Psexec issue with variable command in Powershell

Question

I'm looking to automate the use of Psexec through a Powershell script. The aim is to send mass commands to a list of servers. So far, nothing extraordinary when you know the possibilities of Psexec. The problem arises when I want to put the command to be executed on the remote machines in a variable. As soon as the command has a space, it cannot be executed on the remote machine and I get the error : The specified path cannot be found. I've tried putting my variable between "" or '' or `` but nothing changes.

In the script, this command works fine :

PsExec.exe \\$SelectedServerIP -u my_user -p my_password ipconfig /all

but these one don't work :

$command = "ipconfig /all"
PsExec.exe \\$SelectedServerIP -u my_user -p my_password $command

$command = "ipconfig /all"
PsExec.exe \\$SelectedServerIP -u my_user -p my_password ""$command""

$command = ipconfig /all
PsExec.exe \\$SelectedServerIP -u my_user -p my_password ""$command""

$command = ipconfig /all
PsExec.exe \\$SelectedServerIP -u my_user -p my_password """$command"""

Thank you for your answers.

LG

mklement0 · Accepted Answer · 2024-01-25 16:43:47Z

0

psexec expects the command line to be executed remotely to be specified as individual arguments rather than a single string.

Thus, use an array to programmatically define these arguments:

# The following is equivalent to:
#   PsExec.exe \\$SelectedServerIP -u my_user -p my_password ipconfig /all
$command = @('ipconfig', '/all')
PsExec.exe \\$SelectedServerIP -u my_user -p my_password $command

Note:

When an array is passed to an external program, PowerShell automatically passes its elements as individual arguments; in other words: it implicitly performs splatting; for conceptual clarity you could choose to use splatting explicitly, however, by passing @command instead of $command.
However, there is a quoting caveat, and it applies to all external programs, not just psexec:
- The sad reality in Windows PowerShell and in PowerShell (Core) up to v7.2.x is that an extra, manual layer of \-escaping of embedded " characters is required in arguments passed to external programs. This is fixed in PowerShell v7.3+, with selective exceptions on Windows. See this answer for details.
- A quick example (run from an elevated session):
```
# OK in v7.3+ only, because only there are the 
# embedded " chars. properly passed.
# Should print: hi there
$command = @('powershell', '-noprofile', '"hi there"')
psexec -s $command

# Solution for v7.2- and Windows PowerShell:
# Manual `\`-escaping.
$command = @('powershell', '-noprofile', '\"hi there\"')
psexec -s $command
```

edited Jan 25, 2024 at 16:43

answered Jan 25, 2024 at 16:31

mklement0

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1 Comment

Laurent Guinard Over a year ago

Thank you, it does indeed work. I had a second problem entering the order through a textbox. I had to split the text in the textbox before sending the command and it works now.

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