Why the Powershell command replace not working for me

Question

I am trying to replace a string in a file like this:

c:\>powershell -Command (gc D:\xxxxxxx\index.html) ^   
 -replace '^<script src="js/locale/languageholder.js"^>^</script^>', '' ^
| Out-File -encoding ASCII "D:\yyyyyyyyy\index.html"

the string I want to remove is:

<script src="js/locale/languageholder.js"></script>

no errors, but it is just not replaced. I assume there must be some charactors to be escaped, but couldn't figure it out.

In the code ^ is used to escape <, otherwise it will show this error:

< was unexpected at this time.

Getting the same error using \ to escape

-replace is a regex operator and ^ is a regex metacharacter describing the starting position of a string. Since no string starts in multiple places, it doesn't work. If you're expecting to find a literal caret ^ you need to escape it with a backslash, eg. \^<script src=... — Mathias R. Jessen
– Mathias R. Jessen, Commented Jan 20, 2022 at 19:39
without ^ there will be error on <, ^ is used to escape. Tried with your suggestion ,doesn't work either, but thanks a lot. — diwatu
– diwatu, Commented Jan 20, 2022 at 19:44
^ is not an escape sequence in neither regex nor PowerShell. Are you running this from a batch script? Or interactively from cmd.exe? — Mathias R. Jessen
– Mathias R. Jessen, Commented Jan 20, 2022 at 19:45
I run this from a batch file, also directly from cmd.exe, same result — diwatu
– diwatu, Commented Jan 20, 2022 at 19:50
Sorry, @MathiasR.Jessen I have a complex batch file, that is just part of the script, I should have made it with more detail. The question is updated with your suggestion. Thanks — diwatu
– diwatu, Commented Jan 20, 2022 at 20:00

mklement0 · Accepted Answer · 2022-01-21 00:28:15Z

3

You need to \-escape all " characters that you want to pass through to the PowerShell command that is ultimately executed, after the PowerShell CLI has stripped unescaped " characters, if any, during command-line parsing:

powershell -Command (gc D:\xxxxxxx\index.html) ^   
 -replace '^<script src=\"js/locale/languageholder.js\"^>^</script^>', '' ^
  | Out-File -encoding ASCII \"D:\yyyyyyyyy\index.html\"

See this answer for more information.

answered Jan 21, 2022 at 0:28

mklement0

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2 Comments

diwatu Over a year ago

correct, escaping " is the tricky part. I tried, it works. Thank you mklement0!

mklement0 Over a year ago

Glad to hear it, @Gisway.; my pleasure

js2010 · Accepted Answer · 2022-01-20 21:06:50Z

1

The easiest way is to have an external powershell file:

replace.ps1:

(gc index.html) -replace '<script src="js/locale/languageholder.js"></script>' |
  set-content index2.html

Then run:

powershell -file replace.ps1

edited Jan 20, 2022 at 21:06

answered Jan 20, 2022 at 20:46

js2010

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