You may be already familiar with the concept of PSDrive or Powershell Providers:
PowerShell providers are Microsoft .NET Framework-based programs that make the data in a specialized data store available in PowerShell so that you can view and manage it.
The data that a provider exposes appears in a drive, and you access the data in a path like you would on a hard disk drive. You can use any of the built-in cmdlets that the provider supports to manage the data in the provider drive. And, you can use custom cmdlets that are designed especially for the data.
The providers can also add dynamic parameters to the built-in cmdlets. These are parameters that are available only when you use the cmdlet with the provider data.
You are likely using some Providers (especially the File System Provider) without even realizing it, while some come in handy if you need to perform actions on specific types of objects. For example you can list the certificates under your profile running Get-ChildItem -Path Cert:\CurrentUser\My. Notice the use of “Cert:” (Certificate) Provider (or PSDrive).
The Function: drive allows to list all functions available in the current powershell session:
PS /> Get-ChildItem Function: CommandType Name Version Source ----------- ---- ------- ------ Function cd.. Function cd\ Function Clear-Host Function Convert-CertBase64DataToFile 2.7.2 LSEFunctions Function Convert-CertificateToBase64String 2.7.2 LSEFunctions Function ConvertFrom-Base64 2.7.2 LSEFunctions Function ConvertTo-Base64 2.7.2 LSEFunctions Function ConvertTo-CamelCase 2.7.2 LSEFunctions Function ConvertTo-PascalCase 2.7.2 LSEFunctions Function Format-Xml 2.7.2 LSEFunctions Function Get-ADUserPasswordExpirationDate 2.7.2 LSEFunctions Function Get-ArrayItemIndex 2.7.2 LSEFunctions Function Get-EncryptedCredentialFromFile 2.7.2 LSEFunctions Function Get-LoggedOnUser 2.7.2 LSEFunctions Function Get-SystemUptime 2.7.2 LSEFunctions Function help Function New-Password 2.7.2 LSEFunctions Function oss Function Pause Function prompt Function PSConsoleHostReadLine 2.0.0 PSReadLine Function Set-EncryptedCredentialsToFile 2.7.2 LSEFunctions Function Set-PSModulePath 2.7.2 LSEFunctions Function Set-WindowTitle 2.7.2 LSEFunctions Function TabExpansion2 Function Test-Guid 2.7.2 LSEFunctions Function Test-IsAdmin 2.7.2 LSEFunctions Function Unprotect-SecureString 2.7.2 LSEFunctions Function Update-DomainPassword 2.7.2 LSEFunctions Function Update-ModuleVersion 2.7.2 LSEFunctions Function Update-StringInFile 2.7.2 LSEFunctions Function Write-RawCertData 2.7.2 LSEFunctions
As you can see some functions come with Powershell (e.g. oss, pause, prompt, PSConsoleHostReadLine, Clear-Host) while others are imported from a one of my custom modules I have imported in the current console.
Note: the Function drive only shows Functions (as you can guess ?), not binary cmdlets.
Functions expose some interesting properties, use Get-Member to list them:
PS /> Get-ChildItem Function:Unprotect-SecureString | Get-Member
TypeName: System.Management.Automation.FunctionInfo
Name MemberType Definition
---- ---------- ----------
Equals Method bool Equals(System.Object obj)
GetHashCode Method int GetHashCode()
GetType Method type GetType()
ResolveParameter Method System.Management.Automation.ParameterMetadata ResolveParameter(string name)
ToString Method string ToString()
PSDrive NoteProperty PSDriveInfo PSDrive=Function
PSIsContainer NoteProperty bool PSIsContainer=False
PSPath NoteProperty string PSPath=Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\Function::Unprotect-SecureString
PSProvider NoteProperty ProviderInfo PSProvider=Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\Function
CmdletBinding Property bool CmdletBinding {get;}
CommandType Property System.Management.Automation.CommandTypes CommandType {get;}
DefaultParameterSet Property string DefaultParameterSet {get;}
Definition Property string Definition {get;}
Description Property string Description {get;set;}
HelpFile Property string HelpFile {get;}
Module Property psmoduleinfo Module {get;}
ModuleName Property string ModuleName {get;}
Name Property string Name {get;}
Noun Property string Noun {get;}
Options Property System.Management.Automation.ScopedItemOptions Options {get;set;}
OutputType Property System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyCollection[System.Management.Automation.PSTypeName] OutputType {get;}
Parameters Property System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary[string,System.Management.Automation.ParameterMetadata] Parameters {get;}
ParameterSets Property System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyCollection[System.Management.Automation.CommandParameterSetInfo] ParameterSe…
RemotingCapability Property System.Management.Automation.RemotingCapability RemotingCapability {get;}
ScriptBlock Property scriptblock ScriptBlock {get;}
Source Property string Source {get;}
Verb Property string Verb {get;}
Version Property version Version {get;}
Visibility Property System.Management.Automation.SessionStateEntryVisibility Visibility {get;set;}
HelpUri ScriptProperty System.Object HelpUri {get=$oldProgressPreference = $ProgressPreference…
For example, Module shows the module that exposes the current function, OutputType (if the function specifies one) is the type returned, Visibility is the Scope the function has access to.
I found particularly useful the possibility to read the function’s source code from the ScriptBlock or Definition properties (I used it a few times to debug exceptions thrown by some function I was using interactively at the console):
PS /> Get-Item Function:Unprotect-SecureString | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Definition
[CmdletBinding()]
param(
[parameter(Mandatory=$true, Position=1)]
[SecureString]$SecureString
)
[String]$stringValue = [Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto([Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($SecureString))
return $stringValue
Or, the abbreviated form I prefer:
PS /> ${Function:Unprotect-SecureString}
[CmdletBinding()]
param(
[parameter(Mandatory=$true, Position=1)]
[SecureString]$SecureString
)
[String]$stringValue = [Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto([Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($SecureString))
return $stringValue
The secret of creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. – Albert Einstein