CODEWITHSUNDEEP
regexgitpowershellwindows-scripting
Ad4
Ad4

Reputation: 1

How can I escape ' character in powershell parameter?

What I have is a powershell script running in order to check differences in commits between two git branches. Here's what I'm fetching from git expression:

$result  = Invoke-Expression "& git rev-list --left-right --count origin/$TargetBranch...origin/$SourceBranch 2>&1"

Unfortunately I have found out that when $SourceBranch contains 'character it throws an

[error]At line:1 char:143 + ..._move_to_record_icon_doesn't_respond 2>&1

The string is missing the terminator: '.

I have implemented escaping of special characters like this:
[System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::Escape($SourceBranch) then $SourceBranch.replace('\','`')

But it does not escape the ' character, putting it into replace("'","`'") does not work either.

Powershell 5.0 used.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 529

Answers (2)

7cc
7cc

Reputation: 1169

You need to escape a escape character itself.

An example to run a'b.bat in PowerShell,

# create filename containing '
echo "echo 1" | Set-Content -Encoding Ascii "a'b.bat"

# double quote
Invoke-Expression ".\a``'b.bat"
Invoke-Expression ".\a''''b.bat"

# single quote
Invoke-Expression '.\a`''b.bat'
Invoke-Expression '.\a''''''''b.bat'

# with -replace operator
$source = ".\a'b.bat"
Invoke-Expression "cmd /c $($source -replace "'", "''''" )"

This may look strange, but it's just the same as
JSON.stringify({a: "\\"}) === "{\"a\":\"\\\\\"}" in JavaScript.

but it's much easier without using Invoke-Expression as already answered.

& ".\a'b.bat"
& '.\a''b.bat'

Upvotes: 0

Mathias R. Jessen
Mathias R. Jessen

Reputation: 174485

Just avoid Invoke-Expression altogether:

$result = & git rev-list --left-right --count origin/$TargetBranch...origin/$SourceBranch 2>&1

Upvotes: 1

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