One of the promises (maybe, the biggest promise) of .NET Core and Powershell Core is being cross-platform, be able to develop applications (or Powershell scripts and modules) that can be executed on Windows, Linux and macOS; but how can we be sure the our application or script/module will actually run properly across all those platforms and distros? Talking about Powershell, PSScriptAnalyzer helps to check a script or function compatibility with certain Powershell versions or different platforms. But what if I want to actually write and test my script/module on Linux (assuming my main machine is Windows, of course 😉)?
One easy solution is to spin up a virtual machine, install the tools I need (.NET Core, Powershell Core, Visual Studio Code and anything else required) or use the Remote Development extension pack for Visual Studio Code and use Docker containers instead. Note: this requires Visual Studio Code Insiders at this time; pay attention to the Installation notes for good tips to get started. Also, take a look at Developing Inside a Container in the official VSCode documentation.
The extension pack allows to choose between Windows Substrate for Linux, connect to a remote machine through SSH or run a Docker container on my machine. I want to use a container on my development machine:
Of course, Docker must be installed first (VSCode will remind you if it’s not 😅):
You’ll have to create an account on Docker Hub if you don’t already have one, then install Docker Desktop
I’m going to use the same binary Powershell module I showed in my previous post, so I’m going to use the command Remote-Containers: Open folder in container… from the Command Palette. The first time I’m opening the folder in a container I must choose a starting point, so for my test I’m going to use C# (.NET Core Latest)
By the way, there is a container for just Powershell, if you want to play with it:
Powershell Core (6.2.2 is the latest stable version at this time) is already installed under /root/.dotnet/tools/, I can just run pwsh to start it:
root@545230ed439e:/# find . -name pwsh*
./root/.dotnet/tools/.store/powershell/6.2.2/powershell/6.2.2/tools/netcoreapp2.1/any/win/preview/pwsh-preview.cmd
./root/.dotnet/tools/.store/powershell/6.2.2/powershell/6.2.2/tools/netcoreapp2.1/any/win/pwsh.deps.json
./root/.dotnet/tools/.store/powershell/6.2.2/powershell/6.2.2/tools/netcoreapp2.1/any/win/pwsh.runtimeconfig.json
./root/.dotnet/tools/.store/powershell/6.2.2/powershell/6.2.2/tools/netcoreapp2.1/any/win/pwsh.dll
./root/.dotnet/tools/.store/powershell/6.2.2/powershell/6.2.2/tools/netcoreapp2.1/any/unix/pwsh.deps.json
./root/.dotnet/tools/.store/powershell/6.2.2/powershell/6.2.2/tools/netcoreapp2.1/any/unix/pwsh.runtimeconfig.json
./root/.dotnet/tools/.store/powershell/6.2.2/powershell/6.2.2/tools/netcoreapp2.1/any/unix/pwsh.dll
./root/.dotnet/tools/pwsh
./root/.vscode-server-insiders/extensions/ms-vscode.powershell-2019.5.0/media/pwsh.svg
./.store/powershell/6.2.2/powershell/6.2.2/tools/netcoreapp2.1/any/win/preview/pwsh-preview.cmd
./.store/powershell/6.2.2/powershell/6.2.2/tools/netcoreapp2.1/any/win/pwsh.deps.json
./.store/powershell/6.2.2/powershell/6.2.2/tools/netcoreapp2.1/any/win/pwsh.runtimeconfig.json
./.store/powershell/6.2.2/powershell/6.2.2/tools/netcoreapp2.1/any/win/pwsh.dll
./.store/powershell/6.2.2/powershell/6.2.2/tools/netcoreapp2.1/any/unix/pwsh.deps.json
./.store/powershell/6.2.2/powershell/6.2.2/tools/netcoreapp2.1/any/unix/pwsh.runtimeconfig.json
./.store/powershell/6.2.2/powershell/6.2.2/tools/netcoreapp2.1/any/unix/pwsh.dll
root@545230ed439e:/# ./root/.dotnet/tools/pwsh
PowerShell 6.2.2
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
https://aka.ms/pscore6-docs
Type 'help' to get help.
PS /> $PSVersionTable
Name Value
---- -----
PSVersion 6.2.2
PSEdition Core
GitCommitId 6.2.2
OS Linux 4.9.184-linuxkit #1 SMP Tue Jul 2 22:58:16 UTC 2019
Platform Unix
PSCompatibleVersions {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0…}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion 2.3
SerializationVersion 1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion 3.0
Now I can import and use the module as usual;
Don’t part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live – Mark Twain