Question

I’m newb in powerShell and in cmd, sorry.
I’m trying write script that can generate define like this

#define VERSION "a89aa153a054b865c0ef0a6eddf3dfd578eee9d2"

in VERSION i want to set the parameter from next source

.git\refs\heads\project

I’m tried next cmd script, but i have problems with ” character, i can’t escape it

echo #define VERSION \" > ver.h
type .git\refs\heads\project >> ver.h
echo \" >> ver.h

Also i’m tried use script from that post http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2008/04/29/how-can-i-read-a-text-file-and-extract-all-the-text-enclosed-in-double-quote-marks.aspx

but i have a problems when i’m trying to run it.
i’m created file writeDefine.ps1

Const ForReading = 1

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile("D:\Scripts\DefineTemplate.txt", ForReading)

Do Until objFile.AtEndOfStream
    strText = ""
    strCharacter = objFile.Read(1)
    If strCharacter = Chr(34) Then
        Do Until objFile.AtEndOfStream
           strNewCharacter = objFile.Read(1)
           If strNewCharacter = Chr(34) Then
               Exit Do
           End If
           If strNewCharacter <> "" Then
               strText = strText & strNewCharacter
           End If
        Loop
        Wscript.Echo strText
    End If
Loop

objFile.Close

i want to read template and insert VERSION between ” characters and write that text to the “ver.h”, but
i have got an error

D:\writeHeader.ps1:4 symbol:67
+ Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile("D:\Scripts\DefineTemplate.txt", <<<<  ForReading)
    + CategoryInfo          : ParserError: (,:String) [], ParentContainsErrorRecordException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : MissingExpressionAfterToken 

DefineTemplate.txt

#define VERSION ""

Please, help me. Thanks!

Answer 1

The script sample is VBScript, not Powershell. Thus, you cannot execute it on Powershell. You can, however, execute it via invoking cscript. There is also wscript that executes VBScript, but it is used for graphics: popup windows and such. Rename the file as .vbs and run it. Like so,

cscript d:\writeHeader.vbs

Cmd.exe uses the hat char as escape. Like so,

C:\temp>echo #define VERSION ^" > ver.h
C:\temp>type ver.h
#define VERSION "

Edit: As per how to create the header on a single line, some trickery must be invoked. This would be much more simple in Powershell, but here goes.

:: Assume git data is in git.dat and it doesn't contain a newline
echo ^"> quote.txt
<nul set /p d=#define VERSION ^"> ver.h
copy /y ver.h+git.dat+quote.txt ver2.h
type ver2.h
#define VERSION "0x000..."

… But I’d still do this in Powershell. Like so,

$git = cat .git\refs\heads\project # Read the git project file
$str = $("#define VERSION `"{0}`"" -f $git) # Build a formatted string
set-content -LiteralPath ver.h -value $str # Write the string to a file