PowerShell is a command line driven scripting language created by Microsoft and primarily used in Windows operating systems. Learning PowerShell can help you quickly master the tools that make managing your infrastructure easier. With its flexibility, there are many ways to create custom PowerShell modules for fast code reuse across multiple projects or even different machines at home or work.,
The “create powershell module with multiple functions” is a useful tool for developers. It allows you to create PowerShell modules and export them as .psm1 files. This will allow the user to reuse their code in other scripts or projects.
PowerShell automation relies heavily on the use of PowerShell modules. When you initially start learning PowerShell, you’ll probably start with single commands. This leads to the creation of scripts, which eventually leads to the creation of functions.
You may make your scripts more modular by utilizing functions. This enables you to reuse the same code in several locations without having to copy and paste it all over the place. Using functions allows you to save time by not having to make the same changes to the same code wherever it is used. Instead, you may concentrate on improving your code in a single location.
You may put these functions together into a module to take them to the next level.
A module is a text file with the psm1 extension that contains a set of functions. Optional extras like a module manifest and comment-based or external support may be supplied. These will be discussed later.
Prerequisites
In this post, I’ll be utilizing Windows PowerShell 5.1. If you’re using an earlier version of PowerShell or PowerShell Core, the results you get may differ.
Using Modules to Interact
When you initially start a PowerShell session, you’ll be given two modules to work with. Microsoft is the first. PowerShell. Many fundamental PowerShell functions that you are already familiar with are included in this utility. PSReadline is the other module. Using the Get-Module command, you may view these initial modules.
Get-Module returns a list of modules.
However, this is not an exhaustive list of all accessible modules. Modules that have been installed since PowerShell 3 will be imported when required. If you’re using an earlier version of PowerShell, you’ll need to first load the module using the Import-Module command before executing any of the instructions.
Even in later versions, there are situations when you’ll want to utilize Import-Module. If you wish to import a module that has already been installed, use Import-Module as follows:
Using Import-Module to import modules
While Get-Module displays all imported modules, it does not display modules that have not yet been imported. The ListAvailable argument may then be used to display all of the additional modules that are available.
Get-Module -ListAvailable returns a list of all accessible modules.
By default, not all commands are shown.
The ExportedCommands property includes a list of all the commands accessible in the module that are exported. There may be some discrepancies between this list and the module file. The module manifest has a feature called exported commands that enables the writer to hide a function. The Export-ModuleMember cmdlet may also be used by module developers, but it is outside the scope of this article.
Because it’s supposed to assist other functions rather than be user-facing, module developers may choose to hide a function. To make a function invisible, the author would remove it from the manifest’s FunctionsToExport array. An extended view of the ExportedCommands property can be seen here.
Viewing commands that have been exported
Module Importing
Modules may be used in a variety of ways. The location to the module files may be used to manually import the module. This enables you to test and update the module without putting in a lot of effort. However, since you’d have to use the precise path of the module, this isn’t really portable. PowerShell won’t auto-import any modules that aren’t in the $env:PSModulePath variable.
Importing Commands One by One
You can use Import-Module to only import specific functions instead of the whole module by using the Function parameter. This can save time when Module Importing from remote systems, such as the Office 365 modules.
All Modules for Users
All modules are installed at C:Program FilesWindowsPowerShellModules for all users. This directory includes a number of pre-installed modules, as well as any modules installed using Install-Module with the default scope of AllUsers.
Modules for Current Users
If you are installing a module but only want a single user to use it, there is a CurrentUser scope. This puts the module files in your Documents folder at C:Users<username>DocumentsWindowsPowerShellModules. This can be useful in an environment where you use folder redirection with the Documents folder.
Because they both share the same documents folder, you may install a module on one computer and use it on the other.
Modules of the System
For completeness, there is also a module directory at C:WindowsSystem32WindowsPowerShell1.0Modules. While technically, a module placed in this path would be imported like one of the other paths, but it is not recommended as this is reserved for Microsoft’s Modules of the System.
The Importance of Naming
You may manually store your module under one of these locations to make it accessible by default when starting a new session, but you must adhere to the module name conventions. The folder in which the module files are stored must have the same name as the psm1 module file and, if applicable, the psd1 module manifest.
These routes are referenced by Get-Module -ListAvailable, which we described before. Using $env:PSModulePath -Split ‘;’, you may examine all the module paths. Other pathways in the list than those indicated here may be visible. When several applications are installed, they add their own module paths. SQL is an example of this, since it includes its own modules in its own module paths.
Using $env:PSModulePath to see module paths
There are several modules that need a distinct installation procedure. The ActiveDirectory module is one of the most notable instances of this. The Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) installer is used to install this from Windows 7 to Windows 10 1803.
This is only accessible via Features On Demand on later versions of Windows 10 (1809+). RSAT installs the ActiveDirectory modules, as well as a slew of others that you’d employ to manage other Windows roles. These modules are installed using the Server Manager on Windows server operating systems.
Remote Modules Import (Implicit Remoting)
There are several situations when having a module running locally isn’t practicable. It is preferable to connect to a distant device and import a module from there. The instructions are really performed on the remote system when you do this. This is often used in conjunction with Microsoft’s Office 365 modules. Many of them link to an Office 365 server, where a module is subsequently imported. When you run one of the commands, it is executed on the remote server and the results are returned to your session.
Importing remote modules is also useful when you don’t have the module loaded locally. This is what you’d receive if you attempted to import the ActiveDirectory module even if you didn’t have it installed.
There is no module installed.
You must first build a PSSession before you can import a remote module. To create the session, use New-PSSession. Then, using Import-Module, you’d use the PSSession argument to import the module accessible on the remote device.
PS51> $AdminServer = New-PSSession -ComputerName $AdminServerName -Credential (Get-Credential) PS51> Import-Module -Name ActiveDirectory -PSSession $AdminServer -Prefix ‘Rmt’
In a distributed context, using this way of loading remote modules enables for quicker code execution. For example, if you are working from your computer but the servers you are working on are located across the United States, running some commands locally against the servers may take substantially longer. It is significantly quicker to execute the commands on a server and then feed the results back into your local session.
Adding a Prefix to a Module
You may also give the functions imported from the remote computer a prefix. This option is accessible when importing local modules, although it’s seldom utilized unless you’re comparing two versions of a module.
If you performed the import command above and looked at the commands, you’d see something like this:
Viewing a module’s whole command set
In this scenario, a prefix might be used to indicate that the module is not local. This is useful if you’re importing a module that’s already installed locally. The prefix eliminates any doubt about where the code is being performed.
Modules are being removed.
Remove-Module is not required to remove a module from the current session. This removes a module from the local session but leaves the module files in place. If you were utilizing a remote session to access a module, you may wish to use this. Remove-Module might be used to clear up your session before disconnecting the remote session.
Taking a module out of a session
If you wish to make changes to a module without starting a new PowerShell session, you may use Remove-Module. Remove-Module followed by Import-Module would be used to reload it into your session in this scenario. Alternatively, you may utilize Import-Force Module’s parameter. This will finish the module’s unloading and reloading for you.
What Goes Into Creating a PowerShell Module?
One or more files may make up a module. A module file is required to fulfill the basic criteria for a module. A PSM1 file or any other module file, such as a binary module file, may be used. To expand on that, your psm1 should have functions specified in it, else it will be useless to everyone.
While there are no specific rules for how the functions should appear or perform, there are some general principles. It’s typically best if all of the functions in a module are based on the same idea.
Like-Minded Functions are found in Modules.
The ActiveDirectory module, for example, only contains functions that interact with Active Directory in some manner. A prefix is usually used in the function names. All of the nouns in the function names of the ActiveDirectory module, for example, begin with AD.
The functionalities are more discoverable when these criteria are followed. Assume you’ve just imported this new module and want to go through all of its features. If all of the functions have the same name structure, this is considerably simpler to implement. Although PS is a common prefix for modules, it is explicitly reserved for Microsoft modules alone. If you use PS at the beginning of your module, you are unlikely to cause a problem; but, you may cause a conflict with another module’s name.
If you followed these criteria, you could have something like: If you had a lot of functions that all had to do with communicating with the registry, you could have:
Get-ATARegistryKey… is a function in the Get-ATARegistryKey package. Set-ATARegistryKey… is a function in the Set-ATARegistryKey package.
Manifests for Modules
You may add a module manifest to supplement the text module file. These files have the PSD1 extension and include module information. This is where you’d put information about the author, the module’s description, other needed modules, and a variety of other details. The Author and Description fields must be filled up before publishing to a repository.
The following is an example of a manifest for our registry module:
#ATARegistry #Module manifest #Generated by: Tyler #Generated on: 8/11/2019 @ This manifest has a script module or a binary module file linked with it. RootModule = ‘ATARegistry’ #This module’s version number. #Supported PSEditions #CompatiblePSEditions = @ ModuleVersion = ‘1.0’ #Supported PSEditions #CompatiblePSEditions = @ () This module’s #ID is used to identify it. #Author of this module: fef619fa-016d-4b11-a09d-b222e094de3e GUID = ‘fef619fa-016d-4b11-a09d-b222e094de3e’ #Company or provider of this module = ‘Tyler Muir’ #Copyright statement for this module: CompanyName = ‘Adam the Automator’ ‘(c) 2019 Tyler’ Copyright = ‘2019 Tyler’ Copyright = ‘2019 Tyler’ Copyright = ‘2019 Tyler’ Copyright = All legal rights are retained.’ #This module’s functionality is described in this section. ‘This is a test module,’ says the description. This module requires a minimum version of the Windows PowerShell engine. #Name of the Windows PowerShell host needed by this module #PowerShellVersion = ” #PowerShellHostName = ” #This module requires a minimum version of the Windows PowerShell host. #PowerShellHostVersion = “#PowerShellHostVersion = “#PowerShellHostVer This module requires a minimum version of the Microsoft.NET Framework. This requirement only applies to the PowerShell Desktop edition. #DotNetFrameworkVersion = “#DotNetFrameworkVersion = “#DotNetFrame This module requires a minimum version of the Common Language Runtime (CLR). This requirement only applies to the PowerShell Desktop edition. #Processor architecture (None, X86, Amd64) needed by this module #CLRVersion = ” #Modules that must be imported into the global environment before this module may be imported #ProcessorArchitecture = ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ () #Assemblies that must be loaded before this module may be imported @RequiredAssemblies = #RequiredAssemblies () #Script files (.ps1) that are executed before importing this module in the caller’s environment. #Type files (.ps1xml) to be imported when importing this module #ScriptsToProcess = @() @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ () #When importing this module, load the format files (.ps1xml). @FormatsToProcess = #FormatsToProcess () #Modules to import as nested modules of the RootModule/ModuleToProcess module. # @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ () #Functions to export from this module; do not use wildcards or remove the item for optimum performance; use an empty array if there are no functions to export. @(‘Get-RegistryKey’,’Set-RegistryKey’) FunctionsToExport = @(‘Get-RegistryKey’,’Set-RegistryKey’) #Cmdlets to export from this module; do not use wildcards or remove the item for optimum performance; use an empty array if there are no cmdlets to export. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ () #This module’s variables to export ‘*’ for VariablesToExport #Aliases to export from this module; do not use wildcards or remove the item for optimum performance; use an empty array if there are no aliases to export. @ AliasesToExport () #DSC resources to export from this module #DscResourcesToExport = @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ () #ModuleList = @ #ModuleList = @ #ModuleList = @ #ModuleList = @ #ModuleList = @ #Module () #This is a list of all the files that come with this module. @FileList = #FileList () #Private data to give to the RootModule/ModuleToProcess defined module. This might also include a PSData hashtable containing PowerShell-specific module information. #Tags added to this module: PrivateData = @ PSData = @ These aid in the identification of modules in online galleries. @ = #Tags () #The license for this module’s URL. #LicenseUri = ” #A URL to the project’s main webpage. #ProjectUri = ” #A web address for an icon that represents this module. #ReleaseNotes of this module #ReleaseNotes = ” #IconUri = ” #HelpInfo URI of this module #End of PSData hashtable #End of PrivateData hashtable #HelpInfoURI = ” #For commands exported from this module, this is the default prefix. Import-Module -Prefix overrides the default prefix. #DefaultCommandPrefix = ” DefaultCommandPrefix = ” DefaultCommandPrefix = “
While this may seem daunting at first, Microsoft provides a useful cmdlet for creating a module manifest. New-ModuleManifest is a command that comes with the package. You may use the following to create the manifest displayed above:
PS51> New-ModuleManifest -Path .ScriptsTestModule.psd1 -Author ‘Tyler Muir’ -CompanyName ‘Adam the Automator’ -RootModule ‘TestModule.psm1’ -FunctionsToExport @(‘Get-RegistryKey’,’Set-RegistryKey’) -Description ‘This is a test module.’
External Help Documents
You may also see External Help Documents in some modules. They could be identified by the <ModuleName>-Help.xml at the end of the file name. These External Help Documents contain the same information that would normally be contained in the command-based help that you may find in a function definition.
This would also require you to add # .ExternalHelp <ModulePath>-Help.xml to your function to have it work properly when using the Get-Help command after importing the module. It is usually only common to see External Help Documents with very large modules and due to that they are out of the scope.
Related Documents
These are the most frequent sorts of files found in modules, although they are far from the only ones. Because there are additional dependencies, you may notice binary files in addition to a text module. Many instances of new file types in modules may be found by looking through the module paths.
Other files would be included in the FileList option in your module manifest to allow non-standard module files to be correctly published.
There are several additional parameters in the module manifest that are now empty. These may be used to specify additional criteria for utilizing your module. You may, for example, specify which versions of PowerShell the module can use. This is what you’ll get if you attempt to import the module on an unsupported version of PowerShell:
PowerShell versions that are required
PSRepositories
A PSRepository is one of the most important module distribution choices. A PSRepository is a location where numerous individuals or devices may access the module files from a 1000′ perspective. Typically, they are web servers where you may upload files.
You may also create a repository in a directory, however this limits the capabilities of your repository. You may create your own PSRepository or use one of the numerous solutions accessible on the internet, such as the PowerShell Gallery. Using the Get-PSRepository command, you may view your PSRepositories.
NuGet repositories for PowerShell by default
You will only have one entry by default, which will be for the PowerShell Gallery. It’s possible that it’ll say untrustworthy. This is because PowerShell warns you that accessing the PowerShell Gallery may expose you to code that has not been authored and authorized by Microsoft. This implies that you must grant express permission before any modules can be installed from it.
PSRepositories are being added.
You may add your own repositories as well. You may perform Get-PSRepository -Name PSGallery | Set-PSRepository -InstallationPolicy Trusted to trust PowerShell Gallery, or you can accept the warning the first time you install a module from the PowerShell Gallery.
The PowerShellGet module contains all of the commands you’ll need to interface with these PSRepositories. The following are the functions:
The PowerShellGet module contains commands.
Before dealing with some repositories, the PowerShellGet module may need to be upgraded.
Locating Modules
The ability to search for modules is another important advantage of having a PSRepository. The Find-Module command is used to do this. There are other methods to filter to get exactly what you’re searching for, but for now, you may use the following search to discover VMware modules:
Locating Modules on the PowerShell Gallery
This will display all modules that begin with VMware. While the majority of them are from VMware, you can tell who created the module by looking at the author property.
Thousands of modules are accessible since anybody may upload to PowerShell Gallery. This implies you can come across modules that aren’t suitable for your needs. Many of the modules you’ll discover are open source, which means you may contribute to them and help them enhance their usefulness.
Module Installation
You must have a trustworthy PSRepository that hosts the module in order to use the Install-Module command. It might be the PowerShell Gallery, another PSRepository on the internet, or a self-hosted site. To quickly confirm the module before installing it, pipe from the Find-Module command to be accessible.
Locating Modules installed from a PSRepository
The MinimumVersion, MaximumVersion, and RequiredVersion parameters may also be used to specify a module’s version.
Get-InstalledModule may be used to view all of the modules installed using Install-Module. This will provide a list of all the modules installed in the AllUsers or CurrentUser scopes.
UnModule Installation
You can remove a module in the same way that you can install it. The Remove-Module command will not uninstall a module that was not installed via the Install-Module command.
UnModule Installation installed from a PSRepository with Uninstall-Module
We’re attempting to remove the ActiveDirectory module, as you can see. When using Uninstall-Module, you’ll get an error since this module wasn’t installed using Install-Module. We’d have to remove this module by reversing the procedure you used to install it.
You may remove the VMware.PowerCLI module you installed before to test whether it was successfully uninstalled.
Taking a module from the PowerShell Gallery and uninstalling it
Even though VMware.PowerCLI has been removed, you can see that several dependencies have been installed. We could use Get-InstalledModule VMware if we wanted to remove all of the modules. * | Force-Uninstall-Module
Because this module has so many dependencies, you’ll have a hard time completely deleting it. Furthermore, some of these modules are dependent on one another, necessitating the use of the Force parameter.
Modules are being updated.
You may be asking how to update a module that you have installed now that you know how to install and remove it.
If the module was not installed using Install-Module, you will not be able to update it using PowerShell commands. You may use Update-Module to update a module to the most recent version, or to a specified version that is newer.
AllowPreRelease is another option, which allows you to upgrade to a version that has not yet been officially published. This may sometimes be useful since there may have been a fix for an issue you’re experiencing or a new feature introduced that you’d want to utilize.
Modules are being updated. with Update-Module
Examining and Saving a Module
Save-Module is a little-used command that comes in handy when vetting modules before using them. You may download a module to a location without installing it using this command.
The files may then be examined, and if the module is not a binary module, you can open it and examine the code that makes it up. This is useful not just for ensuring that a module is not dangerous, but also for learning how other people structure their modules.
Using Save-Module to download modules
Not only is the VMware.PowerCLI module downloaded in this case, but also all of the dependencies. Here’s what the VMware.PowerCLI folder looks like:
Contents of the VMware.PowerCLI module
This is a nice illustration of how non-standard module files, such as the end user license agreement, are occasionally included in the module.
Make your own Module
You’ve now seen how to interact with a module created by someone else. Now you want to understand how to make your own so you can start scalability-proofing your code.
Make a template file
To begin, create a folder to hold all of your module files. You’ll need to construct your module file once you’ve got the container. You must make sure that your module file and folder have the same name, else PowerShell will not be able to find your module when you attempt to publish it.
PS51> New-Item -Path .Scripts -Name ATARegistry -ItemType Directory PS51> New-Item -Path .ScriptsATARegistry -Name ATARegistry.psm1
Now that you’ve decided to utilize a manifest, you’ll need to give it the same name as the container and module files.
PS51> New-ModuleManifest -Path .ScriptsATARegistryATARegistry.psd1 -Author ‘Tyler Muir’ -CompanyName ‘Adam the Automator’ -RootModule ATARegistry.psm1 -Description ‘Used for interacting with registry keys’
You now have a fully functional module with the container, module file, and manifest file. You could put this module in a PSRepository and use it to install it everywhere you wish. Although, since the module file is empty, it is unlikely to be of much use. These files may still be used to test publishing and ensure that your repository is functional.
PSRepository registration
You’ll need to add another PSRepository to your session before you can publish your module. You may use a local path as your PSRepository for testing since it is simple to build up and break down.
If you’re going to set up a PSRepository with a directory, you should make sure that it can be accessed from many machines. You may create a local repository in the following way:
PS51> New-Item -Path C: -Name Repo -ItemType Directory PS51> Register-PSRepository -Name ‘LocalRepo’ -SourceLocation ‘C:Repo’ -PublishLocation ‘C:Repo’ -InstallationPolicy Trusted
You could ignore the PublishLocation option if you were simply downloading from the PSRepository and never publishing.
Your Module will be published.
You will not get a confirmation to enable a module to be installed from the repository since you have already configured the installation policy to trusted. Now that you have a new PSRepository, you may use Publish-Module -Name to publish your module. ScriptsATARegistry -Repository LocalRepo ScriptsATARegistry -Repository LocalRepo ScriptsATARegistry -Re
After Your Module will be published., you can use the commands from above to find the module and install it.
Now that the module has been installed, you can use Get-Module to check whether it has been imported into your local session. The ExportedCommands property is empty because no functions were added to the FunctionsToExport array in the manifest.
There are no commands that have been exported.
Including it in your Module
You may begin adding functionality to your module now that you know how to publish and install it. You may include a function that returns a registry key, like this:
Get-ATARegistryKey ([string]$Path) Get-Item $Path function Get-ATARegistryKey ([string]$Path) Get-ATARegistryKey ([string]$Path) Get-ATARegistryKey ([string]$Pa
If you attempted to submit your new module using the manifest as is, you’d run into two issues. The first is that you’ll get an error saying that your module’s version already exists in your repository. This is due to the fact that the module version in the manifest file has not been updated.
Module Functions Exporting
The second issue is that you won’t see any functions in the ExportedCommands property when you import the module since you haven’t added your new function to the manifest.
While you could use your function without including it in the FunctionsToExport list, it would be far more difficult to find.
All functions, variables, and aliases are exported by default if you do not declare an empty array, @(), for your FunctionsToExport.
You may address these two issues by Changing the Module file as follows:
‘1.1’ is the version of the module. Get-RegistryKey = FunctionsToExport
Now that you’ve added a function to your module and changed your manifest to reflect the changes, you can use the same command to publish the new version of your module.
PS51> Publish-Module -Name .ScriptsATARegistry -Repository LocalRepo.
Choosing Between Export-ModuleMember and FunctionsToExport
When it comes to exporting module members, PowerShell has two comparable capabilities. Choosing between the two is the difficult part. Both are valid, however depending on your requirements, one may work better for you.
Use Export-ModuleMember to dynamically control which functions are exported, as you may supply a list of functions to export. When dot-sourcing several separate function PS1 files, this is often employed. You may simply export them by supplying all public functions to the Export-ModuleMember function, which divides internal functions into a private folder and exportable functions into a public folder.
Observations on Export-ModuleMember:
- FunctionsToExport is overridden, therefore if the Export-ModuleMember command is used, FunctionsToExport has no impact.
- Unlike FunctionsToExport, which does export variables and aliases without explicitly specifying them, Export-ModuleMember does not export variables and aliases without explicitly defining them.
- It’s possible to use several Export-ModuleMember instructions, and they stack instead of taking priority.
If you don’t anticipate your function list to change, the FunctionsToExport setting in the module manifest will suffice, and you won’t have to export variables or aliases manually.
Changing the Module
The last step is to update your module in your session so that you may utilize the updated files. You download the update that you just uploaded to the repository using Update-Module ATARegistry.
Exported commands are now visible.
You can now see that you have the latest version of the module installed, as well as the function that you described in the manifest.
Creating Instructional Content
The built-in assistance system in PowerShell is one of the features that was previously overlooked. You’ve undoubtedly used Get-Help on a function at some time. There are two main methods to provide this information.
The first step is to include comment-based assistance in the function definition. Many module authors commonly implement in this manner. Another option is to utilize a third-party help file. The Full parameter may be used to display all of the help’s features.
Get-Help may assist you in locating assistance.
As you can see, there isn’t much information available, and the little that is available is unlikely to be useful to anybody.
To fill these fields in the help system, provide some comment-based help to your module file. Using Get-Support about Comment Based Help, you may learn about all of the possibilities for comment-based help.
For the time being, you may change your function to look like this. This is a list of the most widely used assistance parameters, however they are all optional, and others might be added in their place.
This is how your function now looks:
function Get-RegistryKey { <# .SYNOPSIS Returns registry key using provided path. .DESCRIPTION The function uses the Get-Item command to return the information for a provided registry key. .PARAMETER Path The path that will be searched for a registry key. .EXAMPLE Get-RegistryKey -Path ‘HKLM:HARDWAREDESCRIPTIONSystem’ .INPUTS System.String .OUTPUTS Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey .NOTES This module is an example of what a well documented function could look. .LINK https://adamtheautomator.com #> param( [string]$Path ) Get-Item $Path }
Some specific assistance settings, such as, are available. FORWARDHELPTARGETNAME. All inbound assistance requests are sent to a separate command with this option enabled. This might be useful if the help should provide the same information for a number of instructions.
Now that the help has been updated, you may edit the version in the module manifest, publish the new version, and update the installed version for your session as you did before.
When you look at the help for the function now, you’ll see that there’s a lot more information there. This is an excellent approach to provide instructions on how to use the functions, particularly for someone who is new to the module and may not be able to immediately comprehend what it does by glancing at the code.
With Get-Assistance, you can get complete help material.
The information added in the case of an external help file is the same, but it is saved in a separate file and referenced inside the function.
The version of the module and all of the module files that you have been installing may be found in the AllUsers module directory.
The module version is the name of the folder.
You may notice a handful of NUPKG files if you go back to the PSRepository path C:Repo that you generated before. There will be one for each edition of the book that has been released. When you used Publish-Module, these are compressed copies of what you published.
Summary
Building your own modules is the last step after you’ve mastered the PowerShell console, PowerShell as a language, and creating scripts. Modules enable you to start creating useful PowerShell utilities. If you design and build modules for a single purpose properly, you’ll find yourself writing less and less code over time. You’ll begin mentioning your module functions in more code and work your way up.
Module functions enable you to abstract away code that you often reuse in scripts. They serve as “labels” that may be referenced later in code and called at any time, rather than recreating the wheel and attempting to find out how you previously achieved your objective. Modules are the final “packing” of PowerShell code, allowing you to avoid spending time on issues you’ve already addressed.
The “powershell module design” is a way to create reusable commands and scripts that can be used in many different PowerShell scripts. This article will explain how to build your own modules, as well as go into detail about the benefits of using them.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the modules in PowerShell?
A: PowerShell uses modules to separate different tasks. For instance, you might have a module for managing computers, another module for installing software and yet another one that is dedicated solely to handling Windows updates.
How do I create a PowerShell module?
A: To create a module, you need to make sure that your project is in the correct folder. Then open up PowerShell and type New-Module. Youll be prompted for all of the necessary information.
What is the difference between a PowerShell script and a PowerShell module?
A: A PowerShell script is a text file that contains the actual PowerShell commands. The difference between modules and scripts is that modules are not run by themselves, but as part of other scripts or programs.
Related Tags
- creating powershell modules
- powershell modules list
- powershell module example
- powershell module best practices
- powershell module template
