Escaping dollar signs in PowerShell path is not working

Question

Why doesn't this work?

 $drvrInstFilePath = "$sharePath\$imageName\ISO`$OEM$`$1\RPKTools\RPKDriverInst.bat" echo $drvrInstFilePath $drvrInstContent = Get-Content -LiteralPath "$sharePath\$imageName\ISO`$OEM$`$1\RPKTools\RPKDriverInst.bat"  | Out-String 

The echo shows the right path, but the Get-Content command expands the $oem and $1 to blank strings, even though they are escaped. Why?

Answer 1

Instead of messing around with escaping dollar signs, use single quotes ' instead of double quotes ". It prevents PowerShell expanding $ into a variable. Like so,

$p = "C:\temp\Share\ISO$OEM$" # Output C:\temp\Share\ISO$   $p = 'C:\temp\Share\ISO$OEM$' # Output C:\temp\Share\ISO$OEM$ 

If you need to create a path by using variables, consider using Join-Path. Like so,

$s = "Share" join-path "C:\temp\$s" '\ISO$OEM$'  # Output C:\temp\Share\ISO$OEM$ 

Answer 2

You can actually just use a tick mark to escape the $ like so:

`$ 

Example:

$number = 5 Write-Host "`$${number}" # Output: $5