Changing two lines of code with powershell in a .bat

Question

I've been following this post and I've used this code in the .bat:

powershell -Command "(gc -Raw test.py) -replace 'test = ''lol''`r`nlol = ''test''', 'test1 = ''lol1''`r`nlol2 = ''test2''' | Out-File test2.py"

It does recognise backtick r backtick n because if replaces this file:

by this file:

My problem is that in the created file, I have backtick r backtick n instead of linebreaks. Is it normal? Am I missing something?

I also tried using \r\n instead of backticks r backticks n and the same happens (it's recognised but in the output file there is \r\n and not an actual linebreak (I'm on Windows 11).

Santiago Squarzon · Accepted Answer · 2022-04-01T17:04:40.983

2

You need to use double-quotes for escape sequences, see about_Special_Characters.

An example for you to test:

$text = @'
test = 'lol'
lol = 'test'
'@

$text -replace "test = 'lol'\r?\nlol = 'test'", "test1 = 'lol1'`r`nlol2 = 'test2'"

As for your call to powershell.exe from the batch file, I believe this could work (you can use "^"" for escaping):

powershell -Command "(gc -Raw test.py) -replace "^""test = 'lol'\r?\nlol = 'test'""", """test1 = 'lol1'`r`nlol2 = 'test2'"^"" | Out-File test2.py"

All credits on the call to cmd and the required escaping goes to this answer.

edited Apr 01 '22 at 17:04

answered Apr 01 '22 at 16:35

Santiago Squarzon

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But in my .bat file I already used double quotes for `-Command " ... "`. Should I use single quotes there and double quotes later (as in replacing `replace ' ... '` by `replace " ... "`) then? – FluidMechanics Potential Flows Apr 01 '22 at 16:42
@FluidMechanicsPotentialFlows try with my update – Santiago Squarzon Apr 01 '22 at 16:48
This happens: The string is missing the terminator: ". + CategoryInfo : ParserError: (:) [], ParentContainsErrorRecordException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : TerminatorExpectedAtEndOfString – FluidMechanics Potential Flows Apr 01 '22 at 16:51
My command was https://i.imgur.com/Bbjn9Sq.png – FluidMechanics Potential Flows Apr 01 '22 at 16:52
@FluidMechanicsPotentialFlows see my new update, that one worked for me. Hopefully this escaping non-sense from Cmd works. Will never understand why is Cmd needed to run powershell code but oh well.. – Santiago Squarzon Apr 01 '22 at 17:05
it works, very obscure `"^""`, but i guess it does the job :D – FluidMechanics Potential Flows Apr 01 '22 at 22:36

Changing two lines of code with powershell in a .bat

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