One of the cool things about Windows PowerShell modules is that they can contain a number of items. These items include aliases, cmdlets, and functions. To find these things, first use the Get-Module<\/b> cmdlet to retrieve the module, and then examine the properties. A good place to start is to look at the members of the PSModuleInfo<\/b> object. This is shown here. (gm<\/b> is an alias for get-Member.)<\/p>\n
PS C:\\> Get-Module *management | gm -MemberType property ex*<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
TypeName: System.Management.Automation.PSModuleInfo<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Name MemberType Definition<\/p>\n
—- ———- ———-<\/p>\n
ExportedAliases Property System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary[string,Syste…<\/p>\n
ExportedCmdlets Property System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary[string,Syste…<\/p>\n
ExportedCommands Property System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary[string,Syste…<\/p>\n
ExportedFormatFiles Property System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyCollection[…<\/p>\n
ExportedFunctions Property System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary[string,Syste…<\/p>\n
ExportedTypeFiles Property System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyCollection[…<\/p>\n
ExportedVariables Property System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary[string,Syste…<\/p>\n
ExportedWorkflows Property System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary[string,Syste…<\/p>\n
When I see that there are properties for the various things a module might export, I want to examine them. First, notice that these are all collections. This has implications for the way that information returns from the Get-Module<\/b> cmdlet. I like to see what properties are returning anything at all, so an easy way to do that is to pipe the results to the Format-Table<\/b> cmdlet as shown here. (ft<\/b> is an alias for Format-Table<\/b>, and I am choosing properties that begin with the letters ex<\/b>.)<\/p>\n
PS C:\\> Get-Module *management | ft ex*<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
ExportedFu ExportedCm ExportedCo ExportedVa ExportedAl ExportedW ExportedF ExportedT<\/p>\n
nctions dlets mmands riables iases orkflows ormatFile ypeFiles<\/p>\n
s<\/p>\n
———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ——— ——— ———<\/p>\n
{} {[Add-C… {[Add-C… {} {} {} {} {}<\/p>\n
It appears that only two of the properties return information for the *management<\/b> module, the ExportedCmdlets<\/b> and the ExportedCommands<\/b> properties. Let me hone in on them by using the command shown here.<\/p>\n
PS C:\\> Get-Module *management | ft exportedc*<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
ExportedCmdlets ExportedCommands<\/p>\n
————— —————-<\/p>\n
{[Add-Computer, Add-Computer], [Add-Con… {[Add-Computer, Add-Computer], [Add-Co…<\/p>\n
I see that both properties, ExportedCmdlets<\/b> and ExportedCommands <\/b>return exactly the same information. Therefore, I will focus my efforts on ExportedCmdlets<\/b>. Here is the command I use.<\/p>\n
PS C:\\> Get-Module *management | Select ExportedCmdlets<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
ExportedCmdlets<\/p>\n
—————<\/p>\n
{[Add-Computer, Add-Computer], [Add-Content, Add-Content], [Checkpoint-Computer, …<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
PS C:\\><\/p>\n
Bummer! I do not see all of the exported cmdlets. The reason goes back to the fact that we have a collection, and we are limited by the value of the automatic preference variable, $FormatEnumerationLimit <\/b>(it is set to 4 by default. (For more information about this variable, see Change a PowerShell Preference Variable to Reveal Hidden Data<\/a><\/span>.) Without changing the value of $FormatEnumerationLimit<\/b>, the easiest way to see all of the cmdlets is to add the ExpandParameter<\/b> <\/i>parameter to the Select-Object<\/b> command. This is shown here.<\/p>\n Get-Module *management | Select -expand ExportedCmdlets<\/p>\n The command and associated output are shown in the image that follows.<\/p>\n Join me tomorrow when I will talk about more cool Windows PowerShell stuff.<\/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 Ed Wilson, Microsoft Scripting Guy<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Summary: Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, talks about identifying what a Windows PowerShell module exposes to the user. Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. This is it; today is the day for Windows PowerShell Saturday in Charlotte, North Carolina. If you are in the area of the Microsoft Office today, come on by and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":596,"featured_media":87096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[51,364,3,4,45],"class_list":["post-4971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scripting","tag-getting-started","tag-powershell-3-0","tag-scripting-guy","tag-scripting-techniques","tag-windows-powershell"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":" Summary: Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, talks about identifying what a Windows PowerShell module exposes to the user. Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. This is it; today is the day for Windows PowerShell Saturday in Charlotte, North Carolina. If you are in the area of the Microsoft Office today, come on by and […]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Image](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/02\/4265.hsg-9-15-12-1.png\" "\\"Image")
<\/a><\/p>\n