Passing multiline script to PowerShell from another PowerShell?

Question

I'm new to Powershell and I found it difficult to tell my first powershell commandline (powershell_1) to : start a new powershell commandline (powershell_2) & let it (the powershell_2) execute my multiline script (written under powershell).

My script is :

$wshell = New-Object -ComObject Wscript.Shell -ErrorAction Stop;
$wshell.Popup("Are you looking at me?",0,"Hey!",48+4);

The code I'am using to launch the first powershell commandline and set things to work as intended

    Process powershell_1 = new Process();
    powershell_1.StartInfo.FileName = "powershell";

    string argPowershell_2 = "help";

    powershell_1.StartInfo.Arguments = "Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 500; start powershell -argumentlist \" "+ argPowershell_2 + " \"";
    MessageBox.Show(powershell_1.StartInfo.Arguments);

    powershell_1.StartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
    powershell_1.Start();

In the example above, I could tell the 2nd commandline to execute help in the second one. I'm looking for a good way to escape quotes problems and tell it in a correct manner how to execute myscript instead.

EDIT

Ps : I'm not trying to pass a path of a someScript.ps to the second powershell commandline. I want to pass it literally, in multiline format.

Possible duplicate of Call PowerShell script PS1 from another PS1 script inside Powershell ISE — littlerufe
– littlerufe, Commented Aug 28, 2018 at 18:45
You can use Invoke-Expression and pass it the path to the script you want to run, along with parameters (if that's what you're trying to do). — littlerufe
– littlerufe, Commented Aug 28, 2018 at 18:46
I edited my post. I don't want to store the script on a .ps file. — alyncibi
– alyncibi, Commented Aug 28, 2018 at 21:32

Áthila Naniny Ninow · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-28 19:00:33Z

0

I don't know if is the right manner, but you can do the same with the code below

$argPowershell_2 = "help";
Start-Process -Wait powershell -ArgumentList "Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 500; start powershell -argumentlist $argPowershell_2"

answered Aug 28, 2018 at 19:00

Áthila Naniny Ninow

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2 Comments

alyncibi Over a year ago

That works possibly for help command. But it doesn't run something like start-sleep 1;'hi';start-sleep 1;'hello'

mklement0 Over a year ago

Also, note that the OP is calling PowerShell from C#.

alyncibi · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-29 15:10:26Z

0

Solution

The argument to pass to my powershell_1 process in my case could be :

start powershell -argumentlist "-noexit","start-job -scriptblock { help; start-sleep 1;}

Using this line of code, and by tracking the background job in the new powershell process I got the following result :

If you want, inside the scriptblock to run something like (declaring variables, defining/calling custom functions, ... etc) :

$a = new-object System.net.webclient;
$a.downloadfile('https://www.stackoverflow.com','d:\file');

you need to escape the dollar sign ($) as well as any other double quote (") using the ` char.

start powershell -argumentlist "-noexit","start-job -scriptblock { `$a = new-object system.net.webclient; `$a.downloadfile('https://www.stackoverflow.com','d:\file');}

More details about background jobs are in the link below. This solves my problem. Thank you all.

PowerShell: Start-Job -scriptblock Multi line scriptblocks?

edited Aug 29, 2018 at 15:10

answered Aug 28, 2018 at 23:07

alyncibi

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1 Comment

mklement0 Over a year ago

For your answer to benefit future readers, please post a working example and ideally also explain why your original question was an instance of a XY problem.

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