Executing a Powershell script in CMD.EXE from a location with "Illegal characters in path"

Question

I am attempting to call a Powershell script in cmd.exe and the script is in a location that looks like this: c:Data\foo - bar\location-1\ShellScript.ps1

When I am calling this script I have tried using single and double quotes around the path with no luck.

PowerShell.exe -File "c:\Data\foo - bar\location-1\ShellScript.ps1" Arg1 Arg2

From what I have read I assumed that the above would work but this did not work nor did single quotes.

I appreciate any ideas.

Thanks *Edit * Mistype on my example path. Sorry.

At a minimum, you will need to put in the missing \ so: c:\Data\foo - bar\location-1\ShellScript.ps1 — EBGreen
– EBGreen, Commented May 9, 2013 at 19:07
Sorry about that. It was a mistype in posting. The path I am working with in my code is correct. — Brian Cascone
– Brian Cascone, Commented May 9, 2013 at 19:14
It is possible that it is something in the script itself. Do the same path with a test script that just does an Out-Host or something. — EBGreen
– EBGreen, Commented May 9, 2013 at 19:18
When I change the location of the script to somewhere that does not have " " (Space) or "-" in the file path I can call the script with no issues. This was how I determined that this wqas my issue. — Brian Cascone
– Brian Cascone, Commented May 9, 2013 at 19:22
I figured it out. This article was a huge help. added "&'C:\Data\foo -bar\location-1\Shellscript.ps1'" poshoholic.com/2007/09/27/… — Brian Cascone
– Brian Cascone, Commented May 9, 2013 at 19:41

Keith Hill · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-19 17:55:56Z

13

One solution is to move to PowerShell v3 where this works fine:

PS> powershell.exe -file 'C:\temp\foo - bar\location-1\foo.ps1' arg1 arg2
made it!, args are arg1, arg2

If you need to stay on V2 try escaping the spaces e.g.:

PS> powershell.exe -file "C:\temp\foo` -` bar\location-1\foo.ps1" arg1 arg2

From cmd.exe, this should work:

C:\> PowerShell.exe -Command "& {& 'c:\Data\foo - bar\location-1\ShellScript.ps1' Arg1 Arg2}"

edited Feb 19, 2014 at 17:55

answered May 10, 2013 at 0:12

Keith Hill

204k44 gold badges370 silver badges377 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

rob Over a year ago

That is from the Powershell "shell" the question was about executing powershell scripts directly from cmd

rob · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-19 16:25:11Z

3

PowerShell.exe -File "c:\Data\foo - bar\location-1\ShellScript.ps1"

should be escaped

PowerShell.exe "& ""c:\Data\foo - bar\location-1\ShellScript.ps1"""

yep that really is a total of 6 double quotes

answered Feb 19, 2014 at 16:25

rob

8,4118 gold badges61 silver badges70 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Executing a Powershell script in CMD.EXE from a location with "Illegal characters in path"

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related