Running an EXE file using PowerShell from a directory with spaces in it

Question

I'm trying to run MSTest.exe from C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE. What's more, I'm taking all of the assemblies in my current directory and setting them as separate /testcontainer arguments. I cannot figure out how to do this without PowerShell complaining.

$CurrentDirectory = [IO.Directory]::GetCurrentDirectory()

$MSTestCall = '"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\MSTest.exe"'

foreach($file in Get-ChildItem $CurrentDirectory) 
{
    if($file.name -match "\S+test\S?.dll$" )
    {
        $MSTestArguments += "/TestContainer:" + $file + " "
    }
}

$MSTestArguments += " /resultsFile:out.trx"
$MSTestArguments += " /testsettings:C:\someDirectory\local64.testsettings"

Invoke-Expression "$MSTestCall $MSTestArguments"

The error I get from this code is:

Invoke-Expression : You must provide a value expression on the right-hand side of the '/' operator.

I don't get this error when I try to call a mstest.exe in a directory without a space in the name (no additional "'s are needed).

When I try using &,

&$MSTestCall $MSTestArguments

It hands $MSTestArguments over as a single argument, which MSTest prompty throws out. Suggestions?

The extra quotes here are unnecessary (and in fact cause problems in this case) - $MSTestCall = '"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\MSTest.exe"'. Once you put "foo bar.exe" into a variable $foo then it contains that string complete with the space. Calling & $foo works as expected i.e it executes the command named by the string in variable $foo. — Keith Hill
– Keith Hill, Commented Oct 6, 2010 at 6:07
One other note about strings and regexes. Generally, unless I need to specify a PowerShell variable within the regex I use single quoted strings so PowerShell doesn't "interpret" things like $1. Also you specify .dll and I suspect you want \.dll. The whole thing with single quotes - '\S+test\S?\.dll$'. — Keith Hill
– Keith Hill, Commented Oct 6, 2010 at 6:12

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:33:48Z

24

I would recommend you to use an array of parameters and the operator &. See the examples in my answer in here: Executing a Command stored in a Variable from Powershell

In this case the code should be something like this:

$MSTestCall = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\MSTest.exe"
$MSTestArguments = @('/resultsFile:out.trx', '/testsettings:C:\someDirectory\local64.testsettings')

foreach($file in Get-ChildItem $CurrentDirectory)  
{ 
    if($file.name -match "\S+test\S?.dll$" ) 
    { 
        $MSTestArguments += "/TestContainer:" + $file
    } 
} 

& $MSTestCall $MSTestArguments

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:33

CommunityBot

11 silver badge

answered Oct 6, 2010 at 5:45

Roman Kuzmin

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1 Comment

user467384 Over a year ago

Excellent. This is a great solution. Thank you.

Andrew Cooper · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-05 22:56:18Z

-1

Does this work?

$MSTestCall = @'"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\MSTest.exe"'@

answered Oct 5, 2010 at 22:56

Andrew Cooper

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1 Comment

Keith Hill Over a year ago

That won't work because you have to start a newline after the opening here string sequence @'.

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