How to embed powershell script inside GO program to build a single binary

Question

I like to embed some powershell scripts in one Go binary. How can I embed them and execute the commands from GO. Currently I got it by running an external script:

out,err := exec.Command("Powershell", "-file" , "C:\\test\\go\\my.ps1").Output()
if err != nil {
     log.Fatal(err)

}

fmt.Printf("Data from powershell script is: %s", out)

my.ps1 content:

[System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent().Name

I got a few more powershell scripts, I like to add the powershell scripts into my go binary file. Have tryed a few things I did find on the internet but failed.

You can embed files in a Go binary, but to expose these to the host OS you'd need to copy the embedded assets back out to the filesystem (e.g. /tmp) - then you could initiate your exec.Command. — colm.anseo
– colm.anseo, Commented Nov 30, 2021 at 13:20

colm.anseo · Accepted Answer · 2021-11-30 14:38:50Z

2

Embed your asset:

import (
    _ "embed"
)

//go:embed my.ps1
var shellBody []byte

and then when you need the host OS to access this, surface it via a temp file:

tmp, err := ioutil.TempFile("/tmp", "powershell.*.ps1")
if err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
}
defer os.Remove(tmp.Name()) // clean-up when done


f, err := os.OpenFile(tmp.Name(), os.O_WRONLY|os.O_CREATE|os.O_TRUNC, 0644)
if err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
}

_, err = f.Write(shellBody)
if err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
}

err = f.Close()
if err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
}

then you can invoke Powershell:

out, err := exec.Command("Powershell", "-file" , tmp.Name()).Output()
if err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
}

answered Nov 30, 2021 at 14:38

colm.anseo

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2 Comments

mj3c Over a year ago

Is there no way to pass the embedded filename to the command (Powershell in this case) without doing the whole process of creating and writing to a temporary file?

colm.anseo Over a year ago

Unfortunately no. The. Embedded files are in the go binary. To surface them, one has to proactively extract them via go code.

elulcao · Accepted Answer · 2021-11-30 14:21:43Z

1

You can use go1.16 and embed, you should create a separated folder to save the embed file definitions, then use another function to return the string or byte[] file reference.

package main

import (
    "embed"
    "text/template"
)

var (
    // file.txt resides in a separated folder
    //go:embed file.txt
    myfile string
)

func main() {
    fmt.Printf("File %q\n", myfile)
}

answered Nov 30, 2021 at 14:21

elulcao

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