Using Powershell in Windows 10. To change the prompt from:
PS C:\Users\b.HQ\Desktop\tsdev\my_folder>
PS my_folder> tsc
I used the following command in Powershell:
function prompt {'PS ' + $(Get-Location | Split-Path -Leaf) + ">"}
But, each time I restart Powershell, I have to reenter this. Is there any way to persist this change?
P.S. I know nothing about the config of Powershell, and I have looked for a solution, but apart from the prompt I am using, I did not see a way of saving it.
Run powershell as administrator, then run the following:
Test-Path $Profile
if it returns false then no you don’t have a profile file yet, so create it:
New-Item –Path $Profile –Type File –Force
(this will create profile file, or will overwrite the existing one)
Then, edit your profile file:
notepad $Profile
put your function in the file and save.
I created this neat prompt to that shows the drive and last folder.
For you example it would render as
PS C:\Users\b.HQ\Desktop\tsdev\my_folder>
as
PS C:\...\my_folder>
The prompt function is:
function prompt {"PS " + (get-location).drive.name+":\...\"+ $( ( get-item $pwd ).Name ) +">"}
Im struggling with a PowerShell challenge, the setup is as follows:
In the C:\update folder I have ReInstall.ps1 powershell script, that will try to run a script in a folder on another drive:
q:\test\install.ps1
In the q:\test folder, I have a Powershell file callled Install.ps1 that tries to include another ps file called InstallFunctions.ps1
. .\installfunctions.ps1
The two Install ps files works nicely when executed from the q:\test\folder.
But if I try to run the ReInstall.ps1 script from the c:\Update folder, it nicely starts the q:\install.ps1, but then fails because it can't find the Installfunctions.ps1.
It tries to find the InstallFunctions.ps1 in the c:\update folder, instead of the q:\test folder.
The term '.\installfunctions.ps1' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, >function, script file, or operable program.
Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path >is correct and try again.
Since the Install ps files are inside a ISO file, and must work in any scenario, I can't change them. So I have to figure out a way to make the Install.ps1 believe it runs from q:\test folder.
You have to retrieve the script folder like this (PS 2.0):
$scriptPath = Split-Path $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition
. "$scriptPath\installfunctions.ps1"
#or . (Join-Path $scriptPath "installfunctions.ps1")
In PS 3.0 $PSScriptRoot holds the info you need:
. "$PSScriptRoot\installfunctions.ps1"
#or . (Join-Path $PSScriptRoot "installfunctions.ps1")
I am fairly new to powershell and I am trying to create a script that executes a .exe file. I can execute them on my machine no problem because the folder path is hard coded. The problem is that if I shift this script to another computer, the .exe it calls might be located in a different folder structure. Example
My computer:
D:\Folder1\subfolder\RunMe.exe
Client computer might be
D:\RunMe\subfolder\RunMe.exe
I just need it to execute the RunMe.exe no matter where it is. Is there a way to do this in powershell?
# 1. Get the location of RunMe.exe
$RunMe = Get-ChildItem -Path d:\* -Include RunMe.exe -Recurse;
# 2. Invoke RunMe.exe
Start-Process -FilePath $RunMe[0].FullName -Wait -NoNewWindow;
I have a PowerShell script that does some stuff using the script’s current directory. So when inside that directory, running .\script.ps1 works correctly.
Now I want to call that script from a different directory without changing the referencing directory of the script. So I want to call ..\..\dir\script.ps1 and still want that script to behave as it was called from inside its directory.
How do I do that, or how do I modify a script so it can run from any directory?
Do you mean you want the script's own path so you can reference a file next to the script? Try this:
$scriptpath = $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path
$dir = Split-Path $scriptpath
Write-host "My directory is $dir"
You can get a lot of info from $MyInvocation and its properties.
If you want to reference a file in the current working directory, you can use Resolve-Path or Get-ChildItem:
$filepath = Resolve-Path "somefile.txt"
EDIT (based on comment from OP):
# temporarily change to the correct folder
Push-Location $dir
# do stuff, call ant, etc
# now back to previous directory
Pop-Location
There's probably other ways of achieving something similar using Invoke-Command as well.
There are answers with big number of votes, but when I read your question, I thought you wanted to know the directory where the script is, not that where the script is running. You can get the information with powershell's auto variables
$PSScriptRoot # the directory where the script exists, not the
# target directory the script is running in
$PSCommandPath # the full path of the script
For example, I have a $profile script that finds a Visual Studio solution file and starts it. I wanted to store the full path, once a solution file is started. But I wanted to save the file where the original script exists. So I used $PsScriptRoot.
If you're calling native apps, you need to worry about [Environment]::CurrentDirectory not about PowerShell's $PWD current directory. For various reasons, PowerShell does not set the process' current working directory when you Set-Location or Push-Location, so you need to make sure you do so if you're running applications (or cmdlets) that expect it to be set.
In a script, you can do this:
$CWD = [Environment]::CurrentDirectory
Push-Location $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path
[Environment]::CurrentDirectory = $PWD
## Your script code calling a native executable
Pop-Location
# Consider whether you really want to set it back:
# What if another runspace has set it in-between calls?
[Environment]::CurrentDirectory = $CWD
There's no foolproof alternative to this. Many of us put a line in our prompt function to set [Environment]::CurrentDirectory ... but that doesn't help you when you're changing the location within a script.
Two notes about the reason why this is not set by PowerShell automatically:
PowerShell can be multi-threaded. You can have multiple Runspaces (see RunspacePool, and the PSThreadJob module) running simultaneously withinin a single process. Each runspace has it's own $PWD present working directory, but there's only one process, and only one Environment.
Even when you're single-threaded, $PWD isn't always a legal CurrentDirectory (you might CD into the registry provider for instance).
If you want to put it into your prompt (which would only run in the main runspace, single-threaded), you need to use:
[Environment]::CurrentDirectory = Get-Location -PSProvider FileSystem
This would work fine.
Push-Location $PSScriptRoot
Write-Host CurrentDirectory $CurDir
I often used the following code to import a module which sit under the same directory as the running script. It will first get the directory from which powershell is running
$currentPath=Split-Path ((Get-Variable
MyInvocation -Scope
0).Value).MyCommand.Path
import-module "$currentPath\sqlps.ps1"
I made a one-liner out of #JohnL's solution:
$MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path | Split-Path | Push-Location
Well I was looking for solution for this for a while, without any scripts just from CLI. This is how I do it xD:
Navigate to folder from which you want to run script (important thing is that you have tab completions)
..\..\dir
Now surround location with double quotes, and inside them add cd, so we could invoke another instance of powershell.
"cd ..\..\dir"
Add another command to run script separated by ;, with is a command separator in powershell
"cd ..\..\dir\; script.ps1"
Finally Run it with another instance of powershell
start powershell "cd..\..\dir\; script.ps1"
This will open new powershell window, go to ..\..\dir, run script.ps1 and close window.
Note that ";" just separates commands, like you typed them one by one, if first fails second will run and next after, and next after... If you wanna keep new powershell window open you add -noexit in passed command . Note that I first navigate to desired folder so I could use tab completions (you couldn't in double quotes).
start powershell "-noexit cd..\..\dir\; script.ps1"
Use double quotes "" so you could pass directories with spaces in names e.g.,
start powershell "-noexit cd '..\..\my dir'; script.ps1"
I am on a Windows 7 machine trying to execute a PowerShell script to copy a template directory to another directory. The command I am executing looks like:
Copy-Item -path "$projectsFolder$SourceFolder" -destination "$Test" -recurse -verbose;
The parameters are as follows:
path: C:\Users\username\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\TemplateSolution\Source
Destination: C:\Users\username\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\test\source\main
When I run this command at a PowerShell prompt, the files are copied correctly. If I try and execute the command in the script with verbose enabled, it appears to copy the files and directories, but only the top level directory is created in the file system. I am not sure why this would happen and I would appreciate any guidance or troubleshooting steps to perform.
Make sure you put quotes around the directory names if they have spaces in them. Also, you may need the -Force parameter to create destination directories if they do not exist.