PowerShell is missing the terminator: "

Question

I have the following script code

#[string]$password = $( Read-Host "Input password, please" )
param (
    [string]$ReleaseFile = $(throw "-ReleaseFile is required"),
    [string]$Destination = $(throw "-Destination is required")
)
 
function unzipRelease($src, $dst)
{
    $shell = new-object -com shell.application
    $zip = $shell.NameSpace($src)
    foreach($item in $zip.items())
    {
        $shell.Namespace($dst).copyhere($item)
    }
}

#  .\deployrelease.ps1 -ReleaseFile ".\deploy.zip" -Destination "."

unzipRelease –Src '$ReleaseFile' -Dst '$Destination'

I run the script with: .\deployrelease.ps1 -ReleaseFile ".\deploy.zip" -Destination "."

But I keep getting this:

PS C:\Users\Administrator\Documents\Tools> .\deployrelease.ps1 -ReleaseFile ".\deploy.zip" -Destination
The string starting:
At C:\Users\Administrator\Documents\Tools\deployrelease.ps1:19 char:16
+ unzipRelease â? <<<< "Src '$ReleaseFile' -Dst '$Destination'
is missing the terminator: ".
At C:\Users\Administrator\Documents\Tools\deployrelease.ps1:19 char:55
+ unzipRelease â?"Src '$ReleaseFile' -Dst '$Destination' <<<<
    + CategoryInfo          : ParserError: (Src `'$ReleaseF...'$Destination`':String) [], ParseException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : TerminatorExpectedAtEndOfString

I couldn't find the fix as I do not see any problem.

Any help?

score 151 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 20 '13 at 15:31

151

Look closely at the two dashes in

unzipRelease –Src '$ReleaseFile' -Dst '$Destination'

This first one is not a normal dash but an en-dash (– in HTML). Replace that with the dash found before Dst.

answered Dec 20 '13 at 15:31

Tim Pietzcker

328,213
58
503
561

score 12 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 23 '20 at 08:55

12

In my specific case of the same issue, it was caused by not having the Powershell script saved with an encoding of Windows-1252 or UFT-8 WITH BOM.

answered Jun 23 '20 at 08:55

Morten Nørgaard

2,609
2
24
24

2

Same issue here. I had some unicode characters in the script file, which was saved with an encoding of UTF-8 without BOM. Adding the BOM solved the issue. – zett42 Oct 31 '20 at 14:56

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 28 '20 at 13:47

This can also occur when the path ends in a '' followed by the closing quotation mark. e.g. The following line is passed as one of the arguments and this is not right:

"c:\users\abc\"

instead pass that argument as shown below so that the last backslash is escaped instead of escaping the quotation mark.

"c:\users\abc\\"

score 3 · Answer 4 · edited Aug 03 '15 at 22:03

3

In your script, why are you using single quotes around the variables? These will not be expanded. Use double quotes for variable expansion or just the variable names themselves.

unzipRelease –Src '$ReleaseFile' -Dst '$Destination'

to

unzipRelease –Src "$ReleaseFile" -Dst "$Destination"

edited Aug 03 '15 at 22:03

KyleMit

30,350
66
462
664

answered Dec 20 '13 at 16:04

Jacob

329
2
4

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 06 '18 at 22:44

2

This error will also occur if you call .ps1 file from a .bat file and file path has spaces.

The fix is to make sure there are no spaces in the path of .ps1 file.

answered Dec 06 '18 at 22:44

zar

11,361
14
96
178

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 05 '21 at 13:41

You can spot the error when using @ prefix/suffix with multiline string while you actually have the ending suffix "@.

My script looked like that:

Add-Type @"
    public class SomeClass {
        ...
    }"@

and I still got the: The string is missing the terminator: "@.

Message was misleading because all I needed to do was to put "@ into new line without any leading space:

Add-Type @"
    public class SomeClass {
        ...
    }
"@

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 04 '21 at 09:56

0

my folder contained ' symbol. After I removed it, the issue resolved.

answered Mar 04 '21 at 09:56

Arutyun Enfendzhyan

1,612
1
12
15

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Aug 29 '22 at 11:09

0

if you're using RHEL, try replacing " with ' - this fixed the error for me

cheers

answered Aug 29 '22 at 11:09

Immu

746
5
10

PowerShell is missing the terminator: "

8 Answers8

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