So I have created a build process template in TFS 2012 that has to pass a path name to a Powershell Script, which in turn concatenates files in the specified directory.
Some of these path names might have two consecutive spaces, which has turned out to be a problem.
When I invoke the powershell script, I enclose the path name in single quotes, and the command that is executed looks something like this.
powershell C:\psScript.ps1 'C:\tmp\two spaces\myFolder'.
However, when I try and open the directory in Powershell, I get the following error:
Get-Item : Cannot find path 'C:\tmp\two spaces\myFolder'
because it does not exist.
The two spaces seem to have become one, and the path can't be found.
Does anyone know what might be causing this?
Related
I have a powershell script that generates a report, and I have connected it to an io.filesystemwatcher. I am trying to improve the error handling capability. I already have the report generation function (which only takes in a filepath) within a try-catch loop that basically kills word, excel and powerpoint and tries again if it fails. This seems to work well but I want to embed in that another try-catch loop that will restart the computer and generate the report after reboot if it fails a second consecutive time.
I decided to try and modify the registry after reading this article: https://cmatskas.com/configure-a-runonce-task-on-windows/
my plan would be, within the second try-catch loop I will create a textfile called RecoveredPath.txt with the file path being its only contents, and then add something like:
Set-ItemProperty "HKLMU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce" -Name '!RecoverReport' -Value "C:\...EmergencyRecovery.bat"
Before rebooting. Within the batch file I have:
set /p RecoveredDir=<RecoveredPath.txt
powershell.exe -File C:\...Report.ps1 %RecoveredDir%
When I try to run the batch script, it doesn't yield any errors but doesn't seem to do anything. I tried adding in an echo statement and it is storing the value of the text file as a variable but doesn't seem to be passing it to powershell correctly. I also tried adding -Path %RecoveredDir% but that yielded an error (the param in report.ps1 is named $Path).
What am I doing incorrectly?
One potential problem is that not enclosing %RecoveredDir% in "..." would break with paths containing spaces and other special chars.
However, the bigger problem is that using mere file name RecoveredPath.txt means that the file is looked for in whatever the current directory happens to be.
In a comment your state that both the batch file and input file RecoveredPath.txt are located in your desktop folder.
However, it is not the batch file's location that matters, it's the process' current directory - and that is most likely not your desktop when your batch file auto-runs on startup.
Given that the batch file and the input file are in the same folder and that you can refer to a batch file's full folder path with %~dp0 (which includes a trailing \), modify your batch file to look as follows:
set /p RecoveredDir=<"%~dp0RecoveredPath.txt"
powershell.exe -File C:\...Report.ps1 "%RecoveredDir%"
How do I handle a folder name containing spaces in Perl? For example C:\Sample Picture\Data.
I wrote this
use File::Glob ':glob';
$indir = "C:\\Sample Picture\\Data\\";
#flist = bsd_glob( $indir.'*');
This is throwing an error
The syntax of the command is incorrect.
The error message The syntax of the command is incorrect comes from the Windows command line, not from Perl
The issue is not to do with File::Glob, but with whatever you are doing with the contents of #flist. It's my guess that you're using backticks or system to rename one or more of the files or directories. This will fail if you use paths that contain spaces without enclosing the complete path in double quotes
If you need any more help then you must show the relevant part of your code
Ultimately, I want to be able to call my PS script from VBA (Excel), but the easiest way to do that seems to be with system batch commands - so I'm testing my script with a BAT file.
The script returns a text file with the contents of a webpage, sans HTML tags. It works fine called alone with default parameters; it worked fine with no spaces in the output path parameter, but I've had no luck using a path that includes a space.
PS1 script, boiled down:
param ( [string]$outputPathName="" )
$outputPathName | Out-File "D:\Documents\Google Drive\out.txt"
BAT file to test it:
powershell.exe '"D:\Documents\Google Drive\GetWebPage.ps1"' -outputPathName '"D:\Documents\Google Drive\out.txt"'
I get the error message "Unexpected token '-outputPathName' in expression or statement." (I also get a similar error for the argument, but if the parameter name were recognized I might be able to get past this.)
How can I pass a named argument in from BAT script file to PS1 script file (with spaces in the path and argument)?
I would like to open a C:\Program Files\R\R-3.2.0\bin\Rscript.exe. For that I am trying to change the directory. I figured that the error is in opening Program files. Following is the code
cd Program Files\R\R-3.2.0\bin
Error: A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument Files
Unlike command.com/cmd.exe, PowerShell follows much more consistent rules and in the failing case Program and Files\R..bin are parsed as two separate arguments, where the second is invalid in context (as cd only accepts a single non-named argument).
To fix this use quotes, eg.
cd "C:\Program Files"
With the quotes it is parsed as a string value which is supplied as a single argument (the string itself does not include the quotes, again unlike cmd.exe rules).
FWIW, cd is an alias for Set-Location. Run get-help cd for the details on how it can be used - include which optional (and named) parameters it does support.
You need to put the path in quotes if it contains a space:
cd 'C:\Program Files\R\R-3.2.0\bin'
Either single or double quotes will work.
From inside a .bat file, I m issuing this command
xcopy\s Folder1\folder2\folder3\blah-blah Folder1\temp\folder2\folder3
But I get the error:
The system cannot find the path specified.
I tried copying the same line to command line and tried it:
Then, I get the error, xcopys command not found.
If I try to use xcopy instead of xcopy/s, I get error:
File not found - Folder1folder2folder3blah-blah
If I use xcopy command with backward slash on command line: Invalid number of parameters.
I tried enclosing paths in quotes, but it does not help.
My file names don't have spaces in them but they do have -
I have checked the path of source and destination and they exist
Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks
I guess you're running under windows, so you have to use forward slashes for arguments.
xcopy/s is something very different from xcopy\s. The later searches for an application called s in a subfolder called xcopy. To further avoid confusion, separate the program from its argument(s) with spaces.