batch multiline powershell command

Question

I am trying to parse appsettings.json file to extract the connection string using a batch script.

I am spreading the command on multiple lines as it is quite long and hard to maintain:

set ps_GetConnectionString=(Get-Content 'appsettings.json' -Raw)^
 | ForEach-Object { $_ -replace '(?ms)/\*.*?\*/' -replace '[\s\t]+//.*' }^
 | ConvertFrom-Json^ 
 | Select -expand ConnectionStrings | Select default^ 
 | ConvertTo-Csv -Delimiter ~

When I run this, I get an error: 'ForEach-Object' is not recognized as an internal or external command.

How do we properly break this command into multiple lines, store in a variable in order to make the powershell -command call much shorter?

The above script/code, I assume, is in a .bat file? Could you not dump the PowerShell portion into a ps1 / script file and execute that way? What's the reasoning behind a separate .bat calling PowerShell script commands? — gravity
– gravity, Commented Aug 27, 2019 at 20:00
@gravity I have one .bat file with multiple calls to powershell -command in order to perform certain tasks that are not very easy to do with batch only. I am trying to avoid writing everything in powershell due to security restrictions — herme 0
– herme 0, Commented Aug 27, 2019 at 20:04
The way you want to build the ps-script in bat variables can't work. To have the ^ batch line continuation symbol work, it has to be outside of double quoted strings, which you OTOH *need to escape PowerShell pipe symbols and content not destined for batch => that exactly does the batch error message mean. — user6811411
– user6811411, Commented Aug 27, 2019 at 20:22
Why are people still trying to wrap PowerShell in batch files? Stop it. — Ansgar Wiechers
– Ansgar Wiechers, Commented Aug 28, 2019 at 7:48

herme 0 · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-28 12:56:50Z

1

@LotPings hinted to the solution which was to escape everything that batch can trip on.

So I end up with the following:

set ps_GetConnectionString=(Get-Content 'appsettings.json' -Raw)^
 ^| ForEach-Object { $_ -replace '(?ms)/\*.*?\*/' -replace '[\s\t]+//.*' }^
 ^| ConvertFrom-Json^ 
 ^| Select -expand ConnectionStrings ^| Select default^ 
 ^| ConvertTo-Csv -Delimiter ~

In some situations, I also had to escape the parenthesis (especially inside a block)

set ps_GetConnectionString=^(Get-Content 'appsettings.json' -Raw^)^
 ^| ForEach-Object { $_ -replace '(?ms)/\*.*?\*/' -replace '[\s\t]+//.*' }^
 ^| ConvertFrom-Json^ 
 ^| Select -expand ConnectionStrings ^| Select default^ 
 ^| ConvertTo-Csv -Delimiter ~

answered Aug 28, 2019 at 12:56

herme 0

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