Cannot properly run MSTest with arguments in Powershell

Question

I am trying to run MSTest in Powershell. One of the options to pass is /testcontainer and it can be passed multiple times.

In my script I need to build the option string as I can have many test containers passed to the script, thus this is what I do:

param(
  [string[]] $TestContainers = @(
    'C:\Users\myuser\MyProject\test\Test1\bin\Debug\Test1.dll', 
    'C:\Users\myuser\MyProject\test\Test1\bin\Debug\Test2.dll', 
    'C:\Users\myuser\MyProject\test\Test1\bin\Debug\Test3.dll', 
    'C:\Users\myuser\MyProject\test\Test1\bin\Debug\Test4.dll'
  )
);

$TestContainersOptions = @();
foreach ($TestContainer in $TestContainers)
{
  $TestContainersOptions += "/testcontainer:'$TestContainer'";
}

$MSTestPath = "C:\Program...\MsTest.exe"

& $MSTestPath $TestContainersOptions;

When I run the script I get:

Microsoft (R) Test Execution Command Line Tool Version 14.0.23107.0 Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

The given path's format is not supported. For switch syntax, type "MSTest /help"

What to do?

Your second argument to & should be a string array as well: $TestContainersOptions = $TestContainers|%{"/testcontainer:'$_'"}; & $MSTestPath $TestContainersOptions — Mathias R. Jessen
@MathiasR.Jessen: I thins your comment is worth an answer... I will try that! — Andry
@MathiasR.Jessen: Well it gets better, but I get: The given path's format is not supported. But if I run the command manually it works! — Andry
I'd imagine it having a problem with ' vs. ". You can escape " inside a double-quoted string by entering in twice: "/testcontainer:""$TestContainer""" — Mathias R. Jessen
Oh yes! That was it! Man thanks, please post it as an answer, I'll mark it! — Andry

Mathias R. Jessen Mathias R. Jessen · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-14T20:51:12

Enclose each path in " (escape sequence for double-quotes is just two in a row, ""):

$TestContainersOptions = foreach ($TestContainer in $TestContainers)
{
    "/testcontainer:""$TestContainer"""
}

If you assign the output from the foreach loop directly to the variable (as shown above), you don't have to declare it as an array beforehand

Cannot properly run MSTest with arguments in Powershell

1 Answers