How to Invoke-Command and pass path to command as parameter

Question

I'm tearing my hair out trying to invoke-command but pass the path to the exe as a parameter

eg: I want to take this command

powershell Invoke-Command -ComputerName localhost -ScriptBlock { param($command ) C:\windows\system32\getmac.exe /$command } -ArgumentList ?

and translate it into a form like this

powershell Invoke-Command -ComputerName localhost -ScriptBlock { param($path, $command ) $path\getmac.exe /$command } -ArgumentList C:\windows\system32,?

I've tried all manner of quoting, ampersands and other contortions but can't get it to work. The above attempt results in

Unexpected token '\getmac.exe' in expression or statement. At line:1 char:97

(I don't really want to invoke getmac on localhost, this is the runnable, SO distilled version)

Answer 1

Try this option. It shows me help for cscript.exe.

C:\>powershell.exe Invoke-Command -ComputerName localhost -ScriptBlock { param($path, $command ) cmd /c $path $command } -args '"C:\windows\system32\cscript.exe"','"/?"'

I tried other options using & and then path and arguments and it was giving me missing } exception. Then using cmd /c instead of & inside scriptblock fixed the issue.

Answer 2

Powershell won't parse a string as a command that way. For e.g. if you do this:

$path="C:\Windows\System32"
$path\getmac.exe

You would get the same error. The trick to work around this is to use the invoke operator &:

&$path\getmac.exe

or in your example, like this (also note that for a command that you pass to the powershell executable, you must wrap it in scriptblock braces):

powershell -command {Invoke-Command -ComputerName localhost -ScriptBlock { param($path, $command ) &$path\getmac.exe /$command } -ArgumentList C:\windows\system32,?}