Syntax error with -workflow.variable in this simple command line (PowerShell under Win10)

[yannic_ariana]

Hi,

I’m stuck with the command line syntax with PowerShell under windows 10 with Knime 3.5.2

I’ve defined a small workflow called test1 doing basically almost nothing, simply saving a dummy csv.

Case 1 (success):
With the following call from command line:
knime -nosplash -noexit -consoleLog -application org.knime.product.KNIME_BATCH_APPLICATION -workflowDir=“C:/Users/yap/KNIME/testflows_workspace/from_command_line/test1”

The workflow is called and exectued properly as shown by the screenshot below:

The screenshot shows also the workflow variables that are defined.

Case 2 (failure):
With the following command (same as above except the setting of a new value for the workflows variable my_integer), it fails.

knime -nosplash -noexit -consoleLog -application org.knime.product.KNIME_BATCH_APPLICATION -workflowDir=“C:/Users/yap/KNIME/testflows_workspace/from_command_line/test1” -workflow.variable=my_integer,5,int

I got an exit code 2, so it’s an issue with the parameters.
In the console log, I got the following message: ERROR main BatchExecutor Unknown option ‘-workflow’

And there, I don’t understand what’s wrong in this command line?
What am I missunderstanding?

Any hint will be appreciated. Thanks

Y

[ipazin]

Hi!

I believe it is up to the order of options. Try putting workflow.variable option before workflowDir option.

Br,
Ivan

[yannic_ariana]

Sadly no, I got exactly the same error. But thanks for the idea anyway.
Br
Y

[ipazin]

This is my call from Linux that works. Not sure there are supposed to be differences between Win and Linux regarding workflow variable…

knime -nosplash -consolelog -application org.knime.product.KNIME_BATCH_APPLICATION -reset -workflow.variable="application_date","2018-08-15",String -workflowDir=...

Br,
Ivan

[yannic_ariana]

That’s weird. I tried with other variables with different types, same thing.

I’ve even replaced the keyword -workflow.variable by -dummy.variable to see what error message I will obtain. And I got the same result, i.e. the ‘dummy’ keyword is unknown (as expected btw).

So it’s the -workflow keyword that is not recognized.

Maybe a knime package is missing in my current installation?

Br
Y

[ipazin]

I doubt you are missing a package.

Do you get error:
ERROR main BatchExecutor Unknown option ‘-workflow’
or
ERROR main BatchExecutor Unknown option ‘-workflow.variable’

Br,
Ivan

[thor]

The only explanation I have is that your dot between workflow and variable isn’t actually a dot but some other weird character.

[yannic_ariana]

The issue comes from Windows Powershell.

Under windows10, the command line can be used from:

• MS DOS windows (with the black background)
• Windows Powershell (with the blue background)

From the MS DOS windows, my command line works fine.

From the Windows Powershell, I got this “workflow” option unknown…

[yannic_ariana]

Issue solved. It’s coming from the presence of the . (dot) in the option names… The dot is seen as a separator (or at least a special character) in Windows PowerShell).

I’ve surrounded the option name workflow.variable by double quotes and it works! It’s ugly but solves the issue.

knime -nosplash -noexit -consoleLog -reset -workflowDir=“C:/Users/yap/KNIME/testflows_workspace/from_command_line/test1/” -application org.knime.product.KNIME_BATCH_APPLICATION -“workflow.variable”=“X”,“x”,String

A little update of the documentation might be interesting (if my fix is the proper one).

Another solution could be to add a new keyword workflowVariable doing the same thing than workflows.variable while keeping workflow.variable to ensure that existing command lines continue to run under Ms Dos windows.

What do you think?

Br,

Y