What's in your Powershell profile.ps1file?

Question

What essential things (functions, aliases, start up scripts) do you have in your profile?

Answer 1

############################################################################## 
# Get an XPath Navigator object based on the input string containing xml
function get-xpn ($text) { 
    $rdr = [System.IO.StringReader] $text
    $trdr = [system.io.textreader]$rdr
    $xpdoc = [System.XML.XPath.XPathDocument] $trdr
    $xpdoc.CreateNavigator()
}

Useful for working with xml, such as output from svn commands with --xml.

Answer 2

apropos.

Although I think this has been superceded by a recent or upcoming release.

############################################################################## 
## Search the PowerShell help documentation for a given keyword or regular 
## expression.
## 
## Example:
##    Get-HelpMatch hashtable
##    Get-HelpMatch "(datetime|ticks)"
############################################################################## 
function apropos {

    param($searchWord = $(throw "Please specify content to search for"))

    $helpNames = $(get-help *)

    foreach($helpTopic in $helpNames)
    {
       $content = get-help -Full $helpTopic.Name | out-string
       if($content -match $searchWord)
       { 
          $helpTopic | select Name,Synopsis
       }
    }
}

Answer 3

$MaximumHistoryCount=1024 
function hist {get-history -count 256 | %{$_.commandline}}

New-Alias which get-command

function guidConverter([byte[]] $gross){ $GUID = "{" + $gross[3].ToString("X2") + `
$gross[2].ToString("X2") + $gross[1].ToString("X2") + $gross[0].ToString("X2") + "-" + `
$gross[5].ToString("X2") + $gross[4].ToString("X2") + "-" + $gross[7].ToString("X2") + `
$gross[6].ToString("X2") + "-" + $gross[8].ToString("X2") + $gross[9].ToString("X2") + "-" +` 
$gross[10].ToString("X2") + $gross[11].ToString("X2") + $gross[12].ToString("X2") + `
$gross[13].ToString("X2") + $gross[14].ToString("X2") + $gross[15].ToString("X2") + "}" $GUID }

Answer 4

I keep a little bit of everything. Mostly, my profile sets up all the environment (including calling scripts to set up my .NET/VS and Java development environment).

I also redefine the prompt() function with my own style (see it in action), set up several aliases to other scripts and commands. and change what $HOME points to.

Here's my complete profile script.

Answer 5

# ----------------------------------------------------------
# msdn search for win32 APIs.
# ----------------------------------------------------------

function Search-MSDNWin32
{

    $url = 'http://search.msdn.microsoft.com/?query=';

    $url += $args[0];

    for ($i = 1; $i -lt $args.count; $i++) {
        $url += '+';
        $url += $args[$i];
    }

    $url += '&locale=en-us&refinement=86&ac=3';

    Open-IE($url);
}

# ----------------------------------------------------------
# Open Internet Explorer given the url.
# ----------------------------------------------------------

function Open-IE ($url)
{    
    $ie = new-object -comobject internetexplorer.application;

    $ie.Navigate($url);

    $ie.Visible = $true;
}

Answer 6

This iterates through a scripts PSDrive and dot-sources everything that begins with "lib-".

### ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
### Load function / filter definition library
### ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Get-ChildItem scripts:\lib-*.ps1 | % { 
      . $_
      write-host "Loading library file:`t$($_.name)"
    }

Answer 7

This creates a scripts: drive and adds it to your path. Note, you must create the folder yourself. Next time you need to get back to it, just type "scripts:" and hit enter, just like any drive letter in Windows.

$env:path += ";$profiledir\scripts"
New-PSDrive -Name Scripts -PSProvider FileSystem -Root $profiledir\scripts

Answer 8

This will add snapins you have installed into your powershell session. The reason you may want to do something like this is that it's easy to maintain, and works well if you sync your profile across multiple systems. If a snapin isn't installed, you won't see an error message.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Add third-party snapins

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

$snapins = @(
    "Quest.ActiveRoles.ADManagement",
    "PowerGadgets",
    "VMware.VimAutomation.Core",
    "NetCmdlets"
)
$snapins | ForEach-Object { 
  if ( Get-PSSnapin -Registered $_ -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue ) {
    Add-PSSnapin $_
  }
}

Answer 9

I put all my functions and aliases in separate script files and then dot source them in my profile:

. c:\scripts\posh\jdh-functions.ps1

Answer 10

start-transcript. This will write out your entire session to a text file. Great for training new hires on how to use Powershell in the environment.

Answer 11

The function to view the entire history of typed command (Get-History, and his alias h show default only 32 last commands):

function ha {
    Get-History -count $MaximumHistoryCount
}

Answer 12

i add this function so that i can see disk usage easily:

function df {
    $colItems = Get-wmiObject -class "Win32_LogicalDisk" -namespace "root\CIMV2" `
    -computername localhost

    foreach ($objItem in $colItems) {
     write $objItem.DeviceID $objItem.Description $objItem.FileSystem `
      ($objItem.Size / 1GB).ToString("f3") ($objItem.FreeSpace / 1GB).ToString("f3")

    }
}

Answer 13

My prompt contains:

$width = ($Host.UI.RawUI.WindowSize.Width - 2 - $(Get-Location).ToString().Length)
$hr = New-Object System.String @('-',$width)
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red $(Get-Location) $hr

Which gives me a divider between commands that's easy to see when scrolling back. It also shows me the current directory without using horizontal space on the line that I'm typing on.

For example:

C:\Users\Jay ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] PS>

Answer 14

I keep my profile empty. Instead, I have folders of scripts I can navigate to load functionality and aliases into the session. A folder will be modular, with libraries of functions and assemblies. For ad hoc work, I'll have a script to loads aliases and functions. If I want to munge event logs, I'd navigate to a folder scripts\eventlogs and execute

PS > . .\DotSourceThisToLoadSomeHandyEventLogMonitoringFunctions.ps1

I do this because I need to share scripts with others or move them from machine to machine. I like to be able to copy a folder of scripts and assemblies and have it just work on any machine for any user.

But you want a fun collection of tricks. Here's a script that many of my "profiles" depend on. It allows calls to web services that use self signed SSL for ad hoc exploration of web services in development. Yes, I freely mix C# in my powershell scripts.

# Using a target web service that requires SSL, but server is self-signed.  
# Without this, we'll fail unable to establish trust relationship. 
function Set-CertificateValidationCallback
{
    try
    {
       Add-Type @'
    using System;

    public static class CertificateAcceptor{

        public static void SetAccept()
        {
            System.Net.ServicePointManager.ServerCertificateValidationCallback = AcceptCertificate;
        }

        private static bool AcceptCertificate(Object sender,
                        System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate certificate,
                        System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Chain chain,
                        System.Net.Security.SslPolicyErrors policyErrors)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Accepting certificate and ignoring any SSL errors.");
                return true;
            }
    }
'@
    }
    catch {} # Already exists? Find a better way to check.

     [CertificateAcceptor]::SetAccept()
}

Answer 15

I tried to set this up on Windows XP (32-bit) with Visual C++ 2008 Express (SP1, I think). The problem is, the InstallDir string value doesn't exist at that path. So I manually created it. I looked through the registry under '9.0', but couldn't find any InstallDir value. It took me a little while to understand that GetDirectoryName() was returning the parent directory name. I'm new to PowerShell and .Net in general. I ended up adding the value in the necessary location and set it to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\1033. This seemed like the logical value for the InstallDir entry. It might not be the right value, but it allows for the script to work. I guess the full version of Visual Studio creates this key, but the Express Edition doesn't.

I hope this helps someone that stumbles upon here that is wondering why it isn't working for them.

Peace.

Answer 16

Set-PSDebug -Strict

You will benefit i you ever searched for a stupid Typo eg. outputting $varsometext instead $var sometext

Answer 17

I often find myself needing needing some basic agregates to count/sum some things., I've defined these functions and use them often, they work really nicely at the end of a pipeline :

#
# useful agregate
#
function count
{
    BEGIN { $x = 0 }
    PROCESS { $x += 1 }
    END { $x }
}

function product
{
    BEGIN { $x = 1 }
    PROCESS { $x *= $_ }
    END { $x }
}

function sum
{
    BEGIN { $x = 0 }
    PROCESS { $x += $_ }
    END { $x }
}

function average
{
    BEGIN { $max = 0; $curr = 0 }
    PROCESS { $max += $_; $curr += 1 }
    END { $max / $curr }
}

To be able to get time and path with colors in my prompt :

function Get-Time { return $(get-date | foreach { $_.ToLongTimeString() } ) }
function prompt
{
    # Write the time 
    write-host "[" -noNewLine
    write-host $(Get-Time) -foreground yellow -noNewLine
    write-host "] " -noNewLine
    # Write the path
    write-host $($(Get-Location).Path.replace($home,"~").replace("\","/")) -foreground green -noNewLine
    write-host $(if ($nestedpromptlevel -ge 1) { '>>' }) -noNewLine
    return "> "
}

The following functions are stolen from a blog and modified to fit my taste, but ls with colors is very nice :

# LS.MSH 
# Colorized LS function replacement 
# /\/\o\/\/ 2006 
# http://mow001.blogspot.com 
function LL
{
    param ($dir = ".", $all = $false) 

    $origFg = $host.ui.rawui.foregroundColor 
    if ( $all ) { $toList = ls -force $dir }
    else { $toList = ls $dir }

    foreach ($Item in $toList)  
    { 
        Switch ($Item.Extension)  
        { 
            ".Exe" {$host.ui.rawui.foregroundColor = "Yellow"} 
            ".cmd" {$host.ui.rawui.foregroundColor = "Red"} 
            ".msh" {$host.ui.rawui.foregroundColor = "Red"} 
            ".vbs" {$host.ui.rawui.foregroundColor = "Red"} 
            Default {$host.ui.rawui.foregroundColor = $origFg} 
        } 
        if ($item.Mode.StartsWith("d")) {$host.ui.rawui.foregroundColor = "Green"}
        $item 
    }  
    $host.ui.rawui.foregroundColor = $origFg 
}

function lla
{
    param ( $dir=".")
    ll $dir $true
}

function la { ls -force }

And some shortcuts to avoid really repetitive filtering tasks :

# behave like a grep command
# but work on objects, used
# to be still be allowed to use grep
filter match( $reg )
{
    if ($_.tostring() -match $reg)
        { $_ }
}

# behave like a grep -v command
# but work on objects
filter exclude( $reg )
{
    if (-not ($_.tostring() -match $reg))
        { $_ }
}

# behave like match but use only -like
filter like( $glob )
{
    if ($_.toString() -like $glob)
        { $_ }
}

filter unlike( $glob )
{
    if (-not ($_.tostring() -like $glob))
        { $_ }
}

Answer 18

You can see my PowerShell profile at http://github.com/jamesottaway/windowspowershell

If you use Git to clone my repo into your Documents folder (or whatever folder is above 'WindowsPowerShell' in your $PROFILE variable), you'll get all of my goodness.

The main profile.ps1 sets the subfolder with the name Addons as a PSDrive, and then finds all .ps1 files underneath that folder to load.

I quite like the go command, which stores a dictionary of shorthand locations to visit easily. For example, go vsp will take me to C:\Visual Studio 2008\Projects.

I also like overriding the Set-Location cmdlet to run both Set-Location and Get-ChildItem.

My other favourite is being able to do a mkdir which does Set-Location xyz after running New-Item xyz -Type Directory.