I'm my PS script I want to be able to run another script in another PS instance by doing the following:
$filepath = Resolve-Path "destruct.ps1"
start-process powershell.exe "$filepath"
destruct.ps1 is in the same folder as this script.
However when running this script in a location which includes spaces ("C:\My Scripts\") I will get the following error:
The term 'C:\My' is not recognized as a cmdlet, function, operable program, or script file. Verify the term and try again.
I know by using a '&' with the Invoke-Expression method solves this problem, how can I do the same but by using the start-process method?
try this:
start-process -FilePath powershell.exe -ArgumentList "-file `"$filepath`""
edit after comments:
start-process -FilePath powershell.exe -ArgumentList "-file `"$($filepath.path)`""
side note:
$filepath is a [pathinfo] type and not a [string] type.
You can add escaped double quotes so that you pass a quoted argument:
"`"$filepath`""
I am answering here for a general scenario.
If you need to navigate to a folder for example C:\Program Files from the Powerhsell, the following command won't work as it has white space in between the path.
cd C:\Program Files
Instead embed the path with double quotes as like the below.
cd "C:\Program Files"
File name might contain spaces, so preserve spaces in full path:
Notepad++ exec command:
"C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" "& \"$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)\""
same from command prompt:
"C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" "& \"C:\a_work\Systems\name with spaces.ps1\""
Just in case [string]$shipno (which is path & file name) comes in including spaces the following allows it to be passed to -FilePath successfully:
if ($shipno.contains(" ") -eq $true) {
$shipno = """" + $shipno + """"
}
Related
I want to run a script from commandline, which takes in a file directory as one of the parameters. The files are log files, which are postfixed by a date in following format: yyymmdd (Get-Date -Format filedate). I want to get the latest log file to be passed into the pwoershell script. e.g logfile-20210928.json
> e.g powershell.exe -NonInteractive -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy
> RemoteSigned -File "D:\someapp\checkfile.ps1" -Path
> 'D:\logs\logfile-$(Get-Date -Format filedate).json'
I get the following error as powershell thinks -Format is a parameter.
A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument
'-Format'.
You are posting your 'Get-Date' part in single quotes, the variable is therefor plain text.
try:
"D:\logs\logfile-$(Get-Date -Format filedate).json"
Since you are using cmd to open the file you can not use powershell's Get-Date function in the commandline, you can try:
D:\logs\logfile-%date:~-4,4%%date:~-7,2%%date:~-10,2%.json
So the .bat file will be:
powershell.exe -NonInteractive -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -File "D:\someapp\checkfile.ps1" -Path "D:\logs\logfile-%date:~-4,4%%date:~-7,2%%date:~-10,2%.json"
And the powershell file will be:
param($path)
write-host $path
Output from cmd when running the .bat file:
D:\logs\logfile-20210928.json
You can run as command instead of file:
# checkfile.ps1
param($path)
"path is $path"
powershell .\checkfile logfile-$(Date -F filedate).json
path is logfile-20210928.json
I run this command in PowerShell
Start-Process -FilePath 'C:\Program Files\Typora\Typora.exe' -ArgumentList 'C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\Hello world.md'
But Typora says
C:\User\Administrator\world.md does not exist
It looks like PowerShell executes
Start-Process -FilePath 'C:\Program Files\Typora\Typora.exe'
-ArgumentList 'C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\Hello' 'world.md'
I want to escape the space but the single-quoted not working...
PowerShell version: 5.1.19041.610
PowerShell may not quote strings properly when calling external executables. See
Curl in PowerShell with custom cookie file
PowerShell or CMD errors on space in file path
So to fix this you need to pass the literal " to the exe file by escaping it properly
Start-Process -FilePath 'C:\Program Files\Typora\Typora.exe' `
-ArgumentList '"C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\Hello world.md"'
Try adding ` to excape spaces in powershell:
Start-Process -FilePath 'C:\Program Files\Typora\Typora.exe' -ArgumentList 'C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\Hello`world.md'
I'm using Start-Process to start another instance of Powershell as an administrator but when I try to pass the argument list, whether as a variable or as a plain string, Powershell removes the quotes. Below is the command I'm using:
$argu = '-noexit "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\BuildTools\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvars64.bat"';
powershell Start-Process -Verb RunAs -FilePath powershell -ArgumentList $argu
This is the error I get:
x86 : The term 'x86' 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.
At line:1 char:88
+ ... Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\BuildTools\VC\Auxiliary\Build\v ...
+ ~~~
+ CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (x86:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException
Thank you in advance for any help.
Update:
$argu = '''-noexit ""C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\BuildTools\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvars64.bat""''';
powershell Start-Process -Verb RunAs -FilePath powershell -ArgumentList $argu
This almost fixes it but now I'm getting the error above in the second window instead of the first.
(A) From inside PowerShell:
$argu = '-noexit -command & \"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\BuildTools\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvars64.bat\"'
Start-Process -Verb RunAs -FilePath powershell -ArgumentList $argu
Note: I'm not calling Start-Process via powershell.exe, as there is generally no need for that.
The embedded " are \-escaped, which is what PowerShell requires when you call its CLI (perhaps surprisingly, given that PowerShell-internally it is ` that acts as the escape character).
That said given that the " are embedded inside '...' here, they shouldn't require extra escaping - see below.
The file path to execute is prefixed with call operator &, because you need it in order to execute files that are specified in quoted form.
Note that I've added -Command, which is not strictly necessary in Windows PowerShell, but would be if you ran your command from PowerShell Core (which now defaults to -File).
Alternatively, you could also specify your arguments individually, as part of an array, which is arguably the cleaner solution:
$argu = '-noexit', '-command', '&', 'de',
'\"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\BuildTools\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvars64.bat\"'
Start-Process -Verb RunAs -FilePath powershell -ArgumentList $argu
Sadly, even in this case you need the extra, embedded quoting for arguments that contain spaces, which is a known Start-Process problem being tracked on GitHub.
PowerShell's handling of quoting when calling external programs is generally problematic; the current issues are summarized in this GitHub issue.
(B) From outside PowerShell (cmd.exe, a custom File Explorer context menu):
powershell -command Start-Process -Verb RunAs -FilePath powershell -ArgumentList '-noexit -command . ''C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\BuildTools\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvars64.bat'''
single-quoting is now employed (with nested single quotes escaped as ''), because double-quoting would substantially complicate the escaping.
. is used instead of & to execute the .bat file, which avoids a problem with how the & is parsed; while . generally serves a different purpose than &, the two operators behave the same when calling external programs.
If you also want to set the working directory for the PowerShell session that ultimately opens elevated, you need to incorporate an explicit Set-Location (cd) call into the command string, because Start-Process -Verb RunAs always defaults to the SYSTEM32 folder (even the -WorkingDirectory parameter doesn't help in that case).
For that to work safely, however, you must quote the directory path using double-quoting, given that file names may contain single quotes; with %V as the directory path (which File Explorer supplies to commands invoked via custom context menus), the properly escaped Set-Location call looks like this (I wish I were kidding):
Set-Location \"\"\"%V%\"\"\"
Integrated into the full command (using Set-Location's built-in alias cd for brevity):
powershell -command Start-Process -Verb RunAs -FilePath powershell -ArgumentList '-noexit -command cd \"\"\"%V%\"\"\"; . ''C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\BuildTools\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvars64.bat'''
As an aside: PowerShell Core now has a -WorkingDirectory (-wd) CLI parameter that allows you to control the startup directory more robustly (pwsh -wd "c:\path\to\dir" ...); in fact, it was precisely the File Explorer custom context-menu use case that prompted the introduction of this parameter.
I am trying to use PowerShell to call an EXE that is at a location/path containing spaces. When I call the script from the command line, the EXE's full path is not being passed to the script. Any ideas as to why this is happening?
PowerShell Script Contents (Untitled1.ps1)
Here is the entire script that gets called from the command line:
param(
[string] $ParamExePath
)
function Run-CallThisExe {
param(
[string] $ThisExePath
)
Write-Host "ThisExePath: " "$ThisExePath"
start-process -FilePath $ThisExePath
}
write-host "ParamExePath: " $ParamExePath
Run-CallThisExe -ThisExePath "$ParamExePath"
Command Line String
Here is the command line string being run from the PowerShell script's parent folder:
powershell -command .\Untitled1.ps1 -NonInteractive -ParamExePath "C:\path with spaces\myapp.exe"
Output
Here is what is output after running the script
ParamExePath: C:\path
ThisExePath: C:\path
start-process : This command cannot be run due to the error: The system cannot
find the file specified.
At C:\sample\Untitled1.ps1:11 char:5
+ start-process -FilePath $ThisExePath
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [Start-Process], InvalidOperationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidOperationException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.StartProcessCommand
Just change this:
powershell -command .\Untitled1.ps1 -NonInteractive -ParamExePath "C:\path with spaces\myapp.exe"
To This:
powershell -file .\Untitled1.ps1 -NonInteractive -ParamExePath "C:\path with spaces\myapp.exe"
The -Command Parameter used to execute commands for example {Get-Date}
The -File Parameter used to Run .ps1 Script File
-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.
-File
Runs the specified script in the local scope ("dot-sourced"), so that the
functions and variables that the script creates are available in the
current session. Enter the script file path and any parameters.
File must be the last parameter in the command, because all characters
typed after the File parameter name are interpreted
as the script file path followed by the script parameters.
Type Powershell /? to get full details on each Parameter
A couple of other ways to call it:
powershell -command .\Untitled1.ps1 -NonInteractive "-ParamExePath 'C:\path with spaces\myapp.exe'"
powershell -command ".\Untitled1.ps1 -ParamExePath 'C:\path with spaces\myapp.exe'" -NonInteractive
Note that if you pass a folder path to Powershell that has a trailing backslash it cannot handle it. e.g. -ParamFolder "C:\project folder\app\bin debug\". The parameter string ends up with a double quote at the end. So when you try to append the name of a file to it you end up with something like C:\project folder\app\bin debug"Filename.txt. In this case you have to send in a second backslash at the end.
I'm trying to write and execute a .cmd script in powershell. The code I have for this is:
$script = #'
#echo off
SETLOCAL
CALL something here
'#
Invoke-Expression -Command: $script
This is based off this link which explains the here string in powershell. It's at the bottom of the link. Here's the related msdn.
Here's another related link to someone trying to do the same thing.
I keep getting an error that has to do with including the '#' operator within the string:
Invoke-Expression : At line:1 char:7
+ #echo off
+ ~~~
Unexpected token 'off' in expression or statement.
At line:1 char:1
+ #echo off
+ ~~~~~
The splatting operator '#' cannot be used to reference variables in an expression. '#echo' can be used only as an argument to a command. To reference variables in an expression use '$echo'.
I've tried escaping the '#' symbol, and a plethora of other things. I'd like to know why it seemed to work for them in the third link, but throws this error in my case.
Edit:
Writing to a .bat file then running the bat file resulted in the same error:
$batchFileContent = #'
#echo off
c:\windows\system32\ntbackup.exe backup "C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows NT\NTBackup\data\chameme.bks" /n "1file.bkf1 created 06/09/2013 at 09:36" /d "Set created 06/09/2013 at 09:36" /v:no /r:no /rs:no /hc:off /m normal /j chameme /l:s /f "\\fs1\Exchange Backups$\1file.bkf"
'#
$batchFileContent | Out-File -LiteralPath:"$env:TEMP\backup.cmd" -Force
Invoke-Expression -Command:"$env:TEMP\backup.cmd"
Remove-Item -LiteralPath:"$env:TEMP\backup.cmd" -Force
As Bill Stewart pointed out, I should write the content of the .cmd script in powershell.
Edit:
This
$script = #'
cmd.exe /C "#echo off"
cmd.exe /C "SETLOCAL"
cmd.exe /C "CALL something here"
'#
Invoke-Expression -Command: $script
Seems to work.
This happens because Invoke-Expression interprets your string with PowerShell. PowerShell allows you to run shell commands, but it interprets things as PowerShell first. The # character is the splatting operator in PowerShell.
You should save the commands in a batch file, and then execute that.
Or you can execute single line commands by shelling out to cmd.exe:
Invoke-Expression "cmd.exe /c #echo something"