Passing parameters for external program as string variable

Question

I've a simple command that I need to execute via PowerShell on remote machine.

E:\Programs\GMM\bin\GMMFailoverTool.exe -mssql="Server=SomeServer;Database=GMM01" list

The problem I'm having is executing it properly with PowerShell even without trying to do this via Invoke-Command.

$binary = "E:\Programs\GMM\bin\GMMFailoverTool.exe"
$command = "-mssql=`"Server=SomeServer;Database=gmm01`" list"

Write-Host BINARY: $binary -ForegroundColor Yellow
write-Host ARGS: $command -ForegroundColor Yellow
Write-Host FullCommand: $binary $command -ForegroundColor Yellow
& $binary $command

Output:

BINARY: E:\Programs\GMM\bin\GMMFailoverTool.exe
ARGS: -mssql="Server=SomeServer;Database=gmm01" list
FullCommand: E:\Programs\GMM\bin\GMMFailoverTool.exe -mssql="Server=SomeServer;Database=gmm01" list

And the return of the command is like it didn't get any parameters at all (or those were incorrect).

The question is how to properly pass those arguments where $command is already defined as it should? If I do it by hand without having it all in variables it works…

& "E:\Programs\GMM\bin\GMMFailoverTool.exe" -mssql="Server=SomeServer;Database=gmm01" list

Ansgar Wiechers · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-28 13:12:03Z

2

Pass the arguments as an array:

$command = '-mssql="Server=SomeServer;Database=gmm01"', 'list'
& $binary $command

Also, I had some situations where the only way of correctly passing arguments to an external program was to run the command with cmd.exe:

$command = '-mssql="Server=SomeServer;Database=gmm01" list'
cmd /c "$binary $command"

To run the command remotely you need to either define the variables inside the scriptblock:

Invoke-Command -Computer 'remotehost.example.com' -ScriptBlock {
  $binary  = ...
  $command = ...
  & $binary $command
}

or (perhaps better, if the value of $command is generated by some other function) pass them into the scriptblock via the parameter -ArgumentList:

$binary  = ...
$command = ...

Invoke-Command -Computer 'remotehost.example.com' -ScriptBlock {
  & $args[0] $args[1]
} -ArgumentList $binary, $command

because the content of the scriptblock doesn't know anything about the rest of your script.

edited Sep 28, 2015 at 13:12

answered Sep 28, 2015 at 11:10

Ansgar Wiechers

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9 Comments

MadBoy Over a year ago

When trying & $binary --% $command the output is GMMFailoverTool.exe : Unknown options: $command so it seems like it tries to take it directly. Array approach doesn't change anything either.

Ansgar Wiechers Over a year ago

*slaps self* Sorry, my mistake. Of course --% won't work, because it's supposed to treat everything after as a literal string. See updated answer.

MadBoy Over a year ago

It works only with Array approach. For both approaches. CMD and the other one. I just had conversion in other part of the code where the return was Array and forcing it into the string.

MadBoy Over a year ago

Is there any way to give it "RUN PATH" ? as in go into directory and then execute it?

MadBoy Over a year ago

Also if i copy the code into Invoke-Command it doesn't work. Is there anything special I should be doing ? except making sure it's an array?

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