Passing calculated paths with spaces

Question

I'm trying something really simple here, but can't figure out where I'm going wrong. I've found many other useful discussions of this - particularly here - but haven't found anything that covers my specific scenario.

In powershell, I have typed the following:

$path = "c:\program files\"
$path2 = "c:\program files\fred2\"
echoargs $path $path2
echoargs "$path" "$path2"

In both calls to echoargs, I get

Arg 0 is <c:\program files" c:\program>
Arg 1 is <files\fred2">

back as the result. How can I get the parameters to be passed through correctly?

NB: In my real script the path variables are built up from a few config parameters, so I can't just pass them directly in single quotes.

Please include more of your actual code. When I tried your sample I got c:\program files\ and c:\program files\fred2\ for both. — Andy Arismendi
– Andy Arismendi, Commented Jan 16, 2012 at 17:01
@AndyArismendi very strange. I just copied+pasted directly from this question back into the powershell ISE and got exactly as I described? which version of powershell are you using? I'm using 2.0 I believe — James Crowley
– James Crowley, Commented Jan 16, 2012 at 17:13
Yea I just defined a function to test: function echoargs { $args[0]; $args[1] }. — Andy Arismendi
– Andy Arismendi, Commented Jan 16, 2012 at 17:46
Oh sorry I think I misunderstood. If I understand now, echoargs must be another application and you want the other app to receive a single parameter with spaces in it... — Andy Arismendi
– Andy Arismendi, Commented Jan 16, 2012 at 17:56

JNK · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-16 17:04:34Z

22

You need to enclose your result strings in single quotes inside the scope of the execution:

echoargs "'$path'" "'$path2'"

This will pass them to the called application delimited inside single quotes, but since the entire string is still in double quotes your parameter will be expanded correctly.

answered Jan 16, 2012 at 17:04

JNK

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2 Comments

Shadoninja Over a year ago

I have spent a couple hours on this issue. the single double quote combo finally got everything working!

Paul McCarthy Over a year ago

echoargs : The term 'echoargs' is not recognized

Keith Hill · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-16 17:54:34Z

In the latest drop of PSCX we've update EchoArgs.exe to also show the entire command line as the receiving app sees it. In this case, you get:

14 >  echoargs $path $path2
Arg 0 is c:\program files" c:\program
Arg 1 is files\fred2"

Command line:
"C:\Users\Keith\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\Pscx\Apps\EchoArgs.exe"  "c:\program files\" "c:\program files\fred2
\"

It would seem that the \" is causing the trailing double quote to be escaped somewhere. BTW the same happens in CMD.exe from what I can tell. If you modified your paths to remove the trailing slash (or if you used forward slashes), this wouldn't happen.

20 >  $path = "c:\program files"
21 >  $path2 = "c:\program files\fred2"
22 >  echoargs $path $path2
Arg 0 is c:\program files
Arg 1 is c:\program files\fred2

Command line:
"C:\Users\Keith\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\Pscx\Apps\EchoArgs.exe"  "c:\program files" "c:\program files\fred2"

If you get these paths from somewhere else, you can remove the trailing backslash like so:

$path = $path.TrimEnd("\")

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