Using Powershell's Invoke-Command to call a batch file with arguments

Question

I want to use Powershell in order to call a batch file on remote machines. This batch file has arguments. Here's what I have so far:

$script = "\\fileshare\script.cmd"
$server = $args[0]
$args [string]::join(',',$args[1 .. ($args.count-1)])

Invoke-Command -computername $server {$script + ' ' + $args}

After a bit of searching, I found that the Invoke-Command function runs its scriptblock in a whole new process, so you can't put variables in it (they won't get expanded). That's what the -ArgumentList tag is for. So I tried this instead...

Invoke-Command -computername $server {\\fileshare\script.cmd} -ArgumentList "FirstArgument"

That didn't work either... my batch script tells me it's not being passed any arguments. I can't find anything that explicitly says so, but it looks like the -ArgumentList parameter only works on Powershell scripts (it won't feed them to a batch script).

Any ideas how I can use Invoke-Command to call a batch file with arguments?

zdan · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-17 01:51:09Z

8

When you pass the argument list to the scriptblock, try to "receive them" using a PARAM directive. Like this:

Invoke-Command -computername $server {PARAM($myArg) \\fileshare\script.cmd $myArg} -ArgumentList "FirstArgument"

or you can just use the $args automatic variable:

Invoke-Command -computername $server {\\fileshare\script.cmd $args} -ArgumentList "FirstArgument"

answered Dec 17, 2011 at 1:51

zdan

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1 Comment

Jay Spang Over a year ago

Thanks that did it! That's even what it says to do on the technet documentation for Invoke-Command, so I'm a bit ashamed I couldn't figure it out on my own! That little bit about $args is helpful though.

manojlds · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-17 01:50:52Z

3

The arguments will be passed as arguments to the scriptblock and not directly to your cmd. You have to do:

Invoke-Command {param($script,$arg1) &$script $arg1 } -computername $server -ArgumentList $script,"FirstArgument"

or

Invoke-Command {&$args[0] $args[1] } -computername $server -ArgumentList $script,"FirstArgument"

PS: I don't know what you are doing with $args [string]::join(',',$args[1 .. ($args.count-1)]), it is a syntax error

answered Dec 17, 2011 at 1:50

manojlds

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3 Comments

Jay Spang Over a year ago

This little snippet of code is meant to replicate Perl's 'shift' function. It doesn't seem to cause a compiler error for me, and works as intended. $server = $args[0] $args [string]::join(',',$args[1 .. ($args.count-1)])

Jay Spang Over a year ago

Whoops, the '=' was dropped from the second line somehow when I pasted it into the question.

Kiquenet Over a year ago

Can I use named parameters ? any sample about it ?

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