Powershell – escaping string passed to child process

by

It is how PowerShell.exe parse its command line. It mostly follows .NET rules of command line parsing:

  • Space is an argument separator. PowerShell.exe will join individual arguments by single space regardless of how many spaces you use to separate arguments.

    CMD> PowerShell -Command echo 'multiple   spaces'
multiple spaces

  • If you want to include space in argument value, then you should enclose space in double quotes. Double quotes itself are not a part of resulting argument value and can be anywhere inside argument:

    CMD> PowerShell -Command echo 'mult"iple   spa"ces'
multiple   spaces

  • If you want literal double quote to be part of argument value, then you have to escape it with backslash:

    CMD> PowerShell -Command echo 'literal\"double\"quotes'
literal"double"quotes

  • If you want literal backslash to precede double quote, then you have to escape that backslash with another backslash. Other than that, backslash interpreted literally and does not need to be escaped:

    CMD> PowerShell -Command echo 'back\\slash\\"   something\\else\\"'
back\\slash\   something\\else\

More Related Contents:

  1. String handling from Powershell script
  2. How to create a zip archive with PowerShell?
  3. Use PowerShell to run virus scan on multiple servers
  4. Unable to access UNC Paths in Powershell remote session
  5. PowerShell IE9 ComObject has all null properties after navigating to webpage
  6. PowerShell script to check an application that’s locking a file?
  7. Lambda Expression in Powershell
  8. How do I write a PowerShell script that accepts pipeline input?
  9. PowerShell’s Invoke-RestMethod equivalent of curl -u (Basic Authentication)
  10. How do I Start a job of a function i just defined?
  11. How do I run a PowerShell script when the computer starts?
  12. A better way to check if a path exists or not in PowerShell [closed]
  13. Create directory if it does not exist
  14. PowerShell – get process ID of called application
  15. Delete all files and folders but exclude a subfolder
  16. Can the following Nested foreach loop be simplified in PowerShell?
  17. Add Write-Progress to Get-Job/Wait-Job
  18. Powershell with exchange– How do I append all verbose output to a file
  19. How to handle command-line arguments in PowerShell
  20. How to send email with PowerShell
  21. How to split string by string in Powershell
  22. Powershell: Colon in commandlet parameters
  23. Passing PowerShell variables into a script block
  24. Why is $false -eq “” true?
  25. In Powershell what is the idiomatic way of converting a string to an int?
  26. PowerShell is missing the terminator: “
  27. How to execute a PowerShell script only before a web deploy Publish task in VS 2012?
  28. Jenkins powershell plugin is running 32 bit Powershell and I need 64bit
  29. Powershell – Output Color for certain results
  30. Pass function as a parameter

Leave a Comment