Learn PowerShell in a Month of Lunches: Covers Windows, Linux, and macOS

Learn PowerShell in a Month of Lunches
brief contents
contents
foreword
preface
acknowledgments
about this book
Who should read this book
About the code
liveBook discussion forum
about the authors
Chapter 1: Before you begin
1.1 Why you can no longer afford to ignore PowerShell
1.1.1 Life without PowerShell
1.1.2 Life with PowerShell
1.2 Windows, Linux, and macOS, oh my
1.3 Is this book for you?
1.4 How to use this book
1.4.1 The chapters
1.4.2 Hands-on labs
1.4.3 Supplementary materials
1.4.4 Further exploration
1.4.5 Above and beyond
1.5 Setting up your lab environment
1.6 Installing PowerShell
1.7 Contacting us
1.8 Being immediately effective with PowerShell
Chapter 2: Meet PowerShell
2.1 PowerShell on Windows
2.2 PowerShell on macOS
2.2.1 Installation on macOS
2.3 PowerShell on Linux (Ubuntu 18.04)
2.3.1 Installation on Ubuntu 18.04
2.4 Visual Studio Code and the PowerShell extension
2.4.1 Installing Visual Studio Code and the PowerShell extension
2.4.2 Getting familiar with Visual Studio Code
2.4.3 Customizing Visual Studio Code and the PowerShell extension
2.5 It’s typing class all over again
2.6 What version is this?
2.7 Lab
Chapter 3: Using the help system
3.1 The help system: How you discover commands
3.2 Updatable help
3.3 Asking for help
3.4 Using help to find commands
3.5 Interpreting the help
3.5.1 Parameter sets and common parameters
3.5.2 Optional and mandatory parameters
3.5.3 Positional parameters
3.5.4 Parameter values
3.5.5 Finding command examples
3.6 Accessing “about” topics
3.7 Accessing online help
3.8 Lab
3.9 Lab answers
Chapter 4: Running commands
4.1 Let’s talk security
4.1.1 Execution policy
4.2 Not scripting, but running commands
4.3 The anatomy of a command
4.4 The cmdlet naming convention
4.5 Aliases: Nicknames for commands
4.6 Taking shortcuts
4.6.1 Truncating parameter names
4.6.2 Using parameter name aliases
4.6.3 Using positional parameters
4.7 Support for external commands
4.8 Dealing with errors
4.9 Common points of confusion
4.9.1 Typing cmdlet names
4.9.2 Typing parameters
4.10 Lab
4.11 Lab answers
Chapter 5: Working with providers
5.1 What are providers?
5.2 Understanding how the filesystem is organized
5.3 Navigating the filesystem
5.4 Using wildcards and literal paths
5.5 Working with other providers
5.5.1 Windows Registry
5.6 Lab
5.7 Lab answers
Chapter 6: The pipeline: Connecting commands
6.1 Connecting one command to another: Less work for you
6.2 Exporting to a file
6.2.1 Exporting to CSV
6.2.2 Exporting to JSON
6.2.3 Exporting to XML
6.2.4 Out-File
6.2.5 Comparing files
6.3 Piping to a file
6.4 Converting to HTML
6.5 Using cmdlets that modify the system: Killing processes
6.6 Common points of confusion
6.7 Lab
6.8 Lab answers
Chapter 7: Adding commands
7.1 How one shell can do everything
7.2 Extensions: Finding and installing modules
7.3 Extensions: Finding and adding modules
7.4 Command conflicts and removing extensions
7.5 Playing with a new module
7.6 Common points of confusion
7.7 Lab
7.8 Lab answers
Chapter 8: Objects: Data by another name
8.1 What are objects?
8.2 Understanding why PowerShell uses objects
8.3 Discovering objects: Get-Member
8.4 Using object attributes, or properties
8.5 Using object actions, or methods
8.6 Sorting objects
8.7 Selecting the properties you want
8.8 Objects until the end
8.9 Common points of confusion
8.10 Lab
8.11 Lab answers
Chapter 9: A practical interlude
9.1 Defining the task
9.2 Finding the commands
9.3 Learning to use the commands
9.4 Tips for teaching yourself
9.5 Lab
9.6 Lab answer
Chapter 10: The pipeline, deeper
10.1 The pipeline: Enabling power with less typing
10.2 How PowerShell passes data down the pipeline
10.3 Plan A: Pipeline input ByValue
10.4 Plan B: Pipeline input ByPropertyName
10.5 When things don’t line up: Custom properties
10.6 Working with Azure PowerShell
10.7 Parenthetical commands
10.8 Extracting the value from a single property
10.9 Lab
10.10 Lab answers
10.11 Further exploration
Chapter 11: Formatting: And why it’s done on the right
11.1 Formatting: Making what you see prettier
11.2 Working with the default formatting
11.3 Formatting tables
11.4 Formatting lists
11.5 Formatting wide lists
11.6 Creating custom columns and list entries
11.7 Going out: To a file or to the host
11.8 Another out: GridViews
11.9 Common points of confusion
11.9.1 Always format right
11.9.2 One type of object at a time, please
11.10 Lab
11.11 Lab answers
11.12 Further exploration
Chapter 12: Filtering and comparisons
12.1 Making the shell give you just what you need
12.2 Filtering left
12.3 Using comparison operators
12.4 Filtering objects out of the pipeline
12.5 Using the iterative command-line model
12.6 Common points of confusion
12.6.1 Filter left, please
12.6.2 When $_ is allowed
12.7 Lab
12.8 Lab answers
12.9 Further exploration
Chapter 13: Remote control: One-to-one and one-to-many
13.1 The idea behind remote PowerShell
13.1.1 Remoting on Windows devices
13.1.2 Remoting on macOS and Linux devices
13.1.3 Cross-platform remoting
13.2 Setting up PSRP over SSH
13.2.1 macOS and Linux
13.2.2 Setting up SSH on Windows
13.3 PSRP over SSH overview
13.4 WinRM overview
13.5 Using Enter-PSSession and Exit-PSSession for one-to-one remoting
13.6 Using Invoke-ScriptBlock for one-to-many remoting
13.7 Differences between remote and local commands
13.7.1 Deserialized objects
13.7.2 Local vs. remote processing
13.8 But wait, there’s more
13.9 Common points of confusion
13.10 Lab
13.11 Lab answers
13.12 Further exploration
Chapter 14: Multitasking with background jobs
14.1 Making PowerShell do multiple things at the same time
14.2 Synchronous vs. asynchronous
14.3 Creating a process job
14.4 Creating a thread job
14.5 Remoting, as a job
14.6 Jobs in the wild
14.7 Getting job results
14.8 Working with child jobs
14.9 Commands for managing jobs
14.10 Common points of confusion
14.11 Lab
14.12 Lab answers
Chapter 15: Working with many objects, one at a time
15.1 The preferred way: “Batch” cmdlets
15.2 The CIM way: Invoking methods
15.3 The backup plan: Enumerating objects
15.3.1 Making the cmdlets work for you
15.4 Let’s speed things up
15.5 Common points of confusion
15.5.1 Which way is the right way?
15.5.2 Diminishing returns of Parallel ForEach
15.5.3 Method documentation
15.5.4 ForEach-Object confusion
15.6 Lab
15.7 Lab answers
Chapter 16: Variables: A place to store your stuff
16.1 Introduction to variables
16.2 Storing values in variables
16.3 Using variables: Fun tricks with quotes
16.4 Storing many objects in a variable
16.4.1 Working with single objects in a variable
16.4.2 Working with multiple objects in a variable
16.4.3 Other ways to work with multiple objects
16.4.4 Unrolling properties and methods in PowerShell
16.5 More tricks with double quotes
16.6 Declaring a variable’s type
16.7 Commands for working with variables
16.8 Variable best practices
16.9 Common points of confusion
16.10 Lab
16.11 Lab answers
16.12 Further exploration
Chapter 17: Input and output
17.1 Prompting for, and displaying, information
17.2 Read-Host
17.3 Write-Host
17.4 Write-Output
17.5 Other ways to write
17.6 Lab
17.7 Lab answers
17.8 Further exploration
Chapter 18: Sessions: Remote control with less work
18.1 Creating and using reusable sessions
18.2 Enter-PSSession with session objects
18.3 Invoke-Command with session objects
18.4 Implicit remoting: Importing a session
18.5 Using disconnected sessions
18.6 Lab
18.7 Lab answers
18.8 Further exploration
Chapter 19: You call this scripting?
19.1 Not programming, more like batch files
19.2 Making commands repeatable
19.3 Parameterizing commands
19.4 Creating a parameterized script
19.5 Documenting your script
19.6 One script, one pipeline
19.7 A quick look at scope
19.8 Lab
19.9 Lab answer
Chapter 20: Improving your parameterized script
20.1 Starting point
20.2 Getting PowerShell to do the hard work
20.3 Making parameters mandatory
20.4 Adding parameter aliases
20.5 Validating parameter input
20.6 Adding the warm and fuzzies with verbose output
20.7 Lab
20.8 Lab answer
Chapter 21: Using regular expressions to parse text files
21.1 The purpose of regular expressions
21.2 A regex syntax primer
21.3 Using regex with -Match
21.4 Using regex with Select-String
21.5 Lab
21.6 Lab answers
21.7 Further exploration
Chapter 22: Using someone else’s script
22.1 The script
22.1.1 Parameter block
22.1.2 Process block
22.2 It’s a line-by-line examination
22.3 Lab
22.4 Lab answer
Chapter 23: Adding logic and loops
23.1 Foreach and Foreach-Object
23.1.1 Foreach
23.1.2 Foreach-Object
23.1.3 Foreach-Object -Parallel
23.2 While
23.3 Do While
23.4 Lab
23.5 Lab answers
Chapter 24: Handling errors
24.1 Understanding errors and exceptions
24.2 Bad handling
24.3 Two reasons for exception handling
24.4 Handling exceptions
24.5 Handling exceptions for noncommands
24.6 Going further with exception handling
24.7 Lab
24.8 Lab answer
Chapter 25: Debugging techniques
25.1 Output everything
25.2 One line at a time
25.3 Hey, script, stop right there . . . with breakpoints
25.4 Lab
Chapter 26: Tips, tricks, and techniques
26.1 Profiles, prompts, and colors: Customizing the shell
26.1.1 PowerShell profiles
26.1.2 Customizing the prompt
26.1.3 Tweaking colors
26.2 Operators: -as, -is, -replace, -join, -split, -contains, -in
26.2.1 -as and -is
26.2.2 -replace
26.2.3 -join and -split
26.2.4 -contains and -in
26.3 String manipulation
26.4 Date manipulation
26.5 Dealing with WMI dates
26.6 Setting default parameter values
26.7 Playing with script blocks
26.8 More tips, tricks, and techniques
Chapter 27: Never the end
27.1 Ideas for further exploration
27.2 “Now that I’ve read the book, where do I start?”
27.3 Other resources you’ll grow to love
appendix: PowerShell cheat sheet
A.1 Punctuation
A.2 Help file
A.3 Operators
A.4 Custom property and column syntax
A.5 Pipeline parameter input
A.6 When to use $_
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