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I was wondering if someone with more expertise could help me with a little problem I'm having with using Variables in -ArgumentList when using Start-Process.
If I run the Exe without using Start-Process
.\DeploymentServer.UI.CommandLine.exe register --estNumber $Number --postcode $PostCode --password $Password
everything works fine, the command runs and the software is registered.
If I try
Start-Process .\DeploymentServer.UI.CommandLine.exe -ArgumentList "register --estNumber $Number --postcode $PostCode --password $Password" -Wait -NoNewWindow
or
$Arguments = "register --estNumber $Number --postcode $PostCode --password $Password"
Start-Process .\DeploymentServer.UI.CommandLine.exe -ArgumentList $Arguments -NoNewWindow -Wait
the command runs but is unable to register, stating that it can not match the details provided. So I'm assuming the issue lies either in the passing of the arguments to Start-Process, or -ArgumentList interpreting the variables in the string. Am I missing something really simple here? Possibly to do with the $ in the -ArgumentList?
387
The “$_” is said to be the pipeline variable in PowerShell. The “$_” variable is an alias to PowerShell's automatic variable named “$PSItem“. It has multiple use cases such as filtering an item or referring to any specific object.
To create a new variable, use an assignment statement to assign a value to the variable. You don't have to declare the variable before using it. The default value of all variables is $null . To get a list of all the variables in your PowerShell session, type Get-Variable .
The $env:PATHEXT variable contains a list of file extensions that Windows considers to be executable files. When a script file with one of the listed extensions is executed from PowerShell, the script runs in the current console or terminal session.
PowerShell Variable ExamplesYou can create a variable by simply assigning it a value. For example, the command $var4 = “variableexample” creates a variable named $var4 and assigns it a string value. The double quotes (” “) indicate that a string value is being assigned to the variable.
You have a space in your $postcode, so you need to put the argument in quotes:
Start-Process .\DeploymentServer.UI.CommandLine.exe -ArgumentList "register --estNumber $Number --postcode `"$PostCode`" --password $Password" -Wait -NoNewWindow
I encountered several posts online saying to wrap a Start-Process -ArgumentList argument containing spaces in 2 layers of doubles quotes, escaping the inner double quotes with a back tick `, but at least in the context I needed it, that didn't work. I found a conceptually similar solution which did work, however, i.e. a set of single quotes on the outside and a "traditional" backslash escape sequence on inner double quotes. I was guided to using this approach per this PowerShell issue post:
https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/issues/5576
This example works for me (running a PS Start-Process command from cmd.exe):
C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe Start-Process -FilePath 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Example\Test.exe' -ArgumentList 'arg1','\"arg 2 w spaces\"','arg3'
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