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Learning PowerShell

Whether you're a Developer, a DevOps or an IT Professional, this doc will help you getting started with PowerShell. In this document we'll cover the following: installing PowerShell, samples walkthrough, PowerShell editor, debugger, testing tools and a map book for experienced bash users to get started with PowerShell faster.

The exercises in this document are intended to give you a solid foundation in how to use PowerShell. You won't be a PowerShell guru at the end of reading this material but you will be well on your way with the right set of knowledge to start using PowerShell.

If you have 30 minutes now, let’s try it.

Installing PowerShell

First you need to set up your computer working environment if you have not done so. Choose the platform below and follow the instructions. At the end of this exercise, you should be able to launch the PowerShell session.

  • Get PowerShell by installing package

For this tutorial, you do not need to install PowerShell if you are running on Windows. You can launch PowerShell console by pressing Windows key, typing PowerShell, and clicking on Windows PowerShell. However if you want to try out the latest PowerShell, follow the PowerShell on Windows.

  • Alternatively you can get the PowerShell by building it

Getting Started with PowerShell

PowerShell commands follow a Verb-Noun semantic with a set of parameters. It's easy to learn and use PowerShell. For example, Get-Process will display all the running processes on your system. Let's walk through with a few examples from the PowerShell Beginner's Guide.

Now you have learned the basics of PowerShell. Please continue reading if you want to do some development work in PowerShell.

PowerShell Editor

In this section, you will create a PowerShell script using a text editor. You can use your favorite editor to write scripts. We use Visual Studio Code (VS Code) which works on Windows, Linux, and OS X. Click on the following link to create your first PowerShell script.

PowerShell Debugger

Debugging can help you find bugs and fix problems in your PowerShell scripts. Click on the link below to learn more about debugging:

PowerShell Testing

We recommend using Pester testing tool which is initiated by the PowerShell Community for writing test cases. To use the tool please read Pester Guides and Writing Pester Tests Guidelines.

Map Book for Experienced Bash users

The table below lists the usage of some basic commands to help you get started on PowerShell faster. Note that all bash commands should continue working on PowerShell session.

Bash PowerShell Description
ls dir, Get-ChildItem List files and folders
tree dir -Recurse List all files and folders
cd cd, Set-Location Change directory
pwd pwd, $pwd, Get-Location Show working directory
clear, Ctrl+L, reset cls, clear Clear screen
mkdir New-Item -ItemType Directory Create a new folder
touch test.txt New-Item -Path test.txt Create a new empty file
cat test1.txt test2.txt Get-Content test1.txt, test2.txt Display files contents
cp ./source.txt ./dest/dest.txt Copy-Item source.txt dest/dest.txt Copy a file
cp -r ./source ./dest Copy-Item ./source ./dest -Recurse Recursively copy from one folder to another
mv ./source.txt ./dest/dest.txt Move-Item ./source.txt ./dest/dest.txt Move a file to other folder
rm test.txt Remove-Item test.txt Delete a file
rm -r <folderName> Remove-Item <folderName> -Recurse Delete a folder
find -name build* Get-ChildItem build* -Recurse Find a file or folder starting with 'build'
grep -Rin "sometext" --include="*.cs" Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Filter *.cs
| Select-String -Pattern "sometext"
Recursively case-insensitive search for text in files

Recommended Training and Reading

Commercial Resources