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10/31/2024

Help: PowerShell

PowerShell commands for use in PowerShell terminal

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Synopsis:

PowerShell is an interpreter and scripting engine available in the PowerShell terminal integrated in Visual Studio Code, available in Windows, Linux, and macOS.

It has many commands designed to work with the host operating system, like creating files and directories. Its pipelines pass dotnet objects, so it is much more than an administrative tool.

We will focus here on terminal commands for managing projects in Visual Studio Code.

If you use the integrated PowerShell terminal (default for VS Code in Windows) this table will help you work productively from the command line.

PowerShell Command	Action
Selection of frequently used PowerShell commands and options. To see all: use PowerShell -help The left cell in each row contains a PowerShell command and commonly use aliases.
ls, dir, gci, Get-ChildItem	list directory contents syntax: ls [options] [path] options: -Force, -(R)ecurse, -Name, -File, -Directory, -Filter, -Include, -Exclude, -Depth, -Attributes example: ls -Filter *.zip display all zip files in current working directory example: ls -Hidden display all hidden files in current working directory example: ls -File \| Select-String "Rust" \| Select-Object -First 10 display first ten files containing string "Rust" - may also use regex example: ls -Path .. display all files and directories in parent directory
cd	change current working directory example: cd ../PostDemos sets sibling PostDemos as current working directory
pwd, gl, Get-Location	display current working directory
rm, del, Remove-Item	delete file or directory syntax: rm [options] options: -Include, -Exclude, -Confirm, -Force, -WhatIf example: rm foodir removes directory foodir example: rm foo.txt removes file foo.txt
cls, clear	clear contents of terminal
cat, type, gc, Get-Content	display text representation of object on terminal syntax: cat [options] options: -Path, -(Head, H, First, TotalCount), -Tail, -Encoding, -Delimiter -Raw example: cat index.html -TotalCount 10
write, write-output, write-host, write-error, echo, Write-Output	write to pipeline, stdout, stderr syntax: write [options] options: -Object, -ForegroundColor, -BackgroundColor, ... example: write-host -ForegroundColor green "this is a string" "and another" "and a final"
md, mkdir, New-Item	create new directory syntax: md [options] options: -Name, -Path, -ItemType, -Value, -Force, -NoClobber, -Credential, -WhatIf, -Confirm example: md foo -ItemType Directory
ni, New-Item	create new object syntax: ni [options] options: -Name, -Path, -ItemType, -Value, -Force, -NoClobber, -Credential, -WhatIf, -Confirm example: ni foobar.txt or ni -Name foobar.txt creates file foobar.txt in current working directory example: ni LinkToFoo -ItemType SymbolicLink -Target foo.txt makes symbolic link to foo.txt
man, help, Get-Help	show help text syntax: man [options] options: ls, cat, ... example: man ls