Specifying AppCmd arguments with single quote

Question

I'm attempting to configure a site in IIS on Windows 2016 using appcmd.exe. Specifically PHP and FastCGI. I'm running into an issue where specifying the arguments parameter with single quotes fails. I can't seem to figure out how to escape this or what incantation of quotes is required. Here's the command the does work:

%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set config /section:system.webServer/fastCGI /+"[fullPath='c:\php\php-cgi.exe', arguments='-d open_basedir=E:\Web\www.example.com;E:\Sessions\www.example.com;E:\Logs\www.example.com;E:\Temp\www.example.com', maxInstances='0', instanceMaxRequests='10000']" /commit:apphost

With open_basedir on Windows I need

-d open_basedir=E:\Web\www.example.com;E:\Sessions\www.example.com;E:\Logs\www.example.com;E:\Temp\www.example.com

to be enclosed in single quotes. Like this:

-d open_basedir='E:\Web\www.example.com;E:\Sessions\www.example.com;E:\Logs\www.example.com;E:\Temp\www.example.com'

If I create the FastCGI application first without arguments, I can add them afterwards like this:

%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set config /section:system.webServer/fastCGI /[fullPath='c:\php\php-cgi.exe'].arguments:"-d open_basedir='E:\Web\www.example.com;E:\Sessions\www.example.com;E:\Logs\www.example.com;E:\Temp\www.example.com'" /commit:apphost

This issue is that I can't change additional settings afterwards because I can't specify the single quoted path with appcmd.

I can accomplish this with the IIS Manager GUI and via C# code. So it's definitely possible to set it this way. I just can't seem to get the correct format for appcmd.

Answer 1

You use two single quotes to indicate a single quote in a string, for example

C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set config  -section:system.webserver/httpProtocol /+"customHeaders.[name='Content-Security-Policy',value='default-src ''self'';']"

Answer 2

I ran across your question while trying to find the same answer. I discovered a workaround and wanted to let you know.

Use the XML i/o feature of appcmd.exe. On a site with the proper headers, run appcmd list config /section:httpProtocol /xml > addheaders.xml and save the output file. On another system, you can run appcmd set config /in < addheaders.xml

I'm sure you can find a way to include the xml inside the script if you don't want to rely on an extra file.