Question

I have this powershell script that calls itself (because stage 1 of the script is to load assemblies in the GAC so i need AppDomain refreshed). How do I pass a switch parameter to self. At the moment I am doing this:

if ($provisionsites -eq $true)
{
    powershell $currentDirectory/Deploy.ps1 -reload:$true -env:$env -provisionsites
}
else
{
    powershell $currentDirectory/Deploy.ps1 -reload:$true -env:$env
}

It seems too verbose to me. If i try this:

powershell $currentDirectory/Deploy.ps1 -reload:$true -env:$env -provisionsites:$provisionsites

It fails with :

Cannot convert value “System.String” to type
“System.Management.Automat ion.SwitchParameter

Answer 1

Presumably call of powershell.exe is not needed at all. Replace it with the operator &, i.e. call the script in the same session and avoid parameter transformations and related issues. The issues are resolvable but better be avoided in the first place. That is, do

& $currentDirectory/Deploy.ps1 -reload:$true -env:$env -provisionsites:$provisionsites

---

As for the issues. $provisionsites is converted to a string (True or False, not $true or $false) before passing in the external application. Thus, the result actual arguments look like -provisionsites:True. Then in a new powershell session it passes such an argument to the script Deploy.ps1. It fails because strings True or False are not expected, a Boolean value is expected.

A possible workaround would be adding escaped $

powershell $currentDirectory/Deploy.ps1 ... -provisionsites:`$$provisionsites

But consider to remove the call of powershell and its issues.