The two functions, Export-History<\/b> and Import-History<\/b>, both arose from two of my Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog posts I wrote this week. In my article about getting history and invoking history<\/a>, I saw a need to simplify exporting Windows PowerShell command history. In the article about importing history<\/a>, I thought it could be a bit confusing having to call the Import-Clixml<\/b> Windows PowerShell cmdlet. <\/p>\n The complete Import-History<\/b> function appears here.<\/p>\n Import-History.ps1<\/strong><\/p>\n Function Import-History<\/p>\n {<\/p>\n <#<\/p>\n .Synopsis<\/p>\n Imports a saved XML file of history commands into current environment. <\/p>\n .Description<\/p>\n The Import-History function will simplify importing a saved XML file of<\/p>\n history commands into the current PowerShell environment. <\/p>\n .Example<\/p>\n Import-History -Path C:\\fso\\mycommands.xml<\/p>\n Imports history of commands saved in the mycommands.xml file<\/p>\n .Example<\/p>\n Import-History<\/p>\n This will prompt you for path to a saved xml file of history commands<\/p>\n .Example<\/p>\n Import-History c:\\fso\\mycommands.xml<\/p>\n Imports history of commands saved in the mycommands.xml file<\/p>\n .Parameter Path<\/p>\n The path to the saved XML file of history commands<\/p>\n .Inputs<\/p>\n [string]<\/p>\n .Outputs<\/p>\n None<\/p>\n .Notes<\/p>\n NAME: Import-XML<\/p>\n AUTHOR: Ed Wilson<\/p>\n LASTEDIT: 1\/18\/2011<\/p>\n KEYWORDS: Scripting Techniques, Getting Started<\/p>\n NOTES: You can use the Export-History function from HSG-1-22-2011 to export <\/p>\n the history commands from your PowerShell environment. You will need to add<\/p>\n this function to your environment by either dot-sourcing in the console, or<\/p>\n running in the ISE. You can also add this and the Export-History function<\/p>\n to your profile. For details see the Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog posts of <\/p>\n 1\/22\/2011 and 1\/23\/2011.<\/p>\n .Link<\/p>\n Http:\/\/www.ScriptingGuys.com<\/p>\n #Requires -Version 2.0<\/p>\n #><\/p>\n Param(<\/p>\n [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]<\/p>\n [string]$Path)<\/p>\n Add-History -InputObject (Import-Clixml -path $path)<\/p>\n } #end function Import-History<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Because I was a bit bored, I decided to add comment-based help to the Import-History<\/b> function. The comment-based help actually takes up most of the space in the function. I discussed adding help for function parameters in the Hey, Scripting Guy! post, How Do I Add Help Information for Windows PowerShell Parameters<\/a>. In the Automatically Add Comment-Based Help to Your PowerShell Scripts<\/a> article, I talk about a function I wrote to add the help tags to a script. The comment-based help appears here.<\/p>\n <#<\/p>\n .Synopsis<\/p>\n Imports a saved XML file of history commands into current environment. <\/p>\n .Description<\/p>\n The Import-History function will simplify importing a saved XML file of<\/p>\n history commands into the current Windows PowerShell environment. <\/p>\n .Example<\/p>\n Import-History -Path C:\\fso\\mycommands.xml<\/p>\n Imports history of commands saved in the mycommands.xml file.<\/p>\n .Example<\/p>\n Import-History<\/p>\n This will prompt you for the path to a saved XML file of history commands.<\/p>\n .Example<\/p>\n Import-History c:\\fso\\mycommands.xml<\/p>\n Imports history of commands saved in the mycommands.xml file.<\/p>\n .Parameter Path<\/p>\n The path to the saved XML file of history commands.<\/p>\n .Inputs<\/p>\n [string]<\/p>\n .Outputs<\/p>\n None<\/p>\n .Notes<\/p>\n NAME: Import-XML<\/p>\n AUTHOR: Ed Wilson<\/p>\n LASTEDIT: 1\/18\/2011<\/p>\n KEYWORDS: scripting techniques, getting started<\/p>\n NOTES: You can use the Export-History function from HSG-1-22-2011 to export <\/p>\n the history commands from your Windows PowerShell environment. You will need to add<\/p>\n this function to your environment by either dot-sourcing in the console, or<\/p>\n running in the ISE. You can also add this and the Export-History function<\/p>\n to your profile. For details see the Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog articles of <\/p>\n 1\/22\/2011 and 1\/23\/2011.<\/p>\n .Link<\/p>\n Http:\/\/www.ScriptingGuys.com<\/p>\n #Requires -Version 2.0<\/p>\n #><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The core portion of the Import-History<\/b> function consists of a mandatory parameter and an Add-History<\/b> command. This is shown here:<\/p>\n Param(<\/p>\n [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]<\/p>\n [string]$Path)<\/p>\n Add-History -InputObject (Import-Clixml -path $path)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n To use the Import-History<\/b> function, you either dot-source the function, run it one time in your Windows PowerShell ISE, or add it to your profile or a module. After you have loaded it into your environment, type Import-History<\/font> and specify a path to the history XML file you want to use. This is illustrated in the following image.<\/p>\n If you add the two functions to your profile or to a module, you may wish to create two aliases to simplify access to them. On my system, both IM<\/b> and EM<\/b> (for Import-Module<\/b> and Export-Module<\/b>, respectively) are available. I used Get-Alias<\/b> (alias is gal<\/b>) to see if they are\nin use. The output appears as errors (because the aliases are not available). I have drawn arrows to the applicable portion of the error message in the following image.<\/p>\n I invite you to follow me on Twitter<\/a> and Facebook<\/a>. If you have any questions, send email to me at scripter@microsoft.com<\/a>, or post your questions on the Official Scripting Guys Forum<\/a>. See you tomorrow. Until then, peace.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/b><\/p>\n Ed Wilson, Microsoft Scripting Guy<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Summary: Use a custom Windows PowerShell function to simplify importing command history into the current environment. Microsoft Scripting Guy Ed Wilson here, well it has been a fun week. I got to thaw out in Florida after my presentation to SQL Saturday in Tampa. I made some new friends on Twitter, Facebook, and Linked In. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":595,"featured_media":87096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[51,3,4,61,45],"class_list":["post-15821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scripting","tag-getting-started","tag-scripting-guy","tag-scripting-techniques","tag-weekend-scripter","tag-windows-powershell"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":" Summary: Use a custom Windows PowerShell function to simplify importing command history into the current environment. Microsoft Scripting Guy Ed Wilson here, well it has been a fun week. I got to thaw out in Florida after my presentation to SQL Saturday in Tampa. I made some new friends on Twitter, Facebook, and Linked In. 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