Where to put PowerShell scripts?

Question

(I can't believe I'm actually asking this, but I am out of brainpower for the day.)

I just wrote my first serious PowerShell script, and I'm really happy with it. I plan to use it every day or so. I want to be able to call it from the Posh command line. I'll give it a verb-noun type name, but for now it's a simple .ps1 and not one of those fancy advanced functions that take params and such.

So where should it go and how do I call it from a Posh command line? I plan to write more! Where should they go?

• Should it be a function in my profile?
• Should it go on my path?
• Does it go in a PSMODULEPATH? What kind of stuff goes there anyway? Does it look recursively or is it just like the normal PATH?

Where do you all put your PowerShell scripts and how do you organize them? I've got a lot of experience making C# and C++ tools and know what to name them and where to put them. And at the other extreme I've done a lot of crappy .bat files which are usually standalone or piled in a heap in some folder. But PowerShell seems to be very different. You can make crappy .bat file type things in it really quickly, or you can be building libraries and sophisticated services with it.

I'd really love some ideas on how I should start organizing these things before I start. Obviously everybody is different, so I'm hoping for some discussion. Thanks!

Answer 1

I put my personal scripts in the same folder as my profile. I can then back up & version them together. My profile begins with:

$ProfileRoot = (Split-Path $script:MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path)
$env:path += ";$ProfileRoot"

Answer 2

My recommendations: - Store the script in a directory as you wish, e.g. c:\posh - Add the directory to $env:path

$env:path += ";c:\posh"

This ensures that you may be in other directory, say c:\windows, but you can call the script

[c:\windows] > sampl[TAB] # it expands the name of file to sample.ps1, then hit enter

If your file sample.ps1 contains functions definitions and you import it every time, then I would consider adding this line to your $profile file

. c:\posh\sample.ps1

Concerning script organization.. just several dirs according to the purpose of the scripts :) Personal, dev, external (downloaded), samples,...

Answer 3

With V2, you can create a modules directory in the WindowsPowerShell directory where your profile is. PS will automatically look in that directory to load modules when you run import-module. I created a "Scripts" directory under WindowsPowerShell as well that is a sibling directory of Modules.

I use my profile to set some directories using variables with the following code:

PS>  cat $Profile
$scripts = "$(split-path $profile)\Scripts"
$modules = "$(split-path $profile)\Modules"
$docs    =  $(resolve-path "$Env:userprofile\documents")
$desktop =  $(resolve-path "$Env:userprofile\desktop")

PS> cat variable:\scripts
C:\Users\andy.schneider\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Scripts

PS>  cat variable:\modules
C:\Users\andy.schneider\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules

Answer 4

This is what I do:

Note: Substitute ModuleName for something meaningful.

Create a module and save it in the global modules folder as C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\ModuleName\ModuleName.psm1. e.g.:

function global:FancyFunction() {
  # do something interesting here.
}

Export-ModuleMember -function FancyFunction 

Open your PowerShell profile script and add the following line to make sure that your module is loaded every time you start a PowerShell session:

Import-Module ModuleName -Force

You can easily find your PowerShell profile startup script by typing:

Notepad $PROFILE

Note: $PROFILE.AllUsersAllHosts still uses the legacy path of C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\profile.ps1

When you open a new PowerShell session, you should be able to call your function from the console or from other scripts without having to do anything else.

Note: You actually don't have to pre-load your modules using the $PROFILE script to be able to use the exported commands as later versions of PowerShell knows where to look.

Answer 5

There is an exported variable in PowerShellGet module used in powershell 7.1

Import-Module PowerShellGet -RequiredVersion 2.2.5
$PSGetPath

it has 4 properties

AllUsersModules    : C:\Program Files\PowerShell\Modules
AllUsersScripts    : C:\Program Files\PowerShell\Scripts
CurrentUserModules : C:\Users\username\Documents\PowerShell\Modules
CurrentUserScripts : C:\Users\username\Documents\PowerShell\Scripts

you could use one of those script locations. Install-Script is using them also.

Answer 6

Normally you would distribute your code using advanced functions in modules. But if you for some obscure reason don't want to have your scripts to behave as built-in commands, you can distribute script files instead.

Scripts can be installed from a registered PSRepository (such as PS Gallery or one of your own, see Register-PSRepository) using the command Install-Script.

Install-Script -Repository PSGallery -Name Write-HelloWorld

You can select the installation directory to be used by specyfing -Scope

• -Scope CurrentUser will install the script to
  $ENV:UserProfile\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Scripts
• -Scope AllUsers will install the script to
  $ENV:ProgramFiles\WindowsPowerShell\Scripts

For PowerShell 7.x the paths will be

• -Scope CurrentUser will install the script to
  $ENV:UserProfile\Documents\PowerShell\Scripts
• -Scope AllUsers will install the script to
  $ENV:ProgramFiles\PowerShell\Scripts

(The scripts folder doesn't exist for PowerShell 7 untill you try installing a script for the first time.)

Instead of using a PowerShell repository and Install-Script you could of course copy the script directly to the preferred script folder.

The $ENV:Path variable, of course, needs to include the path to the script folder.

The difference will be that Get-InstalledScript will only display scripts that got the corresponding XML-description file, copied to the folder InstalledScriptInfos, as part of Install-Script command usage.

Answer 7

I took the route of ordering all my PowerShell pieces in one place...mostly for easier archiving. I put them in $env:APPDATA\Microsoft\Windows\PowerShell\. This is because this where the history is stored and I like these pieces in an out of the way place (to leave my Document folder just for documents).

I add the Modules path:

$env:PSModulePath += ";${env:USERPROFILE}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\PowerShell\Modules\"

Profile location redefine:

New-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders" -Name "Personal" -PropertyType String -Value "$env:APPDATA\Microsoft\Windows" -Force
Stop-Process -Name explorer -Force

Add my scripts to Path and give them a handy shortcut:

$PATH_ADD = "$env:APPDATA\Microsoft\Windows\PowerShell\Scripts;"
$PATH_OLD = (Get-ItemProperty -Path HKCU:\Environment).Path
$PATH_NEW = $PATH_OLD + $PATH_ADD
Set-ItemProperty -Path HKCU:\Environment -Name Path –Value $PATH_NEW

function cds { Set-Location $env:APPDATA\Microsoft\Windows\PowerShell\Scripts }

And it looks like this:

d----          240610 Mon    10:31                Modules
d----          240610 Mon    10:51                PSReadLine
d----          240827 Tue    10:22                Scripts
-a---          240828 Wed    13:07          10608 Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1
-a---          240905 Thu    10:29             55 powershell.config.json