topic Re: Unable to parse speechmarks "" into powershell using RunProgram in Discussions

Unable to parse speechmarks "" into powershell using RunProgram

david707 — Fri, 02 Aug 2019 09:35:37 GMT

Hi, I'm having problems with Executing powershell, for example:

cmd = EvalInsert(
"\[$imageFile = "test"]\");
						rp1 = RunProgram(Executable("C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" ),
							Options(Eval(cmd)),
							ReadFunction("text")
						);

The actual cmd i want to use is more complex but has the same problem with speechmarks. Printing rp1 in the log gives:

"test : The term 'test' 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.
At line:1 char:14
+ $imageFile = test
+              ~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (test:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException
 
"

Which implies the line was ran without speechmarks.

How would I ensure speechmarks are ran correctly?

Thanks in advance for any help on this.

Re: Unable to parse speechmarks "" into powershell using RunProgram

Craige_Hales — Fri, 02 Aug 2019 14:46:16 GMT

The command line argument needs some additional quotation marks and escaping to make the powershell command line parsing work. (This is the second time I've used powershell, I may be overlooking something...) (Also, this web page syntax coloring is wrong for the square bracket quoting escape.)

command = "\["$imagefile = \"test\";echo $imagefile"]\";
Write( "\!nthe command is:", command ); // write shows it in the log without extra escapes
result = RunProgram(
	executable( "powershell.exe" ), //
	options( command ), //
	readfunction( "text" )//
);
Show( result );

the command is:"$imagefile = \"test\";echo $imagefile"
result = "test
";

Here's a screen capture of two tries I made in a CMD window.

powershell output in a CMD window

The outer quotation marks make powershell see a single option; the outer quotation marks are removed by CMD before powershell gets the text. In your original example, there were three items powershell received ($imagefile, =, test ) and the outer quotation marks around test were removed by CMD. The outer quotation marks are needed when there are quotation marks or spaces in the arguments.

Re: Unable to parse speechmarks "" into powershell using RunProgram

Craige_Hales — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 15:22:05 GMT

Just stumbled into a great explanation of the windows command line, quotation marks, escaping, and why it seems so hard.

http://www.windowsinspired.com/the-correct-way-to-quote-command-line-arguments/

http://www.windowsinspired.com/understanding-the-command-line-string-and-arguments-received-by-a-windows-program/

http://www.windowsinspired.com/how-a-windows-programs-splits-its-command-line-into-individual-arguments/

Over-simplified: multiple arguments on a command line are separated by spaces. Each quotation mark toggles whether spaces are used to separate arguments. \\ is a literal \ and \" is a literal ". Two adjacent quotation marks when spaces are toggled off results in a literal ", but the spaces may be toggled on or off depending on which parser variation is used.

update 20jan2025: the links have gone stale, web archive versions:

http://web.archive.org/web/20220629215303/http://windowsinspired.com/the-correct-way-to-quote-command-line-arguments/

https://web.archive.org/web/20220629212707/https://www.windowsinspired.com/understanding-the-command-line-string-and-arguments-received-by-a-windows-program/

https://web.archive.org/web/20220629212422/https://www.windowsinspired.com/how-a-windows-programs-splits-its-command-line-into-individual-arguments/