Replace `set` statements to `setx` in a batch script using powershell

Question

Using powershell, I want to take a .bat file and replace all lines in which set is called to set an environment variable and change it to a corresponding setx call. Unfortunately it's not as simple as just doing a search and replace on the file, replacing set for setx, because the syntax is diffferent: set ENVNAME=abc vs setx ENVNAME abc.

Is there a simple way to do this in powershell? To just do the set for setx replacement, I have:

(Get-Content $orig_filename ) | ForEach-Object {$_ -replace "set", "setx"} | Set-Content $new_filename

Any pointers for a powershell novice would be appreciated.

boeprox · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-04 19:47:52Z

2

Did some pretty limited testing and I'm not sure what your bat file looks like, but this may work for you.

(Get-Content $orig_filename ) | ForEach-Object {
    $_ -replace 'set (.*)\=(.*)','setx $1 $2'
} | Set-Content $new_filename

answered Sep 4, 2015 at 19:47

boeprox

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Matt · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-04 20:01:44Z

1

You could also just chain another -replace to do the work for you. Also made the set > setx replacement a little more less error prone by ensuring you are replacing the word set at the beginning of the string. Since -replace functions as an array operator you do not need the foreach loop.

(Get-Content $orig_filename ) -replace "^set\b", "setx" -replace "="," " | Set-Content $new_filename

answered Sep 4, 2015 at 20:01

Matt

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1 Comment

JoshAdel Over a year ago

Thanks for your suggestion. Realizing what I want to do is a bit more complicated because I also need to account for translating set ABC= (to unset) to setx ABC "". Thinking maybe a different strategy might be easier, but still need to figure it out: stackoverflow.com/questions/32406439/…

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