PowerShell script path from module - powershell

I have this myModule.psm1 in modules directory:
function my-test{
$global:PSCommandPath>C:\test.txt;C:\test.txt
}
and this myScript.ps1
my-test
When I run myScript.ps1 with PowerShell ISE, I got path of myScript.ps1 in test.txt file, as i expect.
When I run myScript.ps1 with PowerShell, I got empty test.txt file.
How can I fix it?

This is PowerShell level 100 stuff.
If this is really a module, .psm1 file, then it should be in your modules directory (or directly called from a directory path) and be properly named, then loaded into memory using...
Import-Module -Name 'YourModuleName'
If you are trying to use a function from a .ps1 file, it too must be loaded, by a direct run of the script or dot-sourcing it.
. .\my-test.ps1
At this point, you call any of the functions in the .ps* loaded resource. Your function name and module name should be different things to avoid confusion.
See the help files, web articles, Youtube videos regarding loading .ps* file and running functions from .ps* files. I've provided the link above to Youtube.

Related

My script can read a text file when run manually through ISE, but it looks in a different directory when run through Task Scheduler

Powershell noob here.
I have a script for copying PDF documents and CSV files. The script gets the CSV data from a URL defined in a .txt file in the same directory as the script. In the script, the file is determined like this:
$publishedCSV = Get-Content .\DriveURL.txt -Raw
When I run this script in ISE, it works fine and retrieves all the CSV data. However, when I run it in Scheduler, it tries to find the DriveURL file in System32, rather than in the path that is specified (I used transcript to find out what was happening)
I figured that out, and defined the FULL path of DriveURL, rather than just using the .\ notation. It works, but I don't know why it works
What I did:
Specified proper path of DriveURL and now my script works. I don't understand why it worked previously with using ./DriveURL.txt rather than the full path when I'd run it in ISE, but it didn't when run in Scheduler. It's the same script
If you use relative paths then you must also either set your working directory, or in the script change to the appropriate directory before referencing said relative paths. Alternatively you can use full paths, as you have already discovered.
A simple use of cd or pushd and the automatic $PSScriptRoot variable will change your working directory to wherever the script is saved to:
pushd $PSScriptRoot

Does PowerShell import function as module command by naming convention?

I have a PS module and in the .psm1 file for this module all relevant .ps1 files are "dot-sourced", or in my vocabulary: loaded. In one of the .ps1 files, let us say I have a function SetFoo.
If I do an Import-Module I cannot use the SetFoo function. If I list the commands for the module via Get-Command it is not available.
If I change the name of the function to Set-Foo the function is recognized after having done Import-Module and it is listed via Get-Command.
So my question is: is it via function naming convention that Set-Foo is loaded and SetFoo is not? I have googled myself silly, but cannot find anything in the PS docs about this.

How can I set up a default powershell profile for all my co workers at work as simple as possible?

What do I want to achieve?
I have one ps1 file that has all of my functions inside. In the first step I want to convert it into a ps module. Then I want to have the following:
Colleague gets a script or bat he has to run ONCE. This will set his Modules Environment path $Env:PSModulePath to a path on a network drive everyone has access to
Copy and paste a custom profile.ps1 into the users %userprofile%\Documents\WindowsPowershell that imports the module
Every user should now have the powershell scripts I made available in their shell
How I tried to solve it
The way me and a colleague have set it up in the past is with this:
(we have a profile.ps1 file that does the following):
#set path for profile_loader.ps1
$path = "\\server\share\folderwithscripts";
#call profile_loader.ps1
. "$path"
Then this profile_loader.ps1 baiscally just loads tons of scripts (ps1 files) like this:
. "\\server\share\pathtoanotherscript.ps1
Line after line.
I don't like it and it is too complicated for my 25 other colleagues I want to set up in the future.
Question
What is the best way to achieve this? A good old .bat file that copy and past the ps1 file into their userprofile? Or is there a better way?
As someone who had their $profile wiped and set to a "company default", for the love of god, don't.
If you have to, then I suggest just creating a profile you want everyone to have with all your modules in a shared location, like your securely locked down Sysadmin folder.
Do psedit $proile.AllUsersAllHosts on your machine, modify that, then make a text file with all the hostnames you want to destroy with your own forced profile. Throw this in there to make it import your modules by default.
# Checks your server share for any PSM1 files, could change to include PS1 as well I suppose. Long name because its in a $Profile so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
$ModulePathWithLongNameBecauseSomeoneMayUseThisInAnActualScript = Get-ChildItem -file -Recurse "\\server\share\" -Include "*.psm1"
# Sets module path for other adhoc module calls if they dont want to restart their Powershell
$env:PSModulePath = $env:PSModulePath + ";\\server\share\"
# Imports all PSM1 files from the ModulePath*
Foreach($psm in $ModulePathWithLongNameBecauseSomeoneMayUseThisInAnActualScript){
Import-Module "$($ModulePath.FullName)"
}
Run this on your machine to deliver your soul crushing $profile to your colleagues who may have had their own setup.
# Get a list of machines that your staff will use and throw them into a txt or csv etc.
$PCsForForcedProfile = Get-Content "\\server\share\PleaseNo.txt"
Foreach($Colleague in $PCsForForcedProfile){
Copy-Item "C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\profile.ps1" "\\$Colleague\C$\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\" -force
}

Execute any file as powershell script

I encountered a challenge that I failed to resolve the way I wanted it to do.
I got a file that contains a powershell script, but that file does not have the extension assigned to powershell. The question is: How can I execute a powershell in a script file with the wrong file extension (or none)?
Invoke-Expression does not seem to work because it always executes the default action assigned to the file type. If I give that cmdlet a *.txt file the editor pops open.
I know that I can resolve that by renaming the script file or naming it properly in the first place. This is what I ended up doing.
Still I wonder if it is possible to execute a file as a script with the wrong file extension without modifying, renaming or coping the file. And if it is not working… why is that?
Powershell is designed such that executing or dot sourcing a file requires a .ps1 extension, and Powershell.exe will refuse to run any file that doesn't have that extension.
One way to invoke Powershell code from a non-ps1 file is to launch Powershell.exe using STDIN, and pipe your script to it. This requires a new shell, so is not very good for launching scripts from within an existing scripting environment.
Powershell.exe - < thescript.txt
Another way is to create a temporary .ps1 file and execute that. This has the advantage of using the current scripting environment, but requires a temporary file.
Copy-Item -Path '.\thescript.txt' -Dest '.\temp.ps1'
. .\temp.ps1
del .\temp.ps1
In my opinion, the file extension restriction is silly, but that's how it was designed. Apocryphally, this is for security reasons, but I can find no citation to back it up.
Or you use Get-Content to read the file and then invoke that with Invoke-Expression or Invoke-Command -ScriptBlock.

Unable to import a powershell module from a script

I have a strange problem I have created a module and placed it in the “C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules” directory .
I can open powershell and import my module fine but it does not work when I do the following.
I have batch file that calls the powershell script using the following command
START /min /wait powershell "C:\test.ps1" "%1"
The script starts but it is unable to import module.
I placed this command “Get-Module -ListAvailable | Out-File c:\module.txt” in the test.ps1.
When I review the module.txt file I see it does not list my module there.
It seems that for some reason when I call the script this way it can’t access the module
A module has to be either a .psm1 file or a .psd1 manifest file (or a dll). A .ps1 doesn't qualify as a module, it is "just" a script.