CODEWITHSUNDEEP
windowspowershell
Amit Toren
Amit Toren

Reputation: 353

Taking arguments from windows run in powershell

Im trying to pass some arguments from the windows run while calling a powershell script. Looks something like this: myscript "Some parameters", "some other" Is this even possible? If so, how can I take the arguments from it to the powershell script and use them? So far I got how you can ask for a user input parameter via cmd using the "ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName" option of the Parameter but it's not what I want. Thanks in advance.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 3502

Answers (3)

Ansgar Wiechers
Ansgar Wiechers

Reputation: 200323

PowerShell essentially provides two ways for handling script arguments:

  • The automatic variable $args holds a list of all arguments, which can then be accessed by index:

    Script:

    "1st argument: " + $args[0]
"2nd argument: " + $args[1]
"3rd argument: " + $args[2]

    Invocation:

    powershell.exe -File .\script.ps1 "foo" "bar"

    Output:

    1st argument: foo
2nd argument: bar
3rd argument:

  • A Param() section at the beginning of the script gets the parameter values assigned to individual variables:

    Script:

    Param(
  [Parameter()]$p1 = '',
  [Parameter()]$p2 = '',
  [Parameter()]$p3 = ''
)

"1st argument: " + $p1
"2nd argument: " + $p2
"3rd argument: " + $p3

    Invocation:

    powershell.exe -File .\script.ps1 "foo" "bar"

    Output:

    1st argument: foo
2nd argument: bar
3rd argument:

If you want to be able to invoke a PowerShell script without explicitly running the powershell.exe command you need to change the default action for the Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1 type in the registry, though. You probably also need to adjust the execution policy on your system(s) (Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Force).

Typically you'd use $args only for very simple scenarios (a handful arguments in well-defined order). A full parameter definition gives you far better control about the parameter handling (you can make parameters optional or mandatory, define parameter types, define default values, do validation, etc.).

Upvotes: 2

Ben Richards
Ben Richards

Reputation: 3575

On the top of your script you declare the parameters you want to pass, here is an example from my build.ps1

param (
    [string] $searchTerm,
    [ValidateSet('Remote', 'Local')][string] $sourceType = 'local',
    [switch] $force
)

Write-Host $searchTerm

You can then pass your parameters either by the order:

build.ps1 '1234' local -force

or with named paramters

build.ps1 -searchTerm '1234' -sourceType local -force

Upvotes: 0

Martin Sandgaard Rasmussen
Martin Sandgaard Rasmussen

Reputation: 163

I barely understand your question. Here's an attempt to get closer to what you want..

You attempt to call a powershell script through the Windows CMD, like so:

powershell.exe myscript.ps1 parameter1 parameter2 anotherparameter

The above is how you can take unnamed parameters. You could also look into named parameters, like so:

Powershell.exe myscript.ps1 -param1 "Test" -param2 "Test2" -anotherparameter "Test3"

You can in the CMD Accept input from a user using "Set", like so:

set /p id="Enter ID: "

In powershell you would use Read-host, like so:

$answer = Read-Host "Please input the answer to this question"

Upvotes: 0

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