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"
Related
I've been using the site for a while, searching through the questions and answers, trying to map them to my scenario, but I'm either missing something, or what I'm looking to do isn't possible (at least the way I'm trying to do it), hence I'm hoping for a push in the right direction. Thanks in advance for reading.
I've been working on a fairly sizeable automation project. My main script performs a number of tasks, and generally works well, and reliably. At one stage of the script, I execute another PowerShell script, which was written by another team. I call the script as follows:
.\DeployMySQLProvider.ps1 -AzCredential $asdkCreds `
-VMLocalCredential $vmLocalAdminCreds `
-CloudAdminCredential $cloudAdminCreds
-PrivilegedEndpoint $ERCSip `
-DefaultSSLCertificatePassword $secureVMpwd -AcceptLicense
When I call it this way, from my main script, it works fine, however, this script uses and registers a DLL file during it's deployment, and locks it until the PowerShell window and session is closed. At the end of my main script, I have a cleanup phase, which can't complete it's job because of this locked DLL.
My thoughts therefore, were to launch the 2nd script into a new PowerShell window and session, either using Start-Process or Invoke-Expression, but I just can't seem to get either right. Most of the variables I'm passing through to the 2nd script aren't just strings, which is probably where I'm falling over. They are a mix of usernames and passwords (secure strings) along with $ERCSip which is a string.
Should I be looking at Start-Process / Invoke-Expression, or something else entirely? When I was testing with Start-Process, I had the following defined, but couldn't get the ArgumentList side working correcly for me (blank below):
Start-Process "$pshome\powershell.exe" -PassThru -Wait `
-Verb RunAs -ErrorAction Stop -ArgumentList ""
Any pointers in the right direction would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
I've used something similar to this in my scripting:
$scriptpath="c:\pathto\deploysqlProvider"
$a = "$scriptpath\DeployMySQLProvider.ps1 -AzCredential $asdkCreds `
-VMLocalCredential $vmLocalAdminCreds `
-CloudAdminCredential $cloudAdminCreds
-PrivilegedEndpoint $ERCSip ` "
-DefaultSSLCertificatePassword $secureVMpwd -AcceptLicense
Start-Process -Verb runas -FilePath powershell.exe -ArgumentList $a -wait -PassThru ;
Not sure if you need it to runas admin or not (-verb runas).
I'd suggest you then look for the Powershell process and path. So that if you have to kill this separate process you can.
I'm trying to call an EXE file program that accepts command line parameters from PowerShell. One of the parameters I'm required to send is based on the string length of the parameters.
For example,
app.exe /param1:"SampleParam" /paramLen:"SampleParam".length
When I run the above, or for example:
notepad.exe "SampleParam".length
Notepad opens with the value 11 as expected.
I would like to achieve the same result when calling PowerShell from cmd / task scheduler.
For example,
powershell notepad.exe "SampleParam".length
But when I do that I get "SampleParam".length literally instead of the "SampleParam".length calculated value.
The expected result was:
running notepad.exe 11
Use the -Command parameter for powershell.exe:
powershell -Command "notepad.exe 'SampleParam'.length"
Be careful with the "'s since they can be picked up by the Windows command processor. This will also work:
powershell -Command notepad.exe 'SampleParam'.length
But this will not:
powershell -Command notepad.exe "SampleParam".length
I'd suggest using variables to store your string, etc.
$Arg1 = 'SampleParam'
## This will try to open a file named 11.txt
powershell notepad.exe $Arg1.Length
In your specific example:
app.exe /param1:$Arg1 /paramLen:$Arg1.Length
Utilizing splatting:
## Array literal for splatting
$AppArgs = #(
"/param1:$Arg1"
"/paramLen:$($Arg1.Length)"
)
app.exe #AppArgs
Yesterday I read about the invoke-expression
from
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd347550.aspx
invoke-expression -command "c:\batfile.bat"
It works very well, but how can I get the results and also , how to add args for .bat file?
Invoke-Expression is to Call up the EXpression,And '.Bat' is not an expression.
So if you want to call .Bat File Justc:\batfile.bat Could Do the trick.
Or if you want to explore on the invoke-expression Copy the commands in Batch file into a variable to see the code being executed.
There was similar instance where I had to do something similar,And I had used it as
$prog="cmd.exe"
$TARGETDIR = 'd:\temp'
$x='C:\Users\v-chetak\Desktop\1.bat'
$params=#("/C";"$x";" >d:\temp\result17.txt")
Start-Process -Verb runas $prog +$params
The $params Will Hold all the arguments you want to pass.
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
}
& $Global:commandBlock
I was struggling to get this simple (?) function working today.
I have a PowerShell script that reads computer names from a txt-based file. It works fine when run from a PowerShell session by the following one-liner:
./"Server Health Check.ps1" -List One-off.txt
As you can see, it's got a long file name, so it's wrapped with quotes.
However, I'm building a PowerShell GUI form with radio boxes that will pass on a choice for a text file that will be used to a call the script. Trick is, the script needs to be run with alternate admin account, and i'm not clear how to make that work.
For another script I've got that doesn't use I know i can use something along the lines of the following, this uses the old DOS "runas", however, it doesn't work with the -list function.
invoke-command -scriptblock {runas.exe /user:domain\$Env:Username"admin" "powershell.exe -file \"\\Server\c$\LONG FOLDER\Server Health Check.PS1""}
So, in a nutshell, how do get a script to launch with alternate credentials that reads a parameter (-List) from the command line? I'm also keen to preserve my directory structure, which includes folders with spaces. The script is titled: "Server health check.ps1"
The last thing I tried was the following
$ScriptPath = "C:\SCRIPTS FOLDER\Server Health Check.ps1"
$ArgList = "-List C:\SCRIPTS FOLDER\One-off.txt"
Invoke-Command -filepath $ScriptPath -Credential DragonBallDomain\$Env:UserName"Admin" -ArgumentList $ArgList
The result was the following message:
Invoke-Command : Parameter set cannot be resolved using the specified named parameters.
I'm almost certain this is do-able by invoke-command or start-process, it's just a matter of getting the correct formatting? I'm probably missing a / or a ' or "" somewhere in my trials with start-process or invoke-command.
Any help appreciated!
Update for April 30:
I've tried some more to make this work, i'm close, but still not quite there.
$LongScriptPath = resolve-path Script.ps1
$LongFolderPath = \\UNC\PATH TO FOLDER\WITH LONG NAME\
start-process -filepath powershell.exe -argumentlist " -file``"$($FilePath.path)`"" -cred DOMAIN\USERID -WorkingDirectory "$LongFolderPath"
Adding the -credential is what causes an error that states that the -file parameter is invalid. I'm sure there's a way to do this.
Note: Completely rewritten after the requirements became clearer.
To run a command as a different user locally, use Start-Process -Credential ...
That is what you've attempted in your update in principle, but there are problems with how you're passing parameters; try this instead:
$LongScriptPath = resolve-path Script.ps1
$LongFolderPath = '\\UNC\PATH TO FOLDER\WITH LONG NAME\'
start-process `
powershell.exe `
-ArgumentList '-file', $LongScriptPath, '-List', 'One-off.txt' `
-Credential DOMAIN\USERID `
-WorkingDirectory $LongFolderPath
The key to making this work is to pass all parameters to pass to powershell.exe as an array via Start-Process's -ArgumentList parameter, which means that the parameters must be ,-separated.
Note how an array is always parsed in expression mode, which means that literal string elements such as -file and -List must be quoted.
It is important in general to understand the difference between PowerShell's two fundamental parsing modes, argument mode and expression mode, and which is applied when - see https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh847892.aspx
Add -Wait to wait for the script to finish; Start-Process is asynchronous by default (all PS cmdlets named Start-* are).
Caveat: For commands invoked as a different user, you can only wait from an elevated prompt.
If it isn't, the command will still execute, but will do so asynchronously, and you'll get an Access denied error message in the current console; in effect, -Wait is ignored.
Only if not running as a different user: Add -NoNewWindow -Wait if you want to run the script in the current console window; Start-Process opens a new window by default for console applications such as powershell.exe and cmd.exe.
If you do run the command as a different user, -NoNewWindow is quietly ignored.
As for the original symptom and why using Invoke-Command to run a command locally as a different user is ill-advised:
Invoke-Command -Credential ... requires that the -ComputerName parameter be specified too.
Run Get-Help Invoke-Command to see all parameter sets that involve the -Credential parameter. The OP's original command had only -Credential, but not -ComputerName, which caused PS to complain that no parameter set could be unambiguously identified.
Once you use -ComputerName, PowerShell remoting is invariably used, even if you specify . - the local computer - as the only computer to target.
Using remoting has two implications:
Remoting is not available by default, and must be configured on the target computer (the local computer, in this case).
Using remoting requires invocation with admin privileges.
In short:
While you can perform purely local invocations with Invoke-Command, you cannot do so as another user, because that invariably involves remoting.
Start-Process, by contrast, solely exists to run commands locally, optionally as a different user.