Execute PowerShell Script from C# with Commandline Arguments

Question

I need to execute a PowerShell script from within C#. The script needs commandline arguments.

This is what I have done so far:

RunspaceConfiguration runspaceConfiguration = RunspaceConfiguration.Create();

Runspace runspace = RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace(runspaceConfiguration);
runspace.Open();

RunspaceInvoke scriptInvoker = new RunspaceInvoke(runspace);

Pipeline pipeline = runspace.CreatePipeline();
pipeline.Commands.Add(scriptFile);

// Execute PowerShell script
results = pipeline.Invoke();

scriptFile contains something like "C:\Program Files\MyProgram\Whatever.ps1".

The script uses a commandline argument such as "-key Value" whereas Value can be something like a path that also might contain spaces.

I don't get this to work. Does anyone know how to pass commandline arguments to a PowerShell script from within C# and make sure that spaces are no problem?

Answer 1

Try creating scriptfile as a separate command:

Command myCommand = new Command(scriptfile);

then you can add parameters with

CommandParameter testParam = new CommandParameter("key","value");
myCommand.Parameters.Add(testParam);

and finally

pipeline.Commands.Add(myCommand);

---

Here is the complete, edited code:

RunspaceConfiguration runspaceConfiguration = RunspaceConfiguration.Create();

Runspace runspace = RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace(runspaceConfiguration);
runspace.Open();

Pipeline pipeline = runspace.CreatePipeline();

//Here's how you add a new script with arguments
Command myCommand = new Command(scriptfile);
CommandParameter testParam = new CommandParameter("key","value");
myCommand.Parameters.Add(testParam);

pipeline.Commands.Add(myCommand);

// Execute PowerShell script
results = pipeline.Invoke();

Answer 2

I have another solution. I just want to test if executing a PowerShell script succeeds, because perhaps somebody might change the policy. As the argument, I just specify the path of the script to be executed.

ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
startInfo.FileName = @"powershell.exe";
startInfo.Arguments = @"& 'c:\Scripts\test.ps1'";
startInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
startInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;
startInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
startInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
Process process = new Process();
process.StartInfo = startInfo;
process.Start();

string output = process.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
Assert.IsTrue(output.Contains("StringToBeVerifiedInAUnitTest"));

string errors = process.StandardError.ReadToEnd();
Assert.IsTrue(string.IsNullOrEmpty(errors));

With the contents of the script being:

$someVariable = "StringToBeVerifiedInAUnitTest"
$someVariable

Answer 3

I had trouble passing parameters to the Commands.AddScript method.

C:\Foo1.PS1 Hello World Hunger
C:\Foo2.PS1 Hello World

scriptFile = "C:\Foo1.PS1"

parameters = "parm1 parm2 parm3" ... variable length of params

I Resolved this by passing null as the name and the param as value into a collection of CommandParameters

Here is my function:

private static void RunPowershellScript(string scriptFile, string scriptParameters)
{
    RunspaceConfiguration runspaceConfiguration = RunspaceConfiguration.Create();
    Runspace runspace = RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace(runspaceConfiguration);
    runspace.Open();
    RunspaceInvoke scriptInvoker = new RunspaceInvoke(runspace);
    Pipeline pipeline = runspace.CreatePipeline();
    Command scriptCommand = new Command(scriptFile);
    Collection<CommandParameter> commandParameters = new Collection<CommandParameter>();
    foreach (string scriptParameter in scriptParameters.Split(' '))
    {
        CommandParameter commandParm = new CommandParameter(null, scriptParameter);
        commandParameters.Add(commandParm);
        scriptCommand.Parameters.Add(commandParm);
    }
    pipeline.Commands.Add(scriptCommand);
    Collection<PSObject> psObjects;
    psObjects = pipeline.Invoke();
}

Answer 4

Mine is a bit more smaller and simpler:

/// <summary>
/// Runs a PowerShell script taking it's path and parameters.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="scriptFullPath">The full file path for the .ps1 file.</param>
/// <param name="parameters">The parameters for the script, can be null.</param>
/// <returns>The output from the PowerShell execution.</returns>
public static ICollection<PSObject> RunScript(string scriptFullPath, ICollection<CommandParameter> parameters = null)
{
    var runspace = RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace();
    runspace.Open();
    var pipeline = runspace.CreatePipeline();
    var cmd = new Command(scriptFullPath);
    if (parameters != null)
    {
        foreach (var p in parameters)
        {
            cmd.Parameters.Add(p);
        }
    }
    pipeline.Commands.Add(cmd);
    var results = pipeline.Invoke();
    pipeline.Dispose();
    runspace.Dispose();
    return results;
}

Answer 5

You can also just use the pipeline with the AddScript Method:

string cmdArg = ".\script.ps1 -foo bar"            
Collection<PSObject> psresults;
using (Pipeline pipeline = _runspace.CreatePipeline())
            {
                pipeline.Commands.AddScript(cmdArg);
                pipeline.Commands[0].MergeMyResults(PipelineResultTypes.Error, PipelineResultTypes.Output);
                psresults = pipeline.Invoke();
            }
return psresults;

It will take a string, and whatever parameters you pass it.

Answer 6

For me, the most flexible way to run PowerShell script from C# was using PowerShell.Create().AddScript()

First you'll need to install the Microsoft.PowerShell.SDK nuget package. Or if targeting .net framework you'll need Microsoft.PowerShell.5.ReferenceAssemblies

The snippet of the code is

using System.Management.Automation;

string scriptDirectory = Path.GetDirectoryName(
    ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["PathToTechOpsTooling"]);

var script =    
    "Set-Location " + scriptDirectory + Environment.NewLine +
    "Import-Module .\\script.psd1" + Environment.NewLine +
    "$data = Import-Csv -Path " + tempCsvFile + " -Encoding UTF8" + 
        Environment.NewLine +
    "New-Registration -server " + dbServer + " -DBName " + dbName + 
       " -Username \"" + user.Username + "\" + -Users $userData";

_powershell = PowerShell.Create().AddScript(script);
_powershell.Invoke<User>();
foreach (var errorRecord in _powershell.Streams.Error)
    Console.WriteLine(errorRecord);

You can check if there's any error by checking Streams.Error. It was really handy to check the collection. User is the type of object the PowerShell script returns.

Answer 7

Here is a way to add Parameters to the script if you used

pipeline.Commands.AddScript(Script);

This is with using an HashMap as paramaters the key being the name of the variable in the script and the value is the value of the variable.

pipeline.Commands.AddScript(script));
FillVariables(pipeline, scriptParameter);
Collection<PSObject> results = pipeline.Invoke();

And the fill variable method is:

private static void FillVariables(Pipeline pipeline, Hashtable scriptParameters)
{
  // Add additional variables to PowerShell
  if (scriptParameters != null)
  {
    foreach (DictionaryEntry entry in scriptParameters)
    {
      CommandParameter Param = new CommandParameter(entry.Key as String, entry.Value);
      pipeline.Commands[0].Parameters.Add(Param);
    }
  }
}

this way you can easily add multiple parameters to a script. I've also noticed that if you want to get a value from a variable in you script like so:

Object resultcollection = runspace.SessionStateProxy.GetVariable("results");

//results being the name of the v

you'll have to do it the way I showed because for some reason if you do it the way Kosi2801 suggests the script variables list doesn't get filled with your own variables.

Answer 8

Here's what it worked for me, including cases when the arguments contains spaces:

using (PowerShell PowerShellInst = PowerShell.Create())
        {

            PowerShell ps = PowerShell.Create();
            
            string param1= "my param";
            string param2= "another param";
            string scriptPath = <path to script>;

            ps.AddScript(File.ReadAllText(scriptPath));

            ps.AddArgument(param1);
            ps.AddArgument(param2);

            ps.Invoke();
         
        }

I find this approach very easy to understand and very clear.