How to call powershell script from powershell script by passing the argument

Question

I have script step1.ps1 & it contains the code:

echo "Starting with Step 3: Configuring the OS..."
echo "$args[0] and $args[1]"
step3.ps1 $args[0] $args[1]

I execute this script

powershell.exe install.ps1 <ip-address> <hostname>

Now when step1.ps1 is executed it calls script step3.ps1 & it contains the code:

echo "checking step3"
echo $args[0] and $args[1]
ac -Encoding UTF8  "$($env:windir)\system32\Drivers\etc\hosts" $args[0] $args[1]
echo "HANA DB Host file entry maintained"

It gives me an error:

powershell.exe : Add-Content : A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument '<hostname>'.  
At line:1 char:1  
+ powershell.exe install.ps1 <ip-address> ...  
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (Add-Content : A...  
 'vue2dvdbhs5'.:String) [], RemoteException  
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NativeCommandError


At step3.ps1:3 char:1  
+ Add-Content -Value $args[0] $args[1] -Path "$($env:windir)\system32\D ...  
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidArgument: (:) [Add-Content],  
 ParameterBindingException  
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId :  
 PositionalParameterNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.AddContentCommand 

Answer 1

Your problem is with the Add-Content ( ac ) call. As a best-practice in scripts, I suggest you avoid aliases and always name your parameters:

     #Alternative: "$($args[0]) $($args[1])"
     #or           ('{0} {1}' -f $args)
Add-Content -Value ($args[0] + ' ' + $args[1]) -Path "$Env:SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts" -Encoding UTF8

The problem is the interpreter is trying to find a positionally-bound parameter that doesn't exist. It is trying to fill -Value with $args[0] and find another parameter for $args[1] . In this example, I group them with parens and add a space for the hosts file.

---

Based on your comment:

$IP = Test-Connection -ComputerName $Env:ComputerName -Count 1
Add-Content -Value "$($IP.Address) $($IP.IPV4Address)" -Path "$Env:SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts" -Encoding UTF8