If the package uses $packageParameters instead of $env:PackageParameters, quotes are removed

[dhilgarth]

I am trying to pass quoted values to the -params switch, but it looks like it is simply not working.

In a test package, I am simply outputting $packageParameters to see what I get.

Here is what I tried:

• -params '/licenseName:""Daniel Hilgarth""'
• -params '"/licenseName:""Daniel Hilgarth"""'
• -params '"/licenseName:"Daniel Hilgarth""'
• -params '/licenseName:"Daniel Hilgarth"'
• -params "/licenseName:""Daniel Hilgarth"""

Both of them resulted in a $packageParameters value fof /licenseName:Daniel Hilgarth

Additionally, I tried these:

• -params '"/licenseName:\"Daniel Hilgarth\""' -> Resulted in the message that choco wants to install two packages: <package-name>;Hilgarth
• -params '"/licenseName:"Daniel Hilgarth""' -> Result: /licenseName:Daniel Hilgarth``

I have the feeling that this is a bug in chocolatey's parameters parsing

[ferventcoder]

Did you read the wiki/choco --help on how to pass options with quotes?

[ferventcoder]

https://github.com/chocolatey/choco/wiki/CommandsReference#how-to-pass-options--switches

[ferventcoder]

It's very specific on how to do this:

• Pass quotes in arguments: When you need to pass quoted values to
  to something like a native installer, you are in for a world of fun. In
  cmd.exe you must pass it like this: -ia "/yo=""Spaces spaces""". In
  PowerShell.exe, you must pass it like this: -ia '/yo=""Spaces spaces""'.
  No other combination will work. In PowerShell.exe if you are on version
  v3+, you can try --% before -ia to just pass the args through as is,
  which means it should not require any special workarounds.

[ferventcoder]

The above applies to any option, not just install args.

[dhilgarth]

Yes, I did read this. Did you check the samples I posted? :-) Both of them I have tested and they did not work.

[ferventcoder]

I did, I believe you are in PowerShell and you need -params '/licenseName:""Daniel Hilgarth""'

I didn't see it in the sample set.

[dhilgarth]

It's the very first entry in the list of things I tried :)

[ferventcoder]

What version of choco?

[dhilgarth]

v0.9.9.8

[ferventcoder]

Can you post a gist of the log file (relevant bits)?

[ferventcoder]

I'm guessing a bug :)

[ferventcoder]

Apologies, I've gotten this question about how to pass arguments quite a few times, I default to passing back the wiki article

[dhilgarth]

Don't worry, I understand that you have to process issues very quickly.

Here is the gist:
https://gist.github.com/dhilgarth/77ce8e452d17375a3bc5

It contains the complete log for the test with -params '/licenseName:""Daniel Hilgarth""'

In line 129 is the output from my Write-Host $packageParameters (without double quotes) and in line 28 chocolatey reports what got passed in (with double quotes). So somewhere inbetween, those quotes are stripped out.

[ferventcoder]

You know what - I'm guessing that something in the way this gets passed back to powershell may be doing something weird - look at line 128 https://gist.github.com/dhilgarth/77ce8e452d17375a3bc5#file-chocolatey-log-L128 (it's still passed with quotes).

[dhilgarth]

Yes, that is the reason. I built a batch script to automatically pull down my boxstarter configuration etc. from a private git repository and I went nuts figuring out the quote escaping of the -Command parameter. Most likely, you need to escape the quotes. Depending on how you actually call the command, either by \" or by ``"`.

Here is my batch script as an example:

PowerShell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -NoExit -Command $cloneScriptFolder = (join-path (gi $env:temp).FullName \"boxstarter\"); $cloneScript = (join-path $cloneScriptFolder \"clone.ps1\"); md $cloneScriptFolder -Force; wget http://downloads.fire-development.com/clone.ps1 -OutFile $cloneScript; $quotedCloneScript = '\"{0}\"' -f $cloneScript; Start-Process PowerShell -Verb RunAs -ArgumentList \"-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -NoExit -File $quotedCloneScript\"

[ferventcoder]

It looks like the issue is right here - https://github.com/chocolatey/choco/blob/master/src/chocolatey/infrastructure.app/services/PowershellService.cs#L116-L117.

InstallArgs doesn't really suffer because it is also passed as an environment variable and is used later by chocolatey itself.

The package itself should probably be using $env:ChocolateyPackageParameters instead of $packageParameters. We should still fix this though.

[ferventcoder]

@dhilgarth we commented at almost the same time. :)

[dhilgarth]

I noticed :) I agree, that is where the quote escaping should happen.

[ferventcoder]

@dhilgarth if you feel comfortable providing a PR, I'd accept escaping quotes as ``"`.

[dhilgarth]

Not sure that is correct. Would need to test.

[ferventcoder]

But I dropped the priority since the package isn't following the recommendations of what to use. https://github.com/chocolatey/choco/blob/master/src/chocolatey/infrastructure.app/templates/ChocolateyReadMeTemplate.cs#L92

[dhilgarth]

Indeed. I missed that - I just copied the code from somewhere, but I forgot from where. Maybe I simply missed that line that assigned the environment variable to the local variable.

[ferventcoder]

Looks like the escape needed to be \"