How to read a text file to a variable in batch and pass it as a parameter to a powershell script

Question

I have a powershell script that generates a report, and I have connected it to an io.filesystemwatcher. I am trying to improve the error handling capability. I already have the report generation function (which only takes in a filepath) within a try-catch loop that basically kills word, excel and powerpoint and tries again if it fails. This seems to work well but I want to embed in that another try-catch loop that will restart the computer and generate the report after reboot if it fails a second consecutive time.

I decided to try and modify the registry after reading this article: https://cmatskas.com/configure-a-runonce-task-on-windows/

my plan would be, within the second try-catch loop I will create a textfile called RecoveredPath.txt with the file path being its only contents, and then add something like:

Set-ItemProperty "HKLMU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce" -Name '!RecoverReport' -Value "C:\...EmergencyRecovery.bat"

Before rebooting. Within the batch file I have:

set /p RecoveredDir=<RecoveredPath.txt
powershell.exe -File C:\...Report.ps1 %RecoveredDir%

When I try to run the batch script, it doesn't yield any errors but doesn't seem to do anything. I tried adding in an echo statement and it is storing the value of the text file as a variable but doesn't seem to be passing it to powershell correctly. I also tried adding -Path %RecoveredDir% but that yielded an error (the param in report.ps1 is named $Path).

What am I doing incorrectly?

The batchfile is in Desktop, along with recoverdpath.txt

Andy
– Andy

2020-03-07 03:14:47 +00:00
Commented Mar 7, 2020 at 3:14 — Andy
– Andy, Commented Mar 7, 2020 at 3:14

mklement0 · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-07 03:33:01Z

1

One potential problem is that not enclosing %RecoveredDir% in "..." would break with paths containing spaces and other special chars.

However, the bigger problem is that using mere file name RecoveredPath.txt means that the file is looked for in whatever the current directory happens to be.

In a comment your state that both the batch file and input file RecoveredPath.txt are located in your desktop folder.

However, it is not the batch file's location that matters, it's the process' current directory - and that is most likely not your desktop when your batch file auto-runs on startup.

Given that the batch file and the input file are in the same folder and that you can refer to a batch file's full folder path with %~dp0 (which includes a trailing \), modify your batch file to look as follows:

set /p RecoveredDir=<"%~dp0RecoveredPath.txt"
powershell.exe -File C:\...Report.ps1 "%RecoveredDir%"

edited Mar 7, 2020 at 3:33

answered Mar 7, 2020 at 3:19

mklement0

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