arguments like "-Ddart.vm.profile=false" aren't reliably parsed in Windows Powershell.

[tylandercasper]

So, this was incredibly painful to track down, but it turns out that if an argument starts with a -(dash) and contains a .(period) than powershell will split it into two arguments. So -Ddart.vm.profile=false is sent to dart as the args "-Ddart" and ".vm.profile=false"
you can test this out with the echo command:

PS C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7> echo -Ddart.vm.profile=false
-Ddart
.vm.profile=false

This breaks argument formatting and will sometimes cause the command
dartaotruntime.exe frontend_server_aot.dart.snapshot [args]
to fall into the options.rest.isNotEmpty case and try to compile ".vm.profile=false" which will cause it to crash with a very confusing message of "unable to rebuild for Windows "type 'Null' is not a subtype of type 'Library' in type cast"

You can read more about it here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/28704867/why-does-powershell-split-arguments-containing-hyphens-and-periods

Not sure how to fix other than dropping any arguments that use that format, but will try switching my terminal type to command prompt

[dart-github-bot]

Summary: Powershell misinterprets Dart VM arguments containing hyphens and periods, splitting them incorrectly. This leads to compilation errors and crashes.

[a-siva]

This doesn't seem like an issue with Dart, it seems more like a problem with the way arguments are passed on the command line (probably needs quotes).

Please reopen issue if you think it is a Dart issue.