Set-Content : A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument

Question

I am trying to use Set-Content to create an xml document with a variable being passed. I am able to run the following command from my own desktop (windows 10) without issue. But running it on a server (Windows Server 2016) I get an error.

Set-Location "C:\MID Server\prodAgent\agent"
$MyVariable = '123456'
Set-Content C:\MID Server\prodAgent\agent\config.xml "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<parameters>
    <parameter name='url' value='https://dev.service.com/'/>
    <parameter name='mid.instance.username' value='Server'/>
    <parameter secure='true' name='mid.instance.password' value='$MyVariable'/>
    <parameter name='name' value='Test'/>
    <parameter name='mid_sys_id' value=''/>
</parameters>"`

Set-Content : A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument '<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<parameters>
    <parameter name='url' value='https://dev.service-now.com/'/>
    <parameter name='mid.instance.username' value='Server'/>
    <parameter secure='true' name='mid.instance.password' value='123456'/>
    <parameter name='name' value='Test'/>
    <parameter name='mid_sys_id' value=''/>
</parameters>'.
At line:16 char:1
+ Set-Content C:\MID Server\prodAgent\agent\config.xml "<?xml version=' ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidArgument: (:) [Set-Content], ParameterBindingException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : PositionalParameterNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.SetContentCommand

In both cases I am running the command as Admin.

Thanks for your help

Answer 1

On PowerShell 5.1, apart from the final backtick in your code and the unquoted path while this path contains a space character, I cannot reproduce that error.

Since you want to write XML, why not use the xml .Save() method for this?

$MyVariable = '123456'
[xml]$xml =  @"
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<parameters>
    <parameter name='url' value='https://dev.service.com/'/>
    <parameter name='mid.instance.username' value='Server'/>
    <parameter secure='true' name='mid.instance.password' value='$MyVariable'/>
    <parameter name='name' value='Test'/>
    <parameter name='mid_sys_id' value=''/>
</parameters>
"@

$xml.Save('C:\MID Server\prodAgent\agent\config.xml')

If you must do this with Set-Content, I'd advise using a Here-String:

$MyVariable = '123456'
Set-Content -Path 'C:\MID Server\prodAgent\agent\config.xml' -Value @"
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<parameters>
    <parameter name='url' value='https://dev.service.com/'/>
    <parameter name='mid.instance.username' value='Server'/>
    <parameter secure='true' name='mid.instance.password' value='$MyVariable'/>
    <parameter name='name' value='Test'/>
    <parameter name='mid_sys_id' value=''/>
</parameters>
"@ -Encoding UTF8