Powershell

Note

This was whipped together quickly while doing some cramming, so you might see some notes and think "well why didn't you just research further?". Valid question. Answer: aintnobodygottimeforthat.gif. Seriously, I'm super pressed for time rn.

Also, probably doesn't belong in the "Programming Languages" category, I know. I didn't even have time to come up with better organization rn.

Coming from Bash

I'm diving into Powershell but I have all the muscle memory of Linux commands. Here is a map of the ones I commonly use and some resources for those like me.

Couple must know;s about pwsh

0. You can install it on linux (and MacOS), and play around by simply running pwsh (or pwsh-preview) if you don't have access to a Windows box.
1. Get-Command *STRING* - trying to find a command and only know part of the name? Use this.
2. Get-Help COMMAND - get a man page basically. Add -examples to the end to go straight to how to use it.
   • If you see Get-Help cannot find the Help files for this cmdlet on this computer. try running Update-Help (which fixed an issue I saw on pwsh-preview in Ubu26.04.

Resources

I used the following for a lot of this:

1. Unix Person's Guide to Powershell

Bash -> pwsh

Bash	Powershell	Notes
alias ALIAS_NAME COMMAND	Set-Alias ALIAS_NAME COMMAND	There are some quirks with this, see the help
basename FILE	- dir FILE | select name - [System.IO.Path]::GetFileName('FILE')	For the first, FILE must exist. For the latter, it does not.
cd	Set-Location	Fortunately, this is aliased to cd
cp [-r]	Copy-Item [-Recurse]	Also aliased.
date	- Get-Date - Set-Date
dirname FILE	- Get-ChildItem FILE | select directory - [System.IO.Path]::GetDirectoryName('FILE')	For the first, FILE must exist. For the latter, it does not.
echo	- Write-Object - Write-Host
env/set	- Get-ChildItem Env: -get-variable	The first is for Windows-level vars, the second for PowerShell-level variables
find . -name '*.md'	dir *.md -recurse | Select FullName	I've been playing with this and getting weird results if I try to use -Include/-Exclude
for n in One Two Three do echo $n done	foreach ($n in ("one", "two", "three")) {write-output $n}
grep	Select-String	This acts "weird" when piped to from a command, like get-alias | select-string ls will return only ls rather than the whole line (so like grep -o but using it with file output
head	Get-Content file.txt | select-object -first 10
history	Get-History	History doesn't persist across sessions unless you do work to make it do so.
hostname	- hostname - Get-WmiObject -class win32_operatingsystem | select __SERVER	Get-WmiObject wasn't on my pwsh-preview in Ubuntu 26.04
[-f FILENAME]	Test-Path FILENAME	Test-Path returns True/False
kill	Stop-Process
ls	- Get-ChildItem - dir - gci	Should be aliased already
ls -a	- Get-ChildItem -force	Shows all files including hidden ones
lsusb	get-wmiobject Win32_USBControllerDevice	gwmi is an alias for Get-WmiObject
man	Get-Help	Super helpful parameters: -examples and -full. If things are "not found" with Get-Help, try running Update-Help
mv	Rename-Item
ps -ef | grep ssh	get-process *ssh*	Roughly equivalent, but when running the latter in ubuntu powershell, due to lack of full command line, a few were missing (Ex: "vagrant ssh" didn't show).
read -p "Input pls: " innie; echo $innie	$innie = read-host "Input pls: " -MaskInput	There is also -AsSecureString which creates a System.Security.SecureString which I don't know yet how to read
rm	Remove-Item
sleep SECONDS	Start-Sleep SECONDS	Might have a sleep alias already. Also has a -milliseconds parameter
sort	sort-object	Also has a -Unique parameter, among others
tail	Get-Content -tail 10 file.txt
tail -f	Get-Content -tail 10 -wait
tee [-a] FILENAME	Tee-Object [-Append] FILENAME
touch FILENAME	Set-Content -Path FILENAME -Value $null	For an empty file
unalias	Remove-Item -Path Alias:ALIAS_NAME
uname -a	- get-wmiobject -class win32_operatingsystem | select * - get-wmiobject -class win32_computersystem | select *	Roughly same output there
uptime	get-wmiobject -class win32_operatingsystem | select LastBootUpTime	You can also add -ComputerName to check the uptime of another server
wc -l	Get-Content FILE | measure-object | select count	Non-blanks, drop the select and add -line
whoami	[Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent() | select name