How to run a Powershell script from the command line and pass a directory as a parameter

Question

PowerShell -Command .\\Foo.ps1

• Foo.ps1:

Answer 1

Change your code to the following :

Function Foo($directory)
    {
        echo $directory
    }

    if ($args.Length -eq 0)
    {
        echo "Usage: Foo <directory>"
    }
    else
    {
        Foo([string[]]$args)
    }

And then invoke it as:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -File "c:\foo.ps1" "c:\Documents and Settings" "c:\test"

Answer 2

try this:

powershell "C:\Dummy Directory 1\Foo.ps1 'C:\Dummy Directory 2\File.txt'"

Answer 3

Add the param declation at the top of ps1 file

test.ps1

param(
  # Our preferred encoding
  [parameter(Mandatory=$false)]
  [ValidateSet("UTF8","Unicode","UTF7","ASCII","UTF32","BigEndianUnicode")]
  [string]$Encoding = "UTF8"
)

write ("Encoding : {0}" -f $Encoding)

result

C:\temp> .\test.ps1 -Encoding ASCII
Encoding : ASCII

Answer 4

you are calling a script file not a command so you have to use -file eg :

powershell -executionPolicy bypass -noexit -file "c:\temp\test.ps1" "c:\test with space"

for PS V2

powershell.exe -noexit &'c:\my scripts\test.ps1'

(check bottom of this technet page http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee176949.aspx )

Answer 5

you have type and hit enter :

PowerShell -Command

Answer 6

Using the flag -Command you can execute your entire powershell line as if it was a command in the PowerShell prompt:

powershell -Command "& '<PATH_TO_PS1_FILE>' '<ARG_1>' '<ARG_2>' ... '<ARG_N>'"

This solved my issue with running PowerShell commands in Visual Studio Post-Build and Pre-Build events.