Run exe with parameter -NOGUI?

[stevens]

Hi,

I have this exe (healthcheck of a computer) which I would like to run as a scheduled job. So if a user runs it, it get the healthcheck report, if it is ran on the computer as a scheduled job, it should not show the gui.

Can that be done?
So that would be myexe.exe -NOGUI in a scheduled job.
S.

[jvierra]

Yes but you would have to code it to work that way.

[stevens]

Ok, so I probably have to detect the -nogui switch somehow, then I can just launch the command else the form.
So how would I do this if ($NOGUISwitchUsed) {execute script} else { show-form} ?

[jvierra]

Param(
[switch]$NoGui
}
if($NoGUI({
....
}else{
....
}

[CermakPOI]

Compiled Exe do not work with standard powershell parameter handling!

@Sapien: Would be good to add Parameter parsing code for exe-Projects by default.

I use this construction:

Code: Select all

function Convert-CommandLineToDictionary {
<#
.SYNOPSIS
	Parses and converts the command line of a packaged executable into a Dictionary

.DESCRIPTION
	Parses and converts the command line of a packaged executable into a Dictionary

.PARAMETER Dictionary
	The Dictionary to load the value pairs into.

.PARAMETER CommandLine
	The command line of the package executable

.PARAMETER ParamIndicator
	The character used to indicate what is a parameter.

.EXAMPLE
	$Dictionary = New-Object System.Collections.Specialized.StringDictionary
	Convert-CommandLineToDictionary -Dictionary $Dictionary `
	-CommandLine $Commandline  -ParamIndicator '-'
#>
	Param ([ValidateNotNull()]
		[System.Collections.Specialized.StringDictionary]$Dictionary,
		[string]$CommandLine,
		[char]$ParamIndicator)
	
	$Params = Parse-Commandline $CommandLine
	for ($index = 0; $index -lt $Params.Count; $index++) {
		[string]$param = $Params[$index]
		#Clear the values 
		$key = ""
		$value = ""
		
		if ($param.StartsWith($ParamIndicator)) {
			#Remove the indicator 
			$key = $param.Remove(0, 1)
			if ($index + 1 -lt $Params.Count) {
				#Check if the next Argument is a parameter 
				[string]$param = $Params[$index + 1]
				if ($param.StartsWith($ParamIndicator) -ne $true) {
					#If it isn't a parameter then set it as the value 
					$value = $param
					$index++
				}
			}
			$Dictionary[$key] = $value
		}#else skip 
	}
	
} # < END Function Convert-CommandLineToDictionary

function Parse-Commandline {
<#
    .SYNOPSIS
        Parses the command line of a package executable

    .DESCRIPTION
        Parses the command line of a package executable

    .PARAMETER  Commandline
        The command line of the package executable

    .EXAMPLE
        $arguments = Parse-Commandline -Commandline $Commandline

    .INPUTS
        System.String

    .OUTPUTS
        System.Collections.Specialized.StringCollection
#>
	
	[OutputType([System.Collections.Specialized.StringCollection])]
	Param ([string]$CommandLine)
	
	$Arguments = New-Object System.Collections.Specialized.StringCollection
	if ($CommandLine) {
		#Find First Quote 
		$index = $CommandLine.IndexOf('"')
		
		while ($index -ne -1) {#Continue as along as we find a quote 
			#Find Closing Quote 
			$closeIndex = $CommandLine.IndexOf('"', $index + 1)
			if ($closeIndex -eq -1) {
				break #Can't find a match 
			}
			$value = $CommandLine.Substring($index + 1, $closeIndex - ($index + 1))
			[void]$Arguments.Add($value)
			$index = $closeIndex
			
			#Find First Quote 
			$index = $CommandLine.IndexOf('"', $index + 1)
		}
	}
	return $Arguments
} # < END Function Parse-Commandline
#######################################################################
function Main {
	Param ([String]$Commandline)

	$P = Convert-CommandLineToDictionary -Dictionary $Dictionary -CommandLine $Commandline -ParamIndicator "-"
	# Parameters are in the Dictionary!
	# code
}

[jvierra]

Parameters are passed to EXE correctly. Why do you think they aren't?

[jvierra]

Place the following code at the top of startup.pss:

Code: [Select all] [Expand/Collapse] [Download] (Untitled.ps1)

1. #Define a Param block to use custom parameters in the project
2. Param(
3.     $MyParam1,
4.     $MyParam2
5. )
6.  
7. [System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox]::Show("P1 = $MyParam1`nP2 = $MyParam2")

Call the exe like this:
Example.exe -Myparam2 hello2 -MyParam1 hello1

You will see that the parameters are passed correctly. The Sapien host parse them for you and also the project hands you the raw command line in "Main"

[jvierra]

If you want to check a bunch of parameters then we can do this:

Code: [Select all] [Expand/Collapse] [Download] (Untitled.ps1)

1. #Define a Param block to use custom parameters in the project
2. Param(
3.     $MyParam1,
4.     $MyParam2
5. )
6. [System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox]::Show(($PSBoundParameters|ft|Out-String))
7.  
8. function Main {

Notice, too, that they also bind by default position:

Example.exe hello2 hello1

[jvierra]

An interesting side effect is that switch parameters can be declared but will not set the value correctly.

To detect a switch do this.

$PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey('NoGui')

[CermakPOI]

Sorry!
I built this workaround 6 weeks before the Parameter Handling for exe file was updated in this Blog:
https://www.sapien.com/blog/2015/11/30/ ... able-file/