy:
PS> function TabExpansion($line, $lastword) {
PS> "looks like '" + $lastword + "' when quoted"
PS> }
PS>
PS> Silly 'example'<TAB>
This results in unbalanced quotes.
Is there any way of avoiding or working around this behaviour?
Paul.
First off, this is not true:
This behaviour causes problems in
certain cases. For example, partial
completion of file names, where I
might type C:\Pro to get
"C:\Program Files", but I then need to
delete the final quote to expand
further (say, by typing \Micro and
then hitting TAB again.
You can continue typing the \Micro after the quote and it will take care of it for you.
If you really need to return a value containing quotes, you can inject the escape character (`) into your string. Note that you will need to escape the escape character itself so it doesn't get eaten:
function TabExpansion($line, $lastword){
"looks like ``'" + $lastword + "``' when quoted"
}
After Tab expansion, your example will look like:
Silly "looks like `'example`' when quoted"
and the parser should have no problem with it.