| When a PowerShell task is run on a Windows machine, there are differences in how it resolves paths to some executable files between runs via WinRM and PCP. When running a task that executes the following PowerShell snippet the results are as follows. Notice the path to puppet.bat resolves all the way down to the bat file:
(Get-Command puppet) | Select-object * |
(Get-Command whoami) | Select-object * |
whoami
|
The result via WinRM:
HelpUri : |
FileVersionInfo : File: C:\Program Files\Puppet Labs\Puppet\bin\puppet.bat |
InternalName: |
OriginalFilename: |
FileVersion: |
FileDescription: |
Product: |
ProductVersion: |
Debug: False |
Patched: False |
PreRelease: False |
PrivateBuild: False |
SpecialBuild: False |
Language: |
|
Path : C:\Program Files\Puppet Labs\Puppet\bin\puppet.bat |
Extension : .bat |
Definition : C:\Program Files\Puppet Labs\Puppet\bin\puppet.bat |
Source : C:\Program Files\Puppet Labs\Puppet\bin\puppet.bat |
Version : 0.0.0.0 |
Visibility : Public |
OutputType : {System.String} |
Name : puppet.bat |
CommandType : Application |
ModuleName : |
Module : |
RemotingCapability : PowerShell |
Parameters : |
ParameterSets : |
|
HelpUri : |
FileVersionInfo : File: C:\Windows\system32\whoami.exe |
InternalName: whoami.exe |
OriginalFilename: whoami.exe.mui |
FileVersion: 10.0.14393.0 (rs1_release.160715-1616) |
FileDescription: whoami - displays logged on user information |
Product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System |
ProductVersion: 10.0.14393.0 |
Debug: False |
Patched: False |
PreRelease: False |
PrivateBuild: False |
SpecialBuild: False |
Language: English (United States) |
|
Path : C:\Windows\system32\whoami.exe |
Extension : .exe |
Definition : C:\Windows\system32\whoami.exe |
Source : C:\Windows\system32\whoami.exe |
Version : 10.0.14393.0 |
Visibility : Public |
OutputType : {System.String} |
Name : whoami.exe |
CommandType : Application |
ModuleName : |
Module : |
RemotingCapability : PowerShell |
Parameters : |
ParameterSets : |
|
r5oifq86l1517gl\administrator
|
Result via PCP. Notice here that the path to the bat file is not shown. Only the folder it resides in:
HelpUri : |
FileVersionInfo : File: C:\Program Files\Puppet |
Labs\Puppet\puppet\bin\puppet |
InternalName: |
OriginalFilename: |
FileVersion: |
FileDescription: |
Product: |
ProductVersion: |
Debug: False |
Patched: False |
PreRelease: False |
PrivateBuild: False |
SpecialBuild: False |
Language: |
|
Path : C:\Program Files\Puppet Labs\Puppet\puppet\bin\puppet |
Extension : |
Definition : C:\Program Files\Puppet Labs\Puppet\puppet\bin\puppet |
Source : C:\Program Files\Puppet Labs\Puppet\puppet\bin\puppet |
Version : 0.0.0.0 |
Visibility : Public |
OutputType : {System.String} |
Name : puppet |
CommandType : Application |
ModuleName : |
Module : |
RemotingCapability : PowerShell |
Parameters : |
ParameterSets : |
|
HelpUri : |
FileVersionInfo : File: C:\Windows\system32\whoami.exe |
InternalName: whoami.exe |
OriginalFilename: whoami.exe.mui |
FileVersion: 10.0.14393.0 (rs1_release.160715-1616) |
FileDescription: whoami - displays logged on user |
information |
Product: Microsoftr Windowsr Operating System |
ProductVersion: 10.0.14393.0 |
Debug: False |
Patched: False |
PreRelease: False |
PrivateBuild: False |
SpecialBuild: False |
Language: English (United States) |
|
Path : C:\Windows\system32\whoami.exe |
Extension : .exe |
Definition : C:\Windows\system32\whoami.exe |
Source : C:\Windows\system32\whoami.exe |
Version : 10.0.14393.0 |
Visibility : Public |
OutputType : {System.String} |
Name : whoami.exe |
CommandType : Application |
ModuleName : |
Module : |
RemotingCapability : PowerShell |
Parameters : |
ParameterSets : |
|
nt authority\system
|
The effect for the user is that they are unable to run some commands that they would otherwise expect to be able to run from a bolt task if the task is run via PCP. The workaround is to invoke the full path to the file to be executed. Something like:
& 'C:\Program Files\Puppet Labs\Puppet\bin\puppet.bat' agent -t
|
But this puts the onus on the user to either trust that hard coded paths will work for well known programs, or to do the search for the program beforehand within the task. |
