How to run a Powershell script from the command line and pass a directory as a parameter

Question

My Powershell script, Foo.ps1:

Function Foo($directory)
{
    echo $directory
}

if ($args.Length -eq 0)
{
    echo "Usage: Foo <directory>"
}
else
{
    Foo($args[0])
}

From the Windows console:

powershell -command .\Foo.ps1

Results in: "The term '.\Foo.ps1' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again."

This is despite Foo.ps1 being in the current directory from where I am calling Powershell. I then tried to call it specifying the full path to the script file; because this path contains a space I believe I have to quote it in some way. Also I need to pass an argument to the script which is also a file name that contains one or more spaces. No matter what I try I can't get it to work. This is my best guess so far:

powershell -command "'C:\Dummy Directory 1\Foo.ps1' 'C:\Dummy Directory 2\File.txt'"

Which gives the error "Unexpected token 'C:\Dummy Directory 2\File.txt' in expression or statement. At line:1 char:136".

Edit: I have worked out why

powershell -command .\Foo.ps1

did not work. This was because my Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 file had

cd C:\

so as soon as powershell was starting up it was changing directory.

Answer 1

try this:

powershell "C:\Dummy Directory 1\Foo.ps1 'C:\Dummy Directory 2\File.txt'"

Answer 2

you are calling a script file not a command so you have to use -file eg :

powershell -executionPolicy bypass -noexit -file "c:\temp\test.ps1" "c:\test with space"

for PS V2

powershell.exe -noexit &'c:\my scripts\test.ps1'

(check bottom of this technet page http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee176949.aspx )

Answer 3

Using the flag -Command you can execute your entire powershell line as if it was a command in the PowerShell prompt:

powershell -Command "& '<PATH_TO_PS1_FILE>' '<ARG_1>' '<ARG_2>' ... '<ARG_N>'"

This solved my issue with running PowerShell commands in Visual Studio Post-Build and Pre-Build events.

Answer 4

Change your code to the following :

Function Foo($directory)
    {
        echo $directory
    }

    if ($args.Length -eq 0)
    {
        echo "Usage: Foo <directory>"
    }
    else
    {
        Foo([string[]]$args)
    }

And then invoke it as:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -File "c:\foo.ps1" "c:\Documents and Settings" "c:\test"

Answer 5

Add the param declation at the top of ps1 file

test.ps1

param(
  # Our preferred encoding
  [parameter(Mandatory=$false)]
  [ValidateSet("UTF8","Unicode","UTF7","ASCII","UTF32","BigEndianUnicode")]
  [string]$Encoding = "UTF8"
)

write ("Encoding : {0}" -f $Encoding)

result

C:\temp> .\test.ps1 -Encoding ASCII
Encoding : ASCII