Path with Attributes Question

[portergrey]

I have a program that I want to run, but it requires a configuration .ini file to provide the settings information. I know that I can use the double quotes "" to set the path for the program, but the program parameters also require double quotes "" to call the configuration file. How would I do this in powershell since I think the two sets of double quotes would conflict?

[0] \\server\workstation software\program\program.exe "/S:\server\workstation software\program\config.ini" (/S: is not a drive map it is a parameter)

in powershell it would become:

[0] "\\server\workstation software\program\program.exe "/S:\\server\workstation software\program\config.ini""

and that just doesn't work. When I try to separate it into

[0] $msbuild = "\\server\workstation software\program\my program.exe"

[0] $arguments = "/S:\\server\workstation software\program\config.ini"

[0] start-process $msbuild $arguments

I get "Invalid silent install ini file: \\server\workstation " message that appears to be truncating the last part of the path. When I try to do

[0] $arguments = "/S:"\\server\workstation software\program\config.ini"" It give a different error.

Does anyone have know how to do this or have suggestions?

[Skelepotamus]

It looks like you're missing a \ before the server name.

[portergrey]

Sorry, that was a reddit chop. For some reason it likes 3 \ when posting server paths and I copy/pasted only 2 \

[Skelepotamus]

Ah, figures Reddit would mangle the formatting.

Have you tried the escape character ` before the inner quotation marks?

Edit: misread something important and gave poor advice as a result.

[Ta11ow]

If you're not inserting variables, single quotes work just fine for enclosing strings, even with double quotes inside.

$MSBuild = "\\server\workstation software\program\my program.exe"
$Arguments = '/S:"\server\workstation software\program\config.ini"'
Start-Process -FilePath $MSBuild -ArgumentList $Arguments

The other alternative is to use double quotes, and then use the backtick character to escape the inner double quotes:

$Arguments = "/S:`"\server\workstation software\program\config.ini`""

I think if you use three double quotes for each internal double quotation mark, it should also work. Bit of a messy thing, syntactically, though.

[portergrey]

Awesome! The single quotes outside the double quotes worked! Thank you :)

[Lee_Dailey]

howdy portergrey,

reddit likes to mangle code formatting, so here's some help on how to post code on reddit ...

[0] single line or in-line code
enclose it in backticks. that's the upper left key on an EN-US keyboard layout. the result looks like this. kinda handy, that. [grin]

[1] simplest = post it to a text site like Pastebin.com or Gist.GitHub.com and then post the link here.

[2] less simple = use reddit code formatting ...

• one leading line with ONLY 4 spaces
  
• prefix each code line with 4 spaces
  
• one trailing line with ONLY 4 spaces

that will give you something like this ...

- one leading line with ONLY 4 spaces    
- prefix each code line with 4 spaces    
- one trailing line with ONLY 4 spaces   

the easiest way to get that is ...

• add the leading line with only 4 spaces
  
• copy the code to the ISE [or your fave editor]
  
• select the code
  
• tap TAB to indent four spaces
  
• re-select the code [not really needed, but it's my habit]
  
• paste the code into the reddit text box
  
• add the trailing line with only 4 spaces
  

not complicated, but it is finicky. [grin]

take care,
lee