PowerShell .ps1 file on Visual Studio post build event

Visual Studio writes the post-build event script to a .BAT file and executes that using cmd.exe. So using & "<path-to-powershell>" won't work. Just execute:

Powershell.exe -file "$(SolutionDir)tools\nuget_pack.ps1"

And if you think you're likely to run into execution policy issues on other machines that build the solution, consider going this route:

Powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -file "$(SolutionDir)tools\nuget_pack.ps1" 

You can reproduce the error in Powershell as follows:

"this is a string" -file "my.ps1"

It is taking the first as a string, the -file as the -f format flag and saying it doesn't have a value expression on the right for the format substitution.

Try like this:

& "c:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -file "$(SolutionDir)tools\nuget_pack.ps1"

(as Keith notes, this will not work as this is run from a bat file than Powershell.)

Or just:

powershell.exe -file "$(SolutionDir)tools\nuget_pack.ps1"

Before calling power-shell script from visual studio, set the ExecutionPolicy to unrestricted from power-shell window like this...

Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser;ExecutionPolicy: unrestricted;

the call power-shell script in the following manner...

powershell.exe $(SolutionDir)Setup.ps1 -SolutionDir $(SolutionDir) -ProjectPath $(ProjectPath)

then in the script, you can always read the parameter like this...

param([string]$SolutionDir,     [string]$ProjectPath);#Write-Host ($SolutionDir +" Call this script with following aruments");#Write-Host ($ProjectPath +" Call this script with following aruments");