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54 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
54 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
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title = "The Help System"
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date = "2022-04-19T10:44:28-05:00"
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author = "Xevion"
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description = "Stuck? Lost? Not sure how to find anything out? The help system is an effective way to find out what you need to know."
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Information on acquiring information about Cmdlets and using the help system effectively.
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---
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To acquire information on a command or subject, use the `Get-Help [Cmdlet]` command. The `man` and `help` aliases are available, but note that
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they automatically pipe to `More` for improved viewing.
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You can use the `-online` flag to browse the help documentation online.
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> In order to view documentation on commands, you will need to update documentation for powershell.
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> This can easily be done using `Update-Help`, but you need to be running in administrator to do this.
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> I personally recommend using `-Force` to 'assist' some modules into updating.
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Note that there are options for updating help, take a look at `Save-Help` and `Update-Help -SourcePath` to do this.
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### Finding Commands
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In the search for a specific command, you can use _wildcards_ to make it easy. The wildcard character matches
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searches for 0 or more characters; thus if you place `*` in front of `event` and search for it: `help *event`,
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you'll find it matching anything that ends with `event` in the subject's name, regardless of what comes before it.
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However, `Get-Help` searches for _help topics_, _modules_ that may or may not exist for every command (while they most likely do, it's not 100%).
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Furthermore, your results could be polluted by topics you aren't interested in; if you strictly want commands, `Get-Command` is your friend.
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Do note though: while `Get-Command` supports wildcard, you should use the `-Noun` and `-Verb` parameters to make sure
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no external commands are returned (Only Cmdlets have _nouns_ or _verbs_). Another way is with the `-Type` parameter, (i.e. `-Type Cmdlet`).
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### Potential Usages
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```powershell
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Get-Help [Subject]
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help [Subject]
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man [Subject]
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Get-Help [Subject] | More
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help [Subject] -online # Open the help documentation online, in the browser
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[Cmdlet] -?
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help *event*
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help Get-Event -Full # Include all information on the subject at once
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help Get-Service -Examples # Look at examples for the given command
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help Get-Service -Parameter ComputerName # Look at information on specific parameter
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help gsv -ShowWindow # Present the help information in a small window with search, selection and scrolling
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Get-Command -Noun *event -Verb Get # Find all Cmdlets that end with "Event" and use "Get" as their verbx
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gcm -Noun *event* -Type Cmdlet # Find all Cmdlets that end with "Event"
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```
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