Book Image

Mastering Windows PowerShell Scripting - Third Edition

By : Chris Dent
Book Image

Mastering Windows PowerShell Scripting - Third Edition

By: Chris Dent

Overview of this book

PowerShell scripts offer a handy way to automate various chores, however working effectively with these scripts can be a difficult task. This comprehensive guide starts with the fundamentals before moving on to advanced-level topics to help you become a PowerShell Core 6.0 expert. The first module, PowerShell Core 6.0 Fundamentals, begins with the new features of PowerShell Core 6.0, installing it on Linux, and working with parameters, objects and .NET classes from within PowerShell Core 6.0. As you make your way through the chapters, you'll see how to efficiently manage large amounts of data and interact with other services using PowerShell Core 6.0. You'll be able to make the most of PowerShell Core 6.0's powerful automation feature, where you will have different methods available to parse data and manipulate regular expressions and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). After having explored automation, you will enter the extending PowerShell Core 6.0 module, covering asynchronous processing and desired state configuration. In the last module, you will learn to extend PowerShell Core 6.0 using advanced scripts and filters, and also debug issues along with working on error handling techniques. By the end of this book, you will be an expert in scripting with PowerShell Core 6.0.

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Table of Contents (27 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Get in touch
Free Chapter
1
Section 1: Exploring PowerShell Fundamentals
Section 1: Exploring PowerShell Fundamentals
2
Introduction to PowerShell
Introduction to PowerShell
Technical requirements
What is PowerShell?
PowerShell editors
Getting help
Command naming and discovery
Parameters and parameter sets
Introduction to providers
Introduction to splatting
Summary
3
Modules and Snap-ins
Modules and Snap-ins
Introducing modules
PowerShell Core and the WindowsCompatibility module
Introducing snap-ins
Summary
4
Working with Objects in PowerShell
Working with Objects in PowerShell
Pipelines
Members
Enumerating and filtering
Selecting and sorting
Grouping and measuring
Comparing
Importing, exporting, and converting
Summary
5
Operators
Operators
Arithmetic operators
Assignment operators
Comparison operators
Regular expression-based operators
Binary operators
Logical operators
Type operators
Redirection operators
Other operators
Summary
6
Section 2: Working with Data
Section 2: Working with Data
7
Variables, Arrays, and Hashtables
Variables, Arrays, and Hashtables
Naming and creating variables
Variable commands
Variable provider
Variable scope
Type and type conversion
Objects assigned to variables
Arrays
Hashtables
Lists, dictionaries, queues, and stacks
Summary
8
Branching and Looping
Branching and Looping
Conditional statements
Loops
Branching and assignment
Summary
9
Working with .NET
Working with .NET
Assemblies
Namespaces
Types
Classes
Constructors
Properties and methods
Static properties
Static methods
Non-public classes
Type accelerators
The using keyword
Summary
10
Strings, Numbers, and Dates
Strings, Numbers, and Dates
Manipulating strings
Converting strings
Manipulating numbers
Converting strings into numeric values
Manipulating dates and times
Summary
11
Regular Expressions
Regular Expressions
Regex basics
Anchors
Repetition
Character classes
Alternation
Grouping
Examples of regular expressions
Summary
12
Files, Folders, and the Registry
Files, Folders, and the Registry
Working with providers
Items
Item properties
Windows permissions
Transactions
File catalogs
Summary
13
Windows Management Instrumentation
Windows Management Instrumentation
Working with WMI
CIM cmdlets
The WMI cmdlets
Permissions
Summary
14
HTML, XML, and JSON
HTML, XML, and JSON
HTML
XML
System.Xml
System.Xml.Linq
JSON
Summary
15
Web Requests and Web Services
Web Requests and Web Services
Technical requirements
Web requests
Working with REST
Working with SOAP
Summary
16
Section 3: Automating with PowerShell
Section 3: Automating with PowerShell
17
Remoting and Remote Management
Remoting and Remote Management
Technical requirements
WS-Management
PSSessions
Remoting on Linux
Remoting over SSH
The double-hop problem
CIM sessions
Summary
18
Asynchronous Processing
Asynchronous Processing
Working with jobs
Reacting to events
Using Runspaces and Runspace pools
Summary
19
Section 4: Extending PowerShell
Section 4: Extending PowerShell
20
Scripts, Functions, and Filters
Scripts, Functions, and Filters
Introducing scripts, functions, and filters
Begin, process, and end
Param, parameters, and CmdletBinding
ShouldProcess and ShouldContinue
Summary
21
Parameters, Validation, and Dynamic Parameters
Parameters, Validation, and Dynamic Parameters
The Parameter attribute
Validating input
Pipeline input
Defining parameter sets
Argument-completers
Dynamic parameters
Summary
22
Classes and Enumerations
Classes and Enumerations
Defining an enumeration
Creating a class
Argument-transformation attribute classes
Validation attribute classes
Classes and DSC
Summary
23
Building Modules
Building Modules
Technical requirements
Module layout
Multi-file module layout
Module scope
Initializing and removing modules
Summary
24
Testing
Testing
Technical requirement
Static analysis
Testing with Pester
Summary
25
Error Handling
Error Handling
Error types
Error actions
Raising errors
Catching errors
Summary
26
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PowerShell editors

While it is possible to write for PowerShell using the notepad application alone, it is rarely desirable. Using an editor that was designed to work with PowerShell can save a lot of time.

Specialized PowerShell editors such as Visual Studio Code (VS Code), PowerShell Studio, and PowerShell ISE offer automatic completion (IntelliSense), which reduces the amount of cross-referencing required while writing code. Finding a comfortable editor early on is a good way to ease into PowerShell; memorizing commands and parameters is not necessary.

PowerShell ISE is not planned to be released to support PowerShell 6 at this time. VS Code is the most commonly recommended editor for PowerShell. VS Code is a free open source editor that was published by Microsoft VS Code and may be downloaded from http://code.visualstudio.com.

The PowerShell extension should be installed,...

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