Invoke a second script with arguments from a script

Question

I have a script that reads a configuration file that results in a set of name value pairs that I would like to pass as arguments to a function in a second PowerShell script  I do not know what parameters will be placed in this configuration file at design time  so right at the point where I need to invoke this second PowerShell script  I basically just have one variable that has the path to this second script  and a second variable that is an array of arguments to pass to the script identified in the path variable  So the variable containing the path to the second script   scriptPath   might have a value like   quot c  the path to the second script ps1 quot   The variable containing the arguments   argumentList  might look something like  -ConfigFilename  quot doohickey txt quot  -RootDirectory  quot c  some kind of path quot  -Max 11  How do I get from this state of affairs to the execution of script ps1 with all of the arguments from  argumentList  I d like any write-host commands from this second script to be visible to the console from which this first script is invoked  I have tried dot-sourcing  Invoke-Command  Invoke-Expression  and Start-Job  but I haven t found an approach that doesn t produce errors  For example  I thought the easiest first route was to try Start-Job called as follows  Start-Job -FilePath  scriptPath -ArgumentList  argumentList     but this fails with this error  System Management Automation ValidationMetadataException  Attribute cannot be added because it would cause the variable ConfigFilename with value -ConfigFilename to become invalid      in this case   quot ConfigFilename quot  is the first parameter in the param list defined by the second script  and my invocation is apparently trying to set its value to  quot -ConfigFilename quot   which is obviously intended to identify the parameter by name  not set its value  What am I missing  EDIT  Ok  here is a mock-up of the to-be-called script  in a file named invokee ps1 Param   parameter Mandatory  true    alias  quot rc quot     string   ValidateScript   Test-Path    -PathType Leaf      ConfigurationFilename   alias  quot e quot     switch   Evaluate   array   Parameter ValueFromRemainingArguments  true    remaining   function sayHelloWorld         Write-Host  quot Hello  everybody  the config file is  lt  ConfigurationFilename gt   quot      if   ExitOnErrors                Write-Host  quot I should mention that I was told to evaluate things  quot            Write-Host  quot I currently live here   gScriptDirectory quot      Write-Host  quot My remaining arguments are   remaining quot      Set-Content   hello world txt  quot It worked quot      gScriptPath    MyInvocation MyCommand Path  gScriptDirectory    Split-Path  gScriptPath -Parent  sayHelloWorld     and here is a mock-up of the calling script  in a file named invoker ps1  function pokeTheInvokee          scriptPath    Join-Path -Path  quot   quot  -ChildPath  quot invokee ps1 quot        scriptPath    ExecutionContext SessionState Path GetUnresolvedProviderPathFromPSPath  scriptPath            configPath    Join-Path -Path  quot   quot  -ChildPath  quot invoker ps1 quot        configPath    ExecutionContext SessionState Path GetUnresolvedProviderPathFromPSPath  configPath            argumentList            argumentList      quot -ConfigurationFilename quot    quot   quot  configPath  quot  quot        argumentList       quot -Evaluate quot       Write-Host  quot Attempting to invoke-expression with    quot  scriptPath  quot   argumentList quot      Invoke-Expression  quot   quot  scriptPath  quot   argumentList quot      Invoke-Expression  quot   invokee ps1 -ConfigurationFilename   quot   invoker ps1  quot  -Evaluate     Write-Host  quot Invokee invoked  quot     pokeTheInvokee  When I run invoker ps1  this is the error I m currently getting on the first call to Invoke-Expression  Invoke-Expression   You must provide a value expression on the right-hand side of the  -  operator   The second call works just fine  but one significant difference is that the first version is using arguments whose paths have spaces in them  and the second does not   Am I mishandling the presence of spaces in these paths

User · Answer

Invoke-Expression should work perfectly  just make sure you are using it correctly  For your case it should look like this   Invoke-Expression   scriptPath  argumentList    I tested this approach with Get-Service and seems to be working as expected

User · Answer

You can execute it same as SQL query  first  build your command Expression and store in a variable and execute invoke    command       yourExternalScriptFile ps1      -param1   paramValue     It is pretty forward  I don t  think it needs explanations  So all set to execute your command now   Invoke-Expression  command   I would recommend catching the exception here

User · Answer

I assume you want to run  ps1 file  here  scriptPath along with multiple arguments stored in  argumentList  from another  ps1 file  Invoke-Expression   amp   scriptPath  argumentList    This piece of code would work fine

User · Answer

I tried the accepted solution of using the Invoke-Expression cmdlet but it didn t work for me because my arguments had spaces on them  I tried to parse the arguments and escape the spaces but I couldn t properly make it work and also it was really a dirty work around in my opinion  So after some experimenting  my take on the problem is this   function Invoke-Script       param                Parameter Mandatory    true            string           Script            Parameter Mandatory    false            object             ArgumentList             ScriptBlock    Scriptblock   Create  Get-Content  Script -Raw       Invoke-Command -NoNewScope -ArgumentList  ArgumentList -ScriptBlock  ScriptBlock -Verbose      example usage Invoke-Script  scriptPath  argumentList   The only drawback of this solution is that you need to make sure that your script doesn t have a  Script  or  ArgumentList  parameter

User · Answer

Here s an answer covering the more general question of calling another PS script from a PS script  as you may do if you were composing your scripts of many little  narrow-purpose scripts   I found it was simply a case of using dot-sourcing  That is  you just do     This is Script-A ps1      Script-B ps1 -SomeObject  variableFromScriptA -SomeOtherParam 1234    I found all the Q A very confusing and complicated and eventually landed upon the simple method above  which is really just like calling another script as if it was a function in the original script  which I seem to find more intuitive   Dot-sourcing can  import  the other script in its entirety  using       Script-B ps1   It s now as if the two files are merged   Ultimately  what I was really missing is the notion that I should be building a module of reusable functions

User · Answer

Aha   This turned out to be a simple problem of there being spaces in the path to the script   Changing the Invoke-Expression line to   Invoke-Expression   amp     scriptPath    argumentList       was enough to get it to kick off   Thanks to Neolisk for your help and feedback

User · Answer

We can use splatting for this    amp   command  args   where  args  automatic variable  args  is splatted into array of parameters    Under PS  5 1

User · Answer

Much simpler actually   Method 1   Invoke-Expression  scriptPath  argumentList   Method 2     amp   scriptPath  argumentList   Method 3    scriptPath  argumentList   If you have spaces in your scriptPath  don t forget to escape them    scriptPath

[powershell] Invoke a second script with arguments from a script

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