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POHow to access file paths in Powershell containing special characters?
 

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  1. POHow to access file paths in Powershell containing special characters?
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    <p>I am calling powershell from within a Java application (thru the Windows command prompt) to read various file attributes.</p> <p>e.g.</p> <pre><code>powershell (get-item 'C:\Users\erlpm\Desktop\Temp\s p a c e s.txt').creationTime </code></pre> <p>I am enclosing the file path in single quotes, because it may contain spaces. It worked fine, until I encountered a file path containing square brackets, which seem to be interpreted as a wildcard character. I managed to solve it by adding the <em>-literalPath</em> parameter :</p> <pre><code>powershell (get-item -literalpath 'C:\Users\erlpm\Desktop\Temp\brackets[].txt').creationTime </code></pre> <p>So far, so good ... But file paths may also contain single quotes, dollar signs, ampersands, ... and all these characters seem to have a specific function in powershell for which the <em>-literalPath</em> parameter does not seem to work. I tried enclosing the path with double quotes or escaping with the `character, but that did not solve my problem either :-(</p> <p>Any suggestions on how to pass a file path to Powershell which may contain spaces, single quotes, square brackets, ampersands, dollar signs, etc. ?</p> <p><em><strong>Update:</em></strong> Someone here already showed me how to get it working from within Powershell, but somehow the answer has been removed ?<br> Anyway, I did create a file called <code>$ &amp; ' [].txt</code>. This works form <em>within</em> Powershell (needed to escape the &amp;) :</p> <pre><code> PS C:\Users\erlpm&gt; Get-Item -LiteralPath "C:\Users\erlpm\Desktop\Temp\`$ &amp; ' [].txt" Directory: C:\Users\erlpm\Desktop\Temp Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- -a--- 2012-08-23 14:22 0 $ &amp; ' [].txt </code></pre> <p>But when I execute the same Powershell command thru the Windows command prompt, ...</p> <pre><code>C:\Users\erlpm&gt;powershell Get-Item -LiteralPath "C:\Users\erlpm\Desktop\Temp\`$ &amp; ' [].txt" </code></pre> <p>... I get this error :</p> <pre><code> Ampersand not allowed. The &amp; operator is reserved for future use; use "&amp;" to pass ampersand as a string. At line:1 char:55 + Get-Item -LiteralPath C:\Users\erlpm\Desktop\Temp\`$ &amp; &lt;&lt;&lt;&lt; ' [].txt + CategoryInfo : ParserError: (:) [], ParentContainsErrorRecordException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : AmpersandNotAllowed </code></pre> <p>Using the <code>-command</code> parameter and putting the powershell command between <code>{}</code> gives exactly the same error message ...</p> <pre><code>C:\Users\erlpm&gt;powershell -command {Get-Item -LiteralPath "C:\Users\erlpm\Desktop\Temp\`$ &amp; ' [].txt"} </code></pre>
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    1. COCould you provide a few examples of paths which are not working, and the exact error you get? You have only provided working paths so far, so it's hard to tell where the problem is.
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    2. COI updated my question and added some working and non-working examples. As you can see, I can get it to work from within the Powershell prompt, but not by executng powershell from the Windows command prompt.
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      1. USjeroen_de_schutter
    3. COI reproduced your issue by creating a file named "$ * ' [].txt". Then, from a powershell prompt, I typed get-item <tab> and powershell completed the filename for me, but I can't paste the completed filename in here because markdown eats all the special characters. Give it a try and see if that helps.
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      1. USjoXn
 

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