Call powershell script in post-built with parameters

Question

I'm trying to get Powershell to run my PS script in post built - but somehow it doesn't work like it's supposed to:

Following command in Post-Build:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\windowspowershell\1.0\powershell.exe
  -Command "& $(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\CreateSite.ps1 'auto'"

(inserted line break for better reading)

The command executes the powershell script sucessfully, but what it can't do is run the commands within (Output from Build): Rund Post-Build Command:

Add-PSSnapin : No snap-ins have been registered for Windows PowerShell version 2
At C:\path\CreateSite.ps1:4 char:
38
+ Add-PsSnapin <<<< Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell}
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell:String) [Add-PSSnapin], PSArgumentException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : AddPSSnapInRead,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.AddPSSnapinCommand

And following that are many errors because all subsequent commands need the Sharepoint Snap-In.

• When running powershell C:\path\CreateSite.ps1 auto from cmd - everything works.
• When opening powershell.exe and running C:\path\CreateSite.ps1 auto - everything works.
• When right clicking CreateSite.ps1 --> run with powershell - everything works.

The relevant line in the script is simply Add-PsSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.

How can I just run the darn script (and get it to include the PSSnapIn) passing it a parameter in Visual Studio post-build?

Answer 1

(This thread is not new, but I got here from Google, so I thought sharing the solution I found would be interesting to others)

I tried changing the path to powershell.exe to "%WINDIR%\SysNative\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" and it worked perfect. The 64 bits version is called from the Post Build event and it successfully adds the SharePoint snapin.

Credits to this article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff798298.aspx, "Using Windows PowerShell Scripts to Automate Tasks in Visual Studio".

Answer 2

Because of file system virtualization, you can't really specify the path to the 64-bit version of PowerShell from a 32-bit process (ie Visual Studio - which hosts the msbuild engine). One hack-ish way to work around this is to create a 64-bit launcher that runs as 64-bit and will launch the 64-bit version of PowerShell. Here's a simple C# program that will do this:

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;

class App
{
  static int Main(string[] args)
  {
    Process process = Process.Start("PowerShell.exe", String.Join(" ", args));
    process.WaitForExit();
    return process.ExitCode;
  }
}

Be sure to compile this as 64-bit like so:

csc .\PowerShell64.cs /platform:x64

Then, from your post-build event execute this launcher exe passing it the parameters you want to invoke 64-bit PowerShell with. Also, with PowerShell 2.0 I would recommend using the File parameter to execute a script e.g.:

c:\path\PowerShell64.exe -File "$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\CreateSite.ps1" auto

That said, surely there has to be some other way (utility) that launches exes from a 64-bit process.