Start process with args which contains a path with blanks - powershell

Question

I need to start a process from a powershell script and pass such params :
-a -s f1d:\some directory\with blanks in a path\file.iss
to do that, I write the folowing code :
$process = [System.Diagnostics.Process]::Start("$setupFilePath", '-a -s -f1"d:\some directory\with blanks in a path\fileVCCS.iss"')
$process.WaitForExit()
as a result the process starts but the last argument : -f1d:\some directory\with blanks in a path\file.iss
is not passing correctly. Help, please

Answer 1

I think you can use Start-Process:
Start-Process -FilePath $setupFilePath -ArgumentList '-a','-s','-f1"d:\some directory\with blanks in a path\fileVCCS.iss"' |
Wait-Process

Answer 2

I understand your question to be:
How to pass multiple arguments to start a process where one of the arguments has spaces?
I'm assuming the equivalent in a Windows batch file would be something like:
"%setupFilePath%" -a -s -f1"d:\some directory\with blanks in a path\fileVCCS.iss"
where the double quotes allow the receiving process (setupFilePath in this case) to receive three arguments:
-a
-s
-f1"d:\some directory\with blanks in a path\fileVCCS.iss"
To accomplish this with the code snippet in your question I would use back ticks (to the left of the 1 and below the escape key, not to be confused with a single quote; aka Grave-accent) to escape the inner double quotes like this:
$process = [System.Diagnostics.Process]::Start("$setupFilePath", "-a -s -f1`"d:\some directory\with blanks in a path\fileVCCS.iss`"")
$process.WaitForExit()
Note that in addition to using back ticks I also changed the single quotes around your argument list to double quotes. This was necessary because single quotes do not allow the escapes we need here (http://ss64.com/ps/syntax-esc.html).
Aaron's answer should work just fine. If it doesn't then I would guess that setupFilePath is not interpretting -f1"d:\space here\file.ext" as you expect it to.
OPINION ALERT The only thing I would add to his answer is to suggest using double quotes and back ticks in order to allow using a variable within the path for argument -f1:
Start-Process -FilePath $setupFilePath -ArgumentList '-a','-s',"-f1`"$pathToVCCS`"" |
Wait-Process
This way you won't have a hard-coded, absolute path in the middle of a long line.

Answer 3

On PowerShell v3, this works:
& $setupFilePath -a -s -f1:"d:\some directory\with blanks in a path\fileVCCS.iss"
Using the PSCX echoargs command shows this:
25> echoargs.exe -a -s -f1"d:\some directory\with blanks in a path\fileVCCS.iss"
Arg 0 is <-a>
Arg 1 is <-s>
Arg 2 is <-f1d:\some directory\with blanks in a path\fileVCCS.iss>
Command line:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\PowerShell Community Extensions\Pscx3\Pscx\Apps\EchoArgs.exe" -a -s "-f1d:\some directory\with blanks in a path\fileVCCS.iss"
On V2 use - note the addition of a backtick on the last double quote:
PS> echoargs.exe -a -s -f1"d:\some directory\with blanks in a path\fileVCCS.iss`"
Arg 0 is <-a>
Arg 1 is <-s>
Arg 2 is <-f1d:\some directory\with blanks in a path\fileVCCS.iss>
Command line:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\PowerShell Community Extensions\Pscx3\Pscx\Apps\EchoArgs.exe" -a -s -f1"d:\some directory\with blanks in a path\fileVCCS.iss"