Running commands over Plink from PowerShell fails with "■e: not found"

Question

Thanks for your help. So I have a problem with my script. I am trying to convert my script from batch to PowerShell, mostly just to try to learn it so I am completely new to PowerShell but I know other languages so I am decent at programming. My script creates a kivaCommands.txt file that is then used in Plink to be executed on the server. My batch script works fine with Plink but when I converted to PowerShell the Plink line errors on the -m switch. I get

sh:  ■e:  not found

I get this error no matter what commands are in the txt file, even if the file is empty. The Plink line works fine if I pass it a single command to execute. This is the code I'm having trouble with.

$hostLogin = "myServer"
$passwd = "myPassword"
$command = "H:\kivaCommands.txt"

C:
cd \
cd "Program Files (x86)\PuTTY"

./PLINK.EXE -ssh $hostLogin -P 22 -pw $passwd -m $command

The cd commands were the only way I could get it to work. I tried all other ways of giving the whole path and creating a variable for the path but Plink would not execute.

So after more troubleshooting, I have narrowed it down to the file created. If I manually create the file it works fine but my script creates the file before calling Plink. I have tried three different ways to create the file

"exit ^| sqlplus / @kiva_extract $assessorYear" | Set-Content H:\kivaCommands.txt -Encoding Unicode

"exit ^| sqlplus / @kiva_extract $assessorYear" | Out-File H:\kivaCommands.txt -Encoding Unicode

"exit ^| sqlplus / @kiva_extract $assessorYear" > H:\kivaCommands.txt

The file creates fine and looks right but Plink cannot open correctly.

What happens if your run the same command on Windows console (`cmd.exe`)? I.e. `PLINK.EXE -ssh myServer -P 22 -pw myPassword -m H:\kivaCommands.txt` — Martin Prikryl, Jul 08 '15 at 20:48
I works fine in the command prompt. Its only having an issue with powershell. — bbishopca, Jul 08 '15 at 21:10
Yes. I copied the line straight out of the powershell script and pasted it into cmd and it worked fine. However, powershell will not take the -m switch. Its driving me crazy. I have tried many different drives and locations of the file as well. It finds the file because I get a different error if the file doesn't exist. — bbishopca, Jul 08 '15 at 21:39
After your edit, it seems you actually were not using the same `kivaCommands.txt`. — Martin Prikryl, Jul 09 '15 at 05:40

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:45

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The UTF-8 output file generated by PowerShell starts with UTF-8 BOM mark.

Unix system typically do not expect BOM, so the remote shell tries to interpret it as a command, failing. The BOM is that square character (■) in the error message:

sh:  ■e:  not found

I do not know how to prevent the BOM from appearing in the output.

But you can strip it ex-post:

$MyPath = "H:\kivaCommands.txt"
$MyFile = Get-Content $MyPath
$Utf8NoBomEncoding = New-Object System.Text.UTF8Encoding($False)
[System.IO.File]::WriteAllLines($MyPath, $MyFile, $Utf8NoBomEncoding)

See Using PowerShell to write a file in UTF-8 without the BOM

edited May 23 '17 at 11:45

Community

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answered Jul 09 '15 at 05:47

Martin Prikryl

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This is not the solution I did but what you said about the BOM was correct. I thought I had tried it with a manually created file before but I guess I hadn't. When I created the file myself it worked. This is what I did for the file creation and it worked. I'm not exactly sure why. I added the line `If (Test-Path $commandFile) { Clear-Content H:\kivaCommands.txt }Else{ New-Item H:\kivaCommands.txt -type file }` to create my file and that took care of the issue. Thanks – bbishopca Jul 09 '15 at 14:48

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 08 '15 at 20:35

0

Try executing it like this:

& 'C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY\Plink.exe' -ssh $hostLogin -P 22 -pw $passwd -m $command

When an exe path has spaces in it, you have to quote the path. However a quoted path to PowerShell is just a string. You need to tell PowerShell to execute the command named (or exe pointed to) by the string. That is what the call operator & does. It says "execute the string to the right of me". Note that the string is just the command name and should not contain any arguments to the command.

answered Jul 08 '15 at 20:35

Keith Hill

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Thanks that helped me get rid of all the change directories but I still get the error trying to use the -m switch to pass a file of commands. – bbishopca Jul 08 '15 at 21:12
Does the -m parameter expect the argument to be quoted? If so, try this: `-m ""$command""` Replace with the backtick char. – Keith Hill Jul 09 '15 at 02:08
The error `sh: ■e: not found` indicates the `-m` actually "works" (some commands are executed). The problem is with the file contents. – Martin Prikryl Jul 09 '15 at 05:48

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 09 '16 at 17:47

I have run into this issue with tst10 and found that instead of using the encoding Unicode try ASCII. The reason being it's the plink was looking for a windows txt file.

Text files are in ASCII format, so the following line would not be:

^| sqlplus / @kiva_extract $assessorYear" | Out-File H:\kivaCommands.txt -Encoding Unicode

it would be:

^| sqlplus / @kiva_extract $assessorYear" | Out-File H:\kivaCommands.txt -Encoding ASCII

Running commands over Plink from PowerShell fails with "■e: not found"

3 Answers3