Execute powershell command inside IF in bat file - strange behavior [duplicate]

Question

@ECHO OFF     

:: Ask for Credentials
IF NOT EXIST containers/api (
    set /p login="Enter your git username: "
    powershell -Command $pword = read-host "Enter password" -AsSecureString ; $BSTR=[System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($pword) ; [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto($BSTR) > .tmp.txt & set /p password=<.tmp.txt & del .tmp.txt
)

the code above doesn't work with the error message:

[System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto($BSTR) was unexpected at this time.

The same code without IF, works just fine

@ECHO OFF     

:: Ask for Credentials

set /p login="Enter your git username: "
powershell -Command $pword = read-host "Enter password" -AsSecureString ; $BSTR=[System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($pword) ; [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto($BSTR) > .tmp.txt & set /p password=<.tmp.txt & del .tmp.txt

what I'm doing wrong?

I recommend writing your script in PowerShell instead of trying to run PowerShell as a separate process because you can't ask for a password in a batch file. Much better to rewrite the script in PowerShell instead. — Bill_Stewart
– Bill_Stewart, Commented Jun 1, 2015 at 19:51
This looks like a parsing problem to me. This seems like the ; in the statement is terminating the powershell command in the if case or something like that. If you quote the entire powershell command string does it work? — Etan Reisner
– Etan Reisner, Commented Jun 1, 2015 at 20:03
I had this problem before: stackoverflow.com/q/6478606/419 the unquoted ) at SecureStringToBSTR($pword) prematurely closes the IF parenthesis. You'll need to do a bit of string quoting malarky to get this to work. Don't forget you can use single ' quotes in PowerShell too. — Kev
– Kev, Commented Jun 1, 2015 at 20:15
okay - thank you guys. Once quoted - everything worked. Thanks Etan & Kev! — DmitrySemenov
– DmitrySemenov, Commented Jun 1, 2015 at 20:20

DmitrySemenov · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-01 20:21:51Z

0

Okay this is how it worked

:: Ask for Credentials
IF NOT EXIST containers/webapp (
    :: Ask for Credentials
    set /p login="Enter your git username: "
    powershell -Command "$pword = read-host 'Enter password' -AsSecureString ; $BSTR=[System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($pword) ; [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto($BSTR)" > .tmp.txt & set /p password=<.tmp.txt & del .tmp.txt 
)

then you can use %password%. I used it to automate repo cloning from batch file. Hope this helps

answered Jun 1, 2015 at 20:21

DmitrySemenov

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