In my batch file, I call the PowerShell script like this:
powershell.exe "& "G:\Karan\PowerShell_Scripts\START_DEV.ps1"
Now, I want to pass a string parameter to START_DEV.ps1. Let's say the parameter is w=Dev.
How can I do this?
Let's say you would like to pass the string Dev as a parameter, from your batch file:
powershell -command "G:\Karan\PowerShell_Scripts\START_DEV.ps1 Dev"
put inside your powershell script head:
$w = $args[0] # $w would be set to "Dev"
This if you want to use the built-in variable $args. Otherwise:
powershell -command "G:\Karan\PowerShell_Scripts\START_DEV.ps1 -Environment \"Dev\""
and inside your powershell script head:
param([string]$Environment)
This if you want a named parameter.
You might also be interested in returning the error level:
powershell -command "G:\Karan\PowerShell_Scripts\START_DEV.ps1 Dev; exit $LASTEXITCODE"
The error level will be available inside the batch file as %errorlevel%.
Assuming your script is something like the below snippet and named testargs.ps1
param ([string]$w)
Write-Output $w
You can call this at the commandline as:
PowerShell.Exe -File C:\scripts\testargs.ps1 "Test String"
This will print "Test String" (w/o quotes) at the console. "Test String" becomes the value of $w in the script.
When a script is loaded, any parameters that are passed are automatically loaded into a special variables $args. You can reference that in your script without first declaring it.
As an example, create a file called test.ps1 and simply have the variable $args on a line by itself. Invoking the script like this, generates the following output:
PowerShell.exe -File test.ps1 a b c "Easy as one, two, three"
a
b
c
Easy as one, two, three
As a general recommendation, when invoking a script by calling PowerShell directly I would suggest using the -File option rather than implicitly invoking it with the & - it can make the command line a bit cleaner, particularly if you need to deal with nested quotes.
Add the parameter declaration at the top of ps1 file
test.ps1
param(
# Our preferred encoding
[parameter(Mandatory=$false)]
[ValidateSet("UTF8","Unicode","UTF7","ASCII","UTF32","BigEndianUnicode")]
[string]$Encoding = "UTF8"
)
write ("Encoding : {0}" -f $Encoding)
Result
C:\temp> .\test.ps1 -Encoding ASCII
Encoding : ASCII
The answer from #Emiliano is excellent. You can also pass named parameters like so:
powershell.exe -Command 'G:\Karan\PowerShell_Scripts\START_DEV.ps1' -NamedParam1 "SomeDataA" -NamedParam2 "SomeData2"
Note the parameters are outside the command call, and you'll use:
[parameter(Mandatory=$false)]
[string]$NamedParam1,
[parameter(Mandatory=$false)]
[string]$NamedParam2
Related
How do I have to change PowerShell code so that I can run it via CMD?
I came up with the following code:
$text_auslesen = Get-Content $env:APPDATA\BIOS-Benchmark\PowerShell-Protokoll-Auswertung.txt
$text_auslesen.Replace("Count :","") > $env:APPDATA\BIOS-Benchmark\Count_only.txt
$text_auslesen = Get-Content $env:APPDATA\BIOS-Benchmark\PowerShell-Protokoll-Auswertung.txt
$text_auslesen.Replace("Average :","") > $env:APPDATA\BIOS-Benchmark\Durchschnitt_only.txt
If I copy and paste it completely into a powershell, it can run. But now I have to put the code next to other code in a batch file. How do I have to adjust the code so that the cmd.exe executes the whole thing?
I suspect setting the variables via Powershell code is problematic here.
Unfortunately, a PS1 file is out of the question for my project.
To execute PowerShell commands from a batch file / cmd.exe, you need to create a PowerShell child process, using the PowerShell CLI (powershell.exe for Windows PowerShell, pwsh for PowerShell (Core) 7+) and pass the command(s) to the -Command (-c) parameter.
However, batch-file syntax does not support multi-line strings, so you have two options (the examples use two simple sample commands):
Pass all commands as a double-quoted, single-line string:
powershell.exe -Command "Get-Date; Write-Output hello > test.txt"
Do not use quoting, which allows you to use cmd.exe's line continuations, by placing ^ at the end of each line.
powershell.exe -Command Get-Date;^
Write-Output hello ^> test.txt
Note:
In both cases multiple statements must be separated with ;, because ^ at the end of a batch-file line continues the string on the next line without a newline.
Especially with the unquoted solution, you need to carefully ^-escape individual characters that cmd.exe would otherwise interpret itself, such as & and >
See this answer for detailed guidance.
Powershell -c executes PowerShell commands. You can do this from cmd, however, it looks like it needs to be run as administrator.
PowerShell -c "$text_auslesen = Get-Content $env:APPDATA\BIOS-Benchmark\PowerShell-Protokoll-Auswertung.txt;
$text_auslesen.Replace('Count :','') > $env:APPDATA\BIOS-Benchmark\Count_only.txt;
$text_auslesen = Get-Content $env:APPDATA\BIOS-Benchmark\PowerShell-Protokoll-Auswertung.txt;
$text_auslesen.Replace('Average :','') > $env:APPDATA\BIOS-Benchmark\Durchschnitt_only.txt"
It is possible to execute the PowerShell code in a batch file, but technically what you are doing is pulling a copy of it out and executing it someplace else. Here are 3 methods that I know of.
mklement0's answer addresses executing a copy of it that is passed as a parameter to PowerShell.
You could build a ps1 file from CMD, and then execute that ps1 file by passing it as a parameter to PowerShell.
And the method I've worked with the most is to pass specially designed PowerShell code to PowerShell that, when it runs, will load all, or part, of the current CMD file into memory and execute it there as a ScriptBlock. I have tried loading parts of the current CMD file, but my experience has been that this gets too complicated and I just stick with loading the entire current CMD file.
That last method is what I'm presenting here. The trick is to make the batch/CMD portion of the script look like a comment that is ignored by PowerShell, but still runs without throwing error messages in CMD. I'm not sure where I first found this trick, but it goes like this:
First, place <# : at the start of script. PowerShell sees this as the start of a comment, but CMD seems to ignore this line. I think CMD is trying to redirect < the contents of a non-existing file : to a non-existing command. But what does CMD do with the #? It works, and that's the important thing.
Place your batch code in lines following the <# :.
You end the batch/CMD part with a GOTO :EOF.
You then end the PowerShell comment with #>, but visually I find it easier to find <#~#>, which does the same job.
The rest of the file is your PowerShell code.
This version treats the PowerShell code as a function with defined parameters. The batch part builds %ARGS% and passes, with double quotes intact, to a PowerShell ScriptBlock that in turn is wrapped in another ScriptBlock. The PowerShell function is called twice with the same SourceFile parameter, but different DestinationFile and TextToRemove parameters. Perhaps there is a simpler way to reliably pass double quotes " in arguments passed to a ScriptBlock from batch, but this is the method I got working.
<# :
#ECHO OFF
SET f0=%~f0
SET SourceFile=%APPDATA%\BIOS-Benchmark\PowerShell-Protokoll-Auswertung.txt
SET ARGS="%SourceFile%" "%APPDATA%\BIOS-Benchmark\Count_only.txt" "Count :"
PowerShell -NoProfile -Command ".([scriptblock]::Create('.([scriptblock]::Create((get-content -raw $Env:f0))) ' + $Env:ARGS))"
SET ARGS="%SourceFile%" "%APPDATA%\BIOS-Benchmark\Durchschnitt_only.txt" "Average :"
PowerShell -NoProfile -Command ".([scriptblock]::Create('.([scriptblock]::Create((get-content -raw $Env:f0))) ' + $Env:ARGS))"
GOTO :EOF
<#~#>
param (
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true, Position = 0)]
[string]$SourceFile,
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true, Position = 1)]
[string]$DestinationFile,
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true, Position = 2)]
[string]$TextToRemove
)
(Get-Content $SourceFile).Replace($TextToRemove, '') > $DestinationFile
This script passes a single parameter that, in PowerShell, is used by the Switch command to decide which section of PowerShell you intend on executing. Since we are not passing double quotes " in the args, the PowerShell lines can be greatly simplified. Information could still be passed to PowerShell by defining environmental variables in batch and reading them in PowerShell.
<# :
#ECHO OFF
SET f0=%~f0
PowerShell -NoProfile -Command .([scriptblock]::Create((get-content -raw $Env:f0))) Script1
PowerShell -NoProfile -Command .([scriptblock]::Create((get-content -raw $Env:f0))) Script2
GOTO :EOF
<#~#>
switch ($args[0]) {
'Script1' {
(Get-Content $env:APPDATA\BIOS-Benchmark\PowerShell-Protokoll-Auswertung.txt).Replace("Count :", '') > $env:APPDATA\BIOS-Benchmark\Count_only.txt
break
}
'Script2' {
(Get-Content $env:APPDATA\BIOS-Benchmark\PowerShell-Protokoll-Auswertung.txt).Replace("Average :", '') > $env:APPDATA\BIOS-Benchmark\Durchschnitt_only.txt
break
}
default {}
}
The -c parameter is intended to solve this scenario.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_pwsh?view=powershell-7.2#-command---c
If possible, it would be more efficient to invoke PowerShell\Pwsh directly rather than using a cmd wrapper.
I want to run .bat-script which calls some powershell function inside it. Function is not so small, so I want to split it. But I cannot do it, escape symbols doesn`t help ( ` ,^).
Script example:
set file=%1
set function="$file=$Env:file; ^
$hash = CertUtil -hashfile $file SHA256 | Select -Index 1"
powershell -command %function%
You can leave the quote at the end of each line like so:
set file=%1
set function="$file=$Env:file; "^
"$hash = CertUtil -hashfile $file SHA256 | Select -Index 1; "^
"example break line further...."
powershell -command %function%
The ^ works as multiline character but it also escapes the first character, so also a quote would be escaped.
Do not mix batchfile syntax with PowerShell. As #Stephan mentioned $function= won't work in batch file. You need to use set function= instead. Let's say I want to execute the following:
Get-Process
Get-ChildItem
Then the code should look like this:
set function=Get-Process; ^
Get-ChildItem;
And you start PowerShell with:
powershell -noexit -command %function%
-noexit added so that you can verify that the code was successfully executed.
Also keep in mind that what you pass to PowerShell is batch multiline and in PowerShell it's visible as one line so you have to remember about semicolon (which you actually do but I'm leaving this comment here for future readers).
There's also another option how to pass variable from batch script to PowerShell. You can do it like this:
set name=explorer
set function=get-process $args[0]; ^
get-childitem
powershell -noexit -command "& {%function% }" %name%
Explanation:
$args[0] represents first argument passed to the scriptblock. To pass that argument, add %name% after the scriptblock while starting powershell. Also, as pointed out in this answer (credits to #Aacini for pointing this out in comments), you have to add & operator and keep your scriptblock inside curly brackets { }.
Sidenote: to be honest, I'd avoid running scripts like this. Much simpler way would be to just save the file as .ps1 and run this in your batch file:
powershell -noexit -file .\script.ps1
I'm trying this
$Global:commandBlock={
Start-Transcript -path $projectFolder\gruntLog.txt;
grunt $argList;
Stop-Transcript
}
$cmdProc=start-process powershell -ArgumentList ('-command `$Global:commandBlock') -WorkingDirectory $fwd -PassThru -NoNewWindow:$NoNewWindow
And keep getting $commandBlock : The term '$Global:commandBlock' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program.
My guess was it has to do with scope. But making variable global didn't help. Adding -args $commandBlock like that:
-ArgumentList ('-command `$Global:commandBlock -args "-commandBlock:$commandBlock"')
-ArgumentList ('-command `$Global:commandBlock -args $commandBlock"')
didn't help
And I'm not sure that I escape variables correctly in the block, read this, but not sure how to apply to my script.
There's a few things which I think are keeping this from working. First, when you're using single quotes, ' you're instructing PowerShell to operate literally. This means that it won't expand variables. Not what you're looking for.
A better way to do this is to do it with an subexpression like this.
$Global:commandBlock={
'ham' >> C:\temp\test.txt
}
$cmdProc=start-process powershell -ArgumentList ("-command $($Global:commandBlock)") -PassThru -NoNewWindow:$NoNewWindow
This will give you the desired results.
Subexpressions are pretty sweet. It lets you embed a mini-scriptblock within a string, and it's then expanded out in the parent string.
"today's date is $(get-date), on system: $($env:COMPUTERNAME)"
today's date is 02/14/2017 11:50:49, on system: BEHEMOTH
There are two major issues (leaving the obvious mistake of attempting to reference a variable inside a single-quoted string aside):
Any argument you want to pass to a new powershell instance via -Command must be escaped in non-obvious ways if it contains " and/or \ chars, which is especially likely if you're passing a piece of PowerShell source code.
The escaping issue can generally be solved by Base64-encoding the source-code string and passing it via the -EncodedCommand parameter - see this answer of mine to a related question for how to do that, but a more concise alternative is presented below.
If the source code being passed references any variables that only exist in the calling session, the new instance won't see them.
The solution is not to reference session-specific variables in the source code being passed, but to pass their values as parameter values instead.
To solve the local-variable-not-seen-by-the-new-instance problem, we must rewrite the script block to accept parameters:
$scriptBlock={
param($projectFolder, $argList)
# For demonstration, simply *output* the parameter values.
"folder: [$projectFolder]; arguments: [$argList]"
}
Now we can apply the necessary escaping, using PetSerAl's sophisticated -replace expression from his comment on the question.
We can then invoke the resulting string with & {...} while passing it parameter values (I'm omitting the -WorkingDirectory and -PassThru parameters for brevity):
# Parameter values to pass.
$projectFolder = 'c:\temp'
$argList='-v -f'
Start-Process -NoNewWindow powershell -ArgumentList '-noprofile', '-command',
(('& {' + $scriptBlock.ToString() + '}') -replace '\"|\\(?=\\*("|$))', '\$&'),
"'$projectFolder'",
"'$argList'"
For an explanation of the regular expression, again see this answer.
Note how the variable values passed as parameters to the script block are enclosed in '...' inside a "..."-enclosed string in order to:
pass the values as a single parameter value.
protect them from another round of interpretation by PowerShell.
Note: If your variable values have embedded ' instances, you'll have to escape them as ''.
The above yields:
folder: [c:\temp]; arguments: [-v -f]
Alternative with a temporary, self-deleting script file:
Using -File with a script file has the advantage of being able to pass parameter values as literals, with no concern over additional interpretation of their contents.
Caveat: As of PowerShell Core v6-beta.3, there is a problem when passing parameter values that start with -: they are not bound as expected; see this GitHub issue.
To work around this problem, the sample script block below accesses only the first parameter by name, and relies on all remaining ones binding via the automatic $Args variable.
# Define the script block to be executed by the new PowerShell instance.
$scriptBlock={
param($projectFolder)
# For demonstration, simply *output* the parameter values.
"folder: [$projectFolder]; arguments: [$Args]"
}
# Parameter values to pass.
$projectFolder = 'c:\temp'
$argList='-v -f'
# Determine the temporary script path.
$tempScript = "$env:TEMP\temp-$PID.ps1"
# Create the script from the script block and append the self-removal command.
# Note that simply referencing the script-block variable inside `"..."`
# expands to the script block's *literal* content (excluding the enclosing {...})
"$scriptBlock; Remove-Item `$PSCommandPath" > $tempScript
# Now invoke the temporary script file, passing the arguments as literals.
Start-Process -NoNewWindow powershell -ArgumentList '-NoProfile', '-File', $tempScript,
$projectFolder,
$argList
Again, the above yields:
folder: [c:\temp]; arguments: [-v -f]
I've messed around with the syntax for passing args to a new powershell instance and have found the following works. So many variations fail without a good error message. Maybe it would work in your case?
$arg = "HAM"
$command = {param($ham) write-host $ham}
#please not its important to wrap your command
#in a further script block to stop it being processed to a string at execution
#The following would normally suffice "& $command $arg"
Start-Process powershell -ArgumentList "-noexit -command & {$command} $arg"
Also simply using the Invoke-Command gives you the -ArgumentList parameter to opperate against the given Command that you are missing with the standard powershell.exe parameters. This is probably a bit cleaner looking.
Start-Process powershell -ArgumentList "-noexit -command invoke-command -scriptblock {$command} -argumentlist $arg"
No need for any extra complex escaping or unwanted persisted variables. Just keep the script block in curly braces so it remains a script block on arrival in the new session. At least in this simple case...
If you have several string parameters that contain spaces. I found popping the string in a single parenthesis and separating with commas works well. You could also probably pass a predefined array as a single argument.
Start-Process powershell -ArgumentList "-noexit -command invoke-command -scriptblock {$command} -argumentlist '$arg1', '$arg2', '$arg3'"
Will this work:
$Global:commandBlock={
Start-Transcript -path $projectFolder\gruntLog.txt;
grunt $argList;
Stop-Transcript
}
& $Global:commandBlock
I am new to powershell, and trying to teach myself the basics. I need to write a ps script to parse a file, which has not been too difficult.
Now I want to change it to pass a variable to the script. that variable will be the parsing string. Now, the variable will always be 1 word, and not a set of words or multiple words.
This seems uber simple yet is posing a problem for me. Here is my simple code:
$a = Read-Host
Write-Host $a
When I run the script from my command line the variable passing doesn't work:
.\test.ps1 hello
.\test.ps1 "hello"
.\test.ps1 -a "hello"
.\test.ps1 -a hello
.\test.ps1 -File "hello"
As you can see, I have tried many methos with no success, of the script taking the value an outputting it.
The script does run, and waits for me to type a value, and when I do, it echos that value.
I just want it to output my passed in value, what minuscule thing am I missing?
Thank you.
Make this in your test.ps1, at the first line
param(
[string]$a
)
Write-Host $a
Then you can call it with
./Test.ps1 "Here is your text"
Found here (English)
Here's a good tutorial on Powershell params:
PowerShell ABC's - P is for Parameters
Basically, you should use a param statement on the first line of the script
param([type]$p1 = , [type]$p2 = , ...)
or use the $args built-in variable, which is auto-populated with all of the args.
Declare the parameter in test.ps1:
Param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True,Position=1)]
[string]$input_dir,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True)]
[string]$output_dir,
[switch]$force = $false
)
Run the script from Run OR Windows Task Scheduler:
powershell.exe -command "& C:\FTP_DATA\test.ps1 -input_dir C:\FTP_DATA\IN -output_dir C:\FTP_DATA\OUT"
or,
powershell.exe -command "& 'C:\FTP DATA\test.ps1' -input_dir 'C:\FTP DATA\IN' -output_dir 'C:\FTP DATA\OUT'"
Passed parameter like below,
Param([parameter(Mandatory=$true,
HelpMessage="Enter name and key values")]
$Name,
$Key)
.\script_name.ps1 -Name name -Key key
Using param to name the parameters allows you to ignore the order of the parameters:
ParamEx.ps1
# Show how to handle command line parameters in Windows PowerShell
param(
[string]$FileName,
[string]$Bogus
)
write-output 'This is param FileName:'+$FileName
write-output 'This is param Bogus:'+$Bogus
ParaEx.bat
rem Notice that named params mean the order of params can be ignored
powershell -File .\ParamEx.ps1 -Bogus FooBar -FileName "c:\windows\notepad.exe"
I'm new to these awesome Power shell world. I have a problem with script and really apreciate your help.
I have a script "cmd4.ps1" that needs to run another script "Transfer.ps1" that needs to receive 3 strings params and it needs to be run as other process thead different to "cmd4.ps1".
cmd4.ps1:
$Script="-File """+$LocalDir+"\Remote\Transfer.ps1"" http://"+$ServerIP+"/Upload/"+$FileName+" "+$ServerIP+" "+$LocalIP
Start-Process powershell.exe -ArgumentList $Script
After ejecution, the $Script cointain a value similar to
-File "c:\temp re\Remote\Transfer.ps1" http://10.1.1.1/Upload/file.txt 10.1.1.1 10.1.1.10
containing the syntax to use -File parameter to run a script of Powershell.exe, and three parameters that Transfer.ps1 needs ("http://10.1.1.1/Upload/file.txt", 10.1.1.1, 10.1.1.10).
When I write these instructions in PowerShell ISE I can see every values are right and PowerShell.exe is executed with right values, everything work fine!, but if I put these instructions inside "cmd4.ps1" script it doesn't work, I mean something is not right with parameters because I can see it start powershell but it never ends.
-ArgumentList is expecting an array of string arguments instead of a single string. Try this instead:
$ScriptArgs = #(
'-File'
"$LocalDir\Remote\Transfer.ps1"
"http://$ServerIP/Upload/$FileName $ServerIP $LocalIP"
)
Start-Process powershell.exe -ArgumentList $ScriptArgs
Note that you can simplify the string construction of the args as shown above.
Why don't you put this in cmd4.ps1?
& "c:\temp re\Remote\Transfer.ps1" "http://10.1.1.1/Upload/file.txt" "10.1.1.1" "10.1.1.10"