Escaping parameters for powershell VSTS Task

Question

Related (but does not answer this case): VSTS Task Group Powershell Parameter

Question: how do I pass parameter with double quotes and other potentially uncomfortable values (like mix of single and double quotes and other special characters)

I don't know what parameter may be. So need a guaranteed way of escaping arbitraty input.

For example, when passing parameter like this

-ParamName "$(ParamValue)"

And the value like this:

[ "abc=xyz", "abc=somethingelse" ]

I got the following:

2018-10-03T17:51:53.3159259Z Generating script.
2018-10-03T17:51:53.3257527Z Formatted command: . 'M:\<...>\blah.ps1' -ParamName "[ "abc=xyz", "abc=somethingelse" ]" <...>
2018-10-03T17:51:53.3969661Z ##[command]"C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -NoLogo -NoProfile -NonInteractive -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Command ". 'M:\...\_temp\14d05e56-d7c7-4db9-8007-a29f5b024b51.ps1'"
2018-10-03T17:51:53.7924531Z M:\<...>\blah.ps1 : A 
2018-10-03T17:51:53.7924970Z positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument 'abc=xyz, abc=somethingelse ]'.

Answer 1

There are 2 ways to solve your current problem the first is to simply use single quotes when you pass the param, e.g.:

-ParamName '$(ParamValue)'

The other way is to escape the double quotes in the parameter value using the "`" character (known as the backtick, backquote, or grave-accent). So the value changes from:

[ "abc=xyz", "abc=somethingelse" ]

to:

[ `"abc=xyz`", `"abc=somethingelse`" ]

This way the first double quote in the parameter value won't be interpreted as the end of the string.