Sqlcmd : invalid argument path string Powershell

I couldn’t solve the problem, so I created a C# executable that does the same thing.

I found out that we can use SqlCommand to achieve the same thing :

conn = new SqlConnection($"Data Source ={server};Initial Catalog={dbname};" +
    $ "Persist Security Info=True;User ID={id};Password={password}");

conn.Open();

SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand($"USE MASTER RESTORE DATABASE {dbname} FROM DISK = '{bakPath}' WITH REPLACE;", conn);
cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
conn.Close();

Here is the code of my .exe :

static void Main(string[] args) {
  string server;
  string dbname;
  string id;
  string password;
  string bakPath;

  SqlConnection conn;

  if (args.Length > 0) {
    server = args[0];
    dbname = args[1];
    id = args[2];
    password = args[3];
    bakPath = args[4];
    try {
      Console.WriteLine("#--------------------------------------------------#");
      Console.WriteLine("server=" + server);
      Console.WriteLine("dbname=" + dbname);
      Console.WriteLine("id=" + id);
      Console.WriteLine("password=" + password);
      Console.WriteLine("bakfile=" + bakPath);
      Console.WriteLine("#--------------------------------------------------#");
      Console.WriteLine("Processing restoration...");
      conn =
        new SqlConnection($"Data Source ={server};Initial Catalog={dbname};" +
          $ "Persist Security Info=True;User ID={id};Password={password}");

      conn.Open();

      SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand($"USE MASTER RESTORE DATABASE {dbname} FROM DISK = '{bakPath}' WITH REPLACE;", conn);
      cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
      conn.Close();
      Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Green;
      Console.WriteLine("Restoration done !");
      Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.White;
    } catch (Exception ex) {
      Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Red;
      Console.WriteLine("Error :" + ex.Message);
      Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.White;
    }

  } else {
    Console.WriteLine("You need to pass the arguments required")
  }

}

I can now run my .exe with arguments.

I ran into this same problem and it took quite some time to get a handle on it. Bottom line, Powershell doesn't like the colon in the bakfile parameter. As you may know, colons have a special meaning to powershell sometimes.

If you run it from the Windows command line, rather than the powershell command line, it should work just fine. To get it to work from the Powershell command line, something like the following seems to work:

#Set the default drive to C:
C:
#Run the command without the drive specified
sqlcmd -S localhost\SQLEXPRESS -U sa -P mypassword -v db=school bakfile=\Users\xal\Documents\backup.bak -i restore.sql