PowerShell: pass command line parameter from main script to second script

Question

I have two PowerShell scripts. First script takes two parameters from the command-line and passes them to the second script.

Script1.ps1:

Write-Output ($args)  
Write-Output ($args.Length)
. ./Script2.ps1 $args

Script2.ps1:

Write-Output ($args)
Write-Output ($args.Length)

Calling this like

Script1.ps1 hi script1

Output of Script1.ps1:

hi
script1
2

Output of Script2.ps1:

System.Object[]
1

Questions:

Why can't I use $args directly on Script2.ps1 (comes as null)?
Why does $args passed though Script1.ps1 come as a single string in Script2.ps1?

This works fine in PowerShell 2.0.

I don't understand your first question. What do you mean by "use $args directly on Script2.ps1"? — Ansgar Wiechers
– Ansgar Wiechers, Commented Sep 25, 2019 at 7:42
@AnsgarWiechers , just wondering if i can use $args in Script2.ps1 without been passed from Script1.ps1 — Nuwan Dammika
– Nuwan Dammika, Commented Sep 26, 2019 at 0:47
No. $args is an automatic variable that PowerShell populates with the arguments to a script. And even if you could it would be a bad idea to pass information via global variables. — Ansgar Wiechers
– Ansgar Wiechers, Commented Sep 26, 2019 at 7:22

Ansgar Wiechers · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-25 07:37:28Z

1

You're invoking the second script from within PowerShell. Because of that the array $args is not expanded to its elements, but passed as a single array argument. Use splatting to have PowerShell pass the array elements as individual arguments.

.\Script2.ps1 @args

Side note: using the dot-sourcing operator (.) for invoking the script is not required unless you need the script to run in the same context as the script from which it's invoked.

answered Sep 25, 2019 at 7:37

Ansgar Wiechers

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