CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershellrobocopy
user3657462
user3657462

Reputation: 53

Robocopy didn't recognize options when launched from PowerShell

I'm trying to use the PowerShell cmdlet Invoke-Expression to launch RoboCopy.

In the script below, RoboCopy worked fine when the option was simply '.' but as soon as the option '/MIR' was added I got this "Invalid Parameter #3" error.

It seems that RoboCopy is having problems parsing '/MIR' and has choked on the forward slash in the option. I've tried using all sort of escaping characters to no avail!

# Source & Destination paths
#
  [string]$srcPath = 'C:\folderSrc'
  [string]$desPath = 'C:\folderDes'

# Example 1
# ----------
# This works - note how $option1 contains only '*.*'
#
  [string]$option1 = '*.*'
  [string]$line = 'RoboCopy  $srcPath  $desPath  $option1'
  Invoke-Expression "$line"

# Example 2:
# ----------
# This doesn't work - after '/MIR' is added to the option, RoboCopy seems to choke on the forward slash in '/MIR'
#
  [string]$option2 = '*.* /MIR'
  [string]$line = 'RoboCopy  $srcPath  $desPath  $option2'
  Invoke-Expression "$line"

Upvotes: 1

Views: 285

Answers (2)

user3657462
user3657462

Reputation: 53

I found that this (using double InvokeExpression) worked:

  [string]$srcPath = 'C:\folderSrc'
  [string]$desPath = 'C:\folderDes'
  [string]$option = '*.* /MIR'
  [string]$line = 'Invoke-Expression  "RoboCopy  $srcPath  $desPath  $option"'

  Invoke-Expression "$line"

But couldn't explain why this (using single Invoke-Expression) also works:

  [string]$srcPath = 'C:\folderSrc'
  [string]$desPath = 'C:\folderDes'
  [string]$option = '*.*'
  [string]$line = 'RoboCopy  $srcPath  $desPath  $option'

  Invoke-Expression "$line"

Note that the sole difference in the 2 scenarios is the $option variable:

 '*.*'  vs.  '*.* /MIR'

Inconsistency like this is utterly demoralizing...

Upvotes: 1

Christopher G. Lewis
Christopher G. Lewis

Reputation: 4836

Powershell doesn't expand $variables when using single quotes.

Use double quotes here: 

[string]$line = "RoboCopy  $srcPath  $desPath  $option1"

And it might make better sense to not use Invoke-Expression

 RoboCopy.exe  $srcPath  $desPath  *.* /MIR

Should work

Upvotes: 0

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