Cannot process the XML from the 'Output' stream of 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\wsl.exe': Name cannot begin with the '#' character

[felixfbecker]

I am running Invoke-WslCommand -Command myscript.sh to execute a shell script and am getting the following error:

wsl : Cannot process the XML from the 'Output' stream of 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\wsl.exe': Name cannot begin with the '#' character, hexadecimal value 0x23. Line 1, position 6145.
At line:1 char:1
+ wsl pwsh -OutputFormat xml -EncodedCommand JABWAGUAcgBiAG8AcwBlAFAAcg ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo          : SyntaxError: (C:\WINDOWS\system32\wsl.exe:String) [], XmlException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ProcessStreamReader_CliXmlError

wsl : Cannot process the XML from the 'Output' stream of 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\wsl.exe': Data at the root level is invalid. Line 1, position 256.
At line:1 char:1
+ wsl pwsh -OutputFormat xml -EncodedCommand JABWAGUAcgBiAG8AcwBlAFAAcg ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo          : SyntaxError: (C:\WINDOWS\system32\wsl.exe:String) [], XmlException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ProcessStreamReader_CliXmlError

WSL PSVersionTable:

Name                           Value
----                           -----
PSVersion                      6.0.2
PSEdition                      Core
GitCommitId                    v6.0.2
OS                             Linux 4.4.0-17666-Microsoft #1000-Microsoft Fri May 04 15:01:00 PST 2018
Platform                       Unix
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion              3.0

Windows PSVersionTable:

Name                           Value
----                           -----
PSVersion                      6.0.2
PSEdition                      Core
GitCommitId                    v6.0.2
OS                             Microsoft Windows 10.0.17666
Platform                       Win32NT
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion              3.0

[TylerLeonhardt]

Hmm I never considered running a shell script.

PSWsl was made to run PowerShell inside of the wsl distros not a shell script.

That said, supporting running shell scripts as well is a reasonable feature request!

As a workaround, I bet you could do something like:

Invoke-WslCommand -Command "bash myscript.sh"

haven't tested it though.

[felixfbecker]

Well PowerShell was designed to be able to call native commands. I can see that the shell script is getting executed (some logs come through) but then the error occurs.

[felixfbecker]

Maybe I can try to capture the output of the shell script into a file and cat that for a reproducible example. It doesn't happen when e.g. just executing -Command "echo hi".

[TylerLeonhardt]

@felixfbecker yes PowerShell was designed to call native commands but a shell script isn't a native command in the same sense that ls, ps and grep are.

I'm curious... are you able to run the shell script in a normal instance of pwsh? (rather than going through PSWsl)

steps:

ps/cmd> wsl
bash > pwsh
PS > ./myscript.sh

[felixfbecker]

yes PowerShell was designed to call native commands but a shell script isn't a native command in the same sense that ls, ps and grep are.

Calling a shell script is the same as calling bash and passing the script as a parameter, which is a native command, so I wouldn't expect it to behave any differently.

I'm curious... are you able to run the shell script in a normal instance of pwsh? (rather than going through PSWsl)

Yes, it works completely fine. I think something here must be wrong with the XML serialisation/deserialisation of the output that the script generates.

[TylerLeonhardt]

Yes, it works completely fine. I think something here must be wrong with the XML serialisation/deserialisation of the output that the script generates.

Very possible! Are you able to share an example script that causes this error?