::::::::: PowerShell :::::::::

Installing PowerShell with Unattended Windows CD

2006-11-30T20:17:00.000-05:00

Here are some steps to include Windows PowerShell(for English Version of Windows XP w/ SP2) in an unattended Windows CD.

First,
I have copied Windows CD content to "C:\xpcd"
Windows PowerShell installation file, WindowsXP-KB926139-x86-ENU.exe, has been copied over to C:\xpcd\$OEM$\$1\install\applications\

Create a batch file, install_applications.cmd (just name it to anything with .bat or .cmd extension) at C:\xpcd\$OEM$\$1\install
Open up Winnt.sif and create a [GuiRunOnce] section and call the batch file created in the previous step.
Simply call PowerShell installation file with silent setup switches in the batch file

Winnt.Sif:
[GuiRunOnce]
%systemdrive%\install\install_applications.cmd

install_applications.cmd:
... other application installation statements...
...
ECHO.
ECHO Installing PowerShell
ECHO Please wait...
start /wait %systemdrive%\install\applications\WindowsXP-KB926139-x86-ENU.exe /quiet /passive /norestart
exit

Yes... Now I have a Windows XP CD with Windows PowerShell.
I have installed Windows XP and saw other applications (WinZip, IrfanView, etc...) being installed.
Since PowerShell was to be installed in a silent mode, I didn't expect to see anything happening.
But 10 minutes later, PowerShell wasn't still installed.

Oh yes. I have forgotten to include .NET Framework 2.0 onto the CD...
Well, download .NET 2.0 redistributable(i have placed the installation file under C:\xpcd\$OEM$\$1\install\applications\DotNet\2\dotnetfx.exe).
And you must include the following script BEFORE installing PowerShell so that the result is

install_applications.cmd:
ECHO.
ECHO Installing .NET Framework 2.0
ECHO Please wait...
start /wait %systemdrive%\install\applications\DotNet\2\dotnetfx.exe /q:a /c:"install.exe /qb"

ECHO.
ECHO Installing PowerShell
ECHO Please wait...
start /wait %systemdrive%\install\applications\WindowsXP-KB926139-x86-ENU.exe /quiet /passive /norestart

Now PowerShell should install without a problem...

References:

While Creating a Simple EventLog PsProvider -Part 2

2006-10-14T16:08:00.000-04:00

I was finally able to add EntryType dynamic parameter to Get-ChildItem
Been slacking off lately and finally made some time to extend Get-ChildItem cmdlet in EventLog provider.

Now, in the following screenshot, I am in the sys: drive of type EventLog for System EventLog.
Get-ChildItem returns list of all EventLogEntry objects for System EventLog.
Now, I can just filter the output to display according to the EventLogEntryType of each EventLogEntry.

And what's cool is that(well about PowerShell that is, not my provider), if I pass an invalid Enumeration value for EntryType parameter, it displays error message with valid enumeration values Error, Warning, Information, SuccessAudit, FailureAudit

It's PowerShell in the works... not my code that displays valid enum values.

Tags : Monad MSH PowerShell

While Creating a Simple EventLog PsProvider (in C#)

2006-10-09T00:03:00.000-04:00

When PowerShell was still called Monad, there was a PDC05 Hands-On Lab document available with Monad distribution. The document was about "Creating Monad Providers" for Access database.

I have started to go over the old PDC 05 document since I could not find enough documentation to get started. The document was a bit out-dated but it was not hard to figure out what's been changed since Monad beta 2.

Patterns and utility methods are about the same as what's used for creating AccessDb provider in the lab. But the problem was that, I wanted to be able to create a provider-specific parameter for my PsProvider. (Let me get back to this a bit later on)

For e.g.). Under Certificate provider, Get-ChildItem has a Certificate-Provider specific parameter -CodeSigningCert for Get-ChildItem.

Now let's see how one can create a "sys" drive for System EventLog

You can retrieve System event log entries using Get-ChildItem cmdlet(or ls, or dir whichever alias you prefer):

ls sys:

Above is equivalent to:

Get-EventLog -logName System

Both ls sys: and Get-EventLog System returns all event log entries in System EventLog(well as you might or might not have guessed ;)) and not only they display the same content, but the output should look exactly the same.

The reason that output look exactly the same is because there is a pre-defined display format for the type System.Diagnostics.EventLogEntry in $PsHome/dotnettypes.format.ps1xml.

Now, back to the provider-specific parameter for Get-ChildItem, my implementation takes in Index of event log entry. But I would also like to supply additional parameters so that Get-Item can retrieve event log entry based on either EventID or InstanceID like the following

Get-Item -EventID 18

Get-Item -InstanceID 198397

Anyways, here is the current implementation of Get-Item in action

(201..205) is an array holding indexes from 201 through 205 so EventLogEntry objects with Indexes between 201 and 205 are displayed. How neat. I prefer that over

get-eventlog system | ? { ($_.Index -ge 201) -and ($_.Index -le 205) }

since there is no need to specify which log to list event log entries from nor use clunky syntaxes for Index ranges. Well, one can live with above syntax but when it comes to scattered index ranges you want to select, the latter approach gets a bit too uhm, unpractically complicated. Try accomplish ls (1..5+10..15) using Get-EventLog, it doesn't look pretty...

Lastly, Xaegr on IRC has suggested that it wouldn't hurt to add a support to get remote machine's EventLog entries. Xaegr has suggested a UNC path like syntax "\\MachineName\LogName" for the Root string, but I just went with MachineName:LogName for a quick and dirty testing... Now, this functionality is quite buggy... so when I tried to use IP instead of hostname, I get errors like Get-Item cannot find network path, blah... Moreover, you should have already impersonated or authenticated to the remote machine before creating new EventLog PsDrive for the remote machine and must have appropriate privileges to read EventLog. Since I am not systems administrator, this is a bit tough to understand...

Well, I would appreciate it if someone could answer my question on NG(PowerShell News Group)

W00t, My first post using Windows Live Writer... Took me really long to get used to this a bit.

Tags : Monad MSH PowerShell

Add-Member: Extended Example

2006-08-13T12:14:00.000-04:00

Add-Member cmdlet provides a way to "Add(s) a user-defined custom member to an object"

There are 3 examples on get-help add-member help file but they do not seem to quite reflect the real power of this cmdlet.

Examples in the offical help document, examples deals with following cases

Adding a NoteProperty to an object

Adding an AliasProperty to an object

Adding a NoteProperty to an object, pass thru the result to a variable

Extended Example
Description: Add a ScriptProperty for converting From/To a Base64 string of a string

Add "ToBase64String"
[^_^]PS[217]>$str = "abc" -as [psobject]
[^_^]PS[218]>$str | Add-Member -MemberType ScriptProperty -Name ToBase64String `
>> -Value {[System.Convert]::ToBase64String([System.Text.Encoding]::UNICODE.GetBytes($this))}
>>
[^_^]PS[219]>$str.ToBase64String
YQBiAGMA

Add "FromBase64String"
[^_^]PS[220]>$base64 = $str.ToBase64String
[^_^]PS[221]>$base64
YQBiAGMA
[^_^]PS[222]>$base64 | Add-Member -MemberType ScriptProperty -Name FromBase64String `
>> -Value {[System.Text.Encoding]::UNICODE.GetString([System.Convert]::FromBase64String($this))}
>>
[^_^]PS[223]>$base64.FromBase64String
abc

Above example shows how to add a new member(ScriptProperty) to easily access a converted Base64 string from string variables
NOTE:-as [psobject] in the first line is necessary since Add-Member works only on the object of type PsObject, so -as [psobject] is added to explicitly convert a string variable to of type PsObject

On 218th statement, We add a script block(We are adding a ScriptProperty, aren't we?) to convert the current string(specified as $this, the current object we are working on) into a Base64 representation
Now retrieving a Base64 bytes of the string is as easy as accesing newly aded Script Property;

$str.ToBase64String

On 219~222 statements, we assign the Base64 string to a new variable, $base64 and then add a new ScriptProperty member(FromBase64String) to reverse the process(Converting Base64 string back to orignal string)
We have added the script property the same way as we did for ToBase64String but with different function in the script block.
Now again, you can retrieve the orignal string through From64String

$str.FromBase64String

The example is a modified version of PowerShell Team blog entry on http://blogs.msdn.com/powershell/archive/2006/04/25/583265.aspx.
One might think about adding both ToBase64String and FromBase64String on the same variable like the following(yes, i have tried it like hmm not sure how many times...)

[^_^]PS[258]>$str = "abc" -as [PsObject]
[^_^]PS[259]>$str | Add-Member ScriptProperty ToBase64String `
>> {[System.Convert]::ToBase64String([System.Text.Encoding]::UNICODE.GetBytes($this))}
>>
[^_^]PS[260]>$str | Add-Member ScriptProperty FromBase64String `
>> {[System.Text.Encoding]::UNICODE.GetString([System.Convert]::FromBase64String($this))}
>>
[^_^]PS[261]>$str.ToBase64String
YQBiAGMA
[^_^]PS[262]>$str.ToBase64String.FromBase64String

But $str.ToBase64String.FromBase64String does not produce any result because $str.ToBase64String is not $str but a string returned as a result of Script Property method.(Would anyone correct me if I got it wrong?)

In the Team Blog Entry, in which talks about extending Type definition to add above script properties, above scenario works since type definition extends System.String type itself

so even $str.ToBase64String.FromBase64String as well as ScriptProperty being permanent(not just available through the current session but "across" sessions)

You can find more examples and ideas to extend on Mow's blog entry, Some fun With Monads Add-Member, MP3 files and COM and http://del.icio.us/powershell/ExtendedTypeSystem

Tags : Monad MSH PowerShell cmdlet:Add-Member

Back up SQL Server database with SQL Server Objects(SMO) using PowerShell

2006-07-29T11:29:00.000-04:00

It is easy to set up SQL Server Agent jobs to backup database in timely fashion.
But why not in PowerShell while SMO is exposed in .NET assembly?

Usage:
Backup-Database -dbName [string] -deviceNames [string[]] [-deviceType [Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.DeviceType]] [-Overwrite [Switch]] [[-Differential] [Switch]]

Parameters:

-dbName: Database name to back up e.g.) pubs, AdventureWorks, NorthWind
-deviceNames: tape back up device name or File system name e.g.) c:/bak/pubs.bak, c:/bak/pubs_diff.bak
-deviceType: One of "LogicalDevice, Tape, File, Pipe, VirtualDevice"
-Overwrite: overwite existing backup set
-Differential: create a differential backup

Examples:

There are times that you do not know all the device types available,
then simply enter invalid device type
A great feature of PowerShell is that PowerShell will enumerate DeviceType
and kindly give you list of valid device type names when invalid type is entered

[^_^]PS[597]>Backup-Database -dbName:pubs -deviceNames:'d:\bak\pubs.bak' -deviceType:DontKnow
Backup-Database : Cannot convert value "DontKnow" to type "Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.DeviceType" due to invali
d enumeration values. The possible enumeration values are "LogicalDevice, Tape, File, Pipe, VirtualDevice".
At line:1 char:73
+ Backup-Database -dbName:pubs -deviceNames:'d:\bak\pubs.bak' -deviceType:D <<<<>

Prerequisites:

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Management Objects Collection: You need to download and install one of SQLServer2005_XMO_.msi versions
How to create $server variable: Refer to Scripting Database Objects using SMO (Updated) on SqlTeam.com

Source:

# author: Sung Kim
# Description: Create Full or Differential backups for 
#   SQL Server database with SQL Server Objects(SMO) using PowerShell
function Backup-Database {
  param([string]$dbName = $(throw 'Enter Database name to backup'), 
       [string[]]$deviceNames = $(throw 'Enter device name(s)'),
       [Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.DeviceType]$deviceType = 
         [Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.DeviceType]File,
       [Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server]$server,
       [switch]$Overwrite = $false,
       [switch]$Differential = $false)
  
  trap { break; }
  
  # Load SMO assembly
  $PRIVATE:SmoDir = 
    'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\SDK\Assemblies'
  [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFile(
    "$PRIVATE:SmoDir\Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo.dll") | out-null
  
  # Initialize backup object
  $PRIVATE:bkp = New-Object Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Backup
  $PRIVATE:bkp.Database = $dbName
  $PRIVATE:bkp.Initialize = $Overwrite
  $PRIVATE:bkp.Incremental = $Differential
  
  # Add backup devices to backup database to
  foreach ($PRIVATE:deviceName in $deviceNames) {
    $PRIVATE:bkpItem = 
      new-object Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.BackupDeviceItem(
        $PRIVATE:deviceName, 
        [Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.DeviceType]$deviceType)
    $PRIVATE:bkp.Devices.Add($PRIVATE:bkpItem)
  }

  if ($Overwrite) {
    Write-Warning "Overwriting existing backup set"
  }
  
  $PRIVATE:bkp.SqlBackup($server)
  
  if ($Differential) {
    Write-Host -NoNewLine -F Blue "Differential Backup: "
  }
  Write-Host -NoNewLine "$($dbName) has been backed up to "
  Write-Host -ForegroundColor Cyan -NoNewLine "$($deviceNames)" 
  Write-Host " successfully"
}

Tags : Monad msh PowerShell SMO

Re-inventing the wheel for fun.

2006-07-14T22:57:00.000-04:00

I was going through Community-Submitted Scripts Center on Microsoft TechNet and came across a script named, "BackupFiles.ps1" by Greg Lyon.

The script is functional and works.
But I didn't like the fact that it looked more like a VBScript script than a PowerShell script.
Moreover, the script was heavily utilizing a COM object instance of type "Scripting.FileSystemObject".

My goal was simply to change the code to make it look more PowerShell-like(uhm, this should mean different for different people, but in my case, i tend to use "PowerShell-Like" when a script is written mostly with built-in (cmdlets -and functions)). Nothing less, nothing more.

Re-inventing the wheel for fun.

Modified mostly "function BackupFolder" part

# BackupFiles.ps1
# Greg Lyon - July 2006
# reference: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/csc/scripts/backup/backup/cscbk013.mspx
# Modified by DBMwS - July 14, 2006

param($strSourceFolder = "C:\programming\ps\test",
    $strDestinationFolder = "F:\backup\programming\ps\test")

#{{{ function BackupFolder
function BackupFolder
{
    param([string] $SourceDir = $(throw 'Enter Source Directory Name'),
        [string] $DestinationDir = $(throw 'Enter Desitnation Directory Name'))

    if (! (test-path $SourceDir)) {
        throw "$($SourceDir) is not a valid directory!"
    }
    if (! (test-path $DestinationDir)) {
        throw "$($DestinationDir) is not a valid directory!"
    }

    # Check if destination directory is missing any files in the source
    # directory.if any file is missing, copy them over to the backup dir. 
    get-childitem $SourceDir |
    foreach {
        if ($_.PsIsContainer) {
            $childDstDir = (join-path $DestinationDir $_.Name)
            if (! (test-path $childDstDir)) { [void](mkdir $childDstDir) }
            BackupFolder $_.FullName $childDstDir
        } else {
            $srcFile = $_.FullName
            $destFile = join-path $DestinationDir $_.Name

            if (test-path $destFile) {
                $timeDiff = ($srcFile.LastWriteTime - $destFile.LastWriteTime).TotalSeconds
                if ($timeDiff -gt 2) {
                    copy-item $srcFile $destFile -Force
                    write-host "Copied file $($srcFile) to $($destFile)"
                    $script:iCopyCount++
                }
            } else {
                copy-item $srcFile $destFile -Force
                write-host "Copied file $($srcFile) to $($destFile)"
                $script:iCopyCount++
            }
        }
    }

    # Check if Source dir is missing any files on the backup dir.
    # if there is/are file(s) missing, copy them over from backup dir to src dir
    get-childitem $DestinationDir |
    foreach {
        if ($_.PsIsContainer) {
            $childSrcDir = (join-path $SourceDir $_.Name)
            if (! (test-path $childSrcDir)) { [void](mkdir $childSrcDir) }
            BackupFolder $childSrcDir $_.FullName
        } else {
            $srcFile = join-path $SourceDir $_.Name
            if (! (test-path $srcFile)) {
                remove-item $_
                write-host "Deleted file $($_)"
                $script:iDestDeletedCount++
            }
        }
    }
}
#}}}


#{{{ function WaitKey
function WaitKey {
  param( [String] $strPrompt = "Press any key to continue ... ")
  Write-Host
  Write-Host $strPrompt -NoNewline
  $key = [Console]::ReadKey($true)
  Write-Host
}
#}}}


#{{{ MAIN BODY
$iCopyCount = 0
$iDestDeletedCount = 0

Write-Host
Write-Host "Backing up " -NoNewline -ForegroundColor "White"
Write-Host $strSourceFolder -ForegroundColor "Cyan" -NoNewline
Write-Host " to " -NoNewline -ForegroundColor "White"
Write-Host $strDestinationFolder -ForegroundColor "Cyan"
Write-Host


if (! (test-path $strSourceFolder)) {
    Write-Host "Error: source folder does not exist!" -ForegroundColor "Red"
    Write-Host
    Write-Host "Exiting script"
    WaitKey "Press any key to exit ... "
    exit
}

if (! (test-path $strDestinationFolder)) {
    Write-Host "Warning: destination folder`($($strDestinationFolder)`) does not exist"
    $p = Read-Host "Create folder and continue? "
    Write-Host

    if ( $p[0] -ieq 'y' ) {
    new-item -Type Directory -Path $strDestinationFolder | out-null
  } else {
        Write-Host "Exiting script"
        WaitKey "Press any key to exit ... "
        exit
  }
}

BackupFolder $strSourceFolder $strDestinationFolder

if( ($iCopyCount -eq 0) -and ($iDestDeletedCount -eq 0) ) {
  Write-Host
  Write-Host "Folders are synchronized" -ForegroundColor "magenta"
} else {
  Write-Host
  Write-Host $iCopyCount "files copied from source to destination" -ForegroundColor "magenta"
  Write-Host $iDestDeletedCount "orphaned destination files deleted" -ForegroundColor "magenta"
}

WaitKey "Press any key to exit ... "

#}}}

Tags : Monad msh PowerShell

Windows Desktop Search Powershell Cmdlet by Sean McLeod

2006-06-28T12:42:00.000-04:00

Great stuff!
A cmdlet, Get-WDS (in SnapIn) that searches WDS(Windows Desktop Search) indexes is born...

Mr. Sean McLeod(the author) Newsgroup post on microsoft.public.windows.PowerShell can be found here.

Instead of me explaining what the cmdlet is about and how it works, go to The Code Project article, Windows Desktop Search Powershell Cmdlet

Tags : Monad msh PowerShell WindowsDesktopSearch

Extending TabExpansion function Part 3

2006-06-20T21:39:00.000-04:00

EDIT*: According to /\/\o\/\/'s advice(refer to comment's section), i have modified the previous source to use Get-Help instead of Get-ChildItem to retrieve available about_ help file names. (BTW, i will be modifying this script yet, again, so that "about_" would expand only when "Get-Help" or "Help" is already typed...(not to mess up File name expansion in $PsHome directory)



  # Handle "about_*" help manuals
  '\s*(about_[\w|\d]*)' {
    $matched = $matches[1]
    $helpFileNames = Get-Help $matched | Sort-Object Name | Select-Object Name

    if ($helpFileNames.Length -ne $null) {
      $helpFileNames | foreach { 
        # extract manual name(NOTE:same RegEx pattern)
        $m = [RegEx]::Matches($_.Name, '\s*(about_[\w|\d]*)')
        $m[0].Value
      }
    }
  }


In this version, i have added functionality to expand "about_[tab]" manual files.

Now you can do;

about_[Tab] -> about_Alias
about_r[Tab] -> about_regular_expression
about_regular_[Tab] -> about_regular_expression
about_u[Tab] -> about_ubiquitous_parameters

I was a bit annoyed to type long manual names like about_ubiquitous_parameters and about_regular_expression (which is a manual i read often) all the time so decided to become *lazy*...

When you do get-help about_alias, See Also section mentions about_variable manual.
If you try "about_v[Tab]" it would not work because there is no manual file named about_variable.help.txt in $pshome.

Now it should be apparent now how I have implemented my functionality.
It basically checks for manual file name that matches "about_blah*" against manual file names on $PSHOME directory.

switch -regex ($lastWord)
{
#
# Other functionalities...
#

# Handle "about_*" help manuals
'\s*(about_[\w\d]*)' {
 $matched = $matches[1]
 # Search for manual file name in $PSHOME
 $helpFileNames = Get-ChildItem "$pshome/$($matched)*.help.txt" | Sort-Object Name | Select-Object Name

 if ($helpFileNames -ne $null) {
   $helpFileNames  foreach {
     # extract manual name(NOTE:same RegEx pattern)
     $m = [RegEx]::Matches($_.Name, '\s*(about_[\w\d]*)')
     $m[0].Value
   }
 }
}

# ...

Add above piece of code to "TabExpansion.ps1", go to wherever you have saved the file and ". .\TabExpansion.ps1" and you are good to go.
For previous blog posts(mine or /\/\o\/\/'s)on "TabExpansion", go check out "http://del.icio.us/powershell/TabExpansion"

Tags : Monad msh PowerShell

Domain Names

2006-06-14T21:47:00.000-04:00

EDIT*: great, both domains are working properly~

Uhm, Just bought two domain names.
Here is how I will forward my new domains.

PsObject.com: to this current blog site.(http://monadblog.blogspot.com)

PsObject.net: to del.icio.us/powershell

They are easier to remember && type(as well as names being shorter...)
I think it will take about 2 ~ 3 days for them to take effect...

Tags : Monad msh PowerShell

Getting Services associated with a Process via PowerShell (.NET Type Extension)

2006-06-13T20:10:00.000-04:00

On a recent Microsoft.Public.Windows.PowerShell NG (Newsgroup) posts, Andrew Watt has asked for an "Equivalent [cmdlet] for tasklist /svc".

Luckily, Abhishek has posted a blog entry concerning that very problem a couple of weeks ago as "Getting Services associated with a Process via PowerShell" on May 18, 2006.

According to Abhishek, "the Cmdlet implementation relies on System.Diagnostics.Process class in .Net which unfortunately does not expose this information", so he has utilized WMI object Win32_Service to retrieve service information associated with a process.

Abhishek has approached to the problem with a function, plist, to iterate each System.Diagnostics.Process object instance type and match each process against service information retreived through Win32_Service, and the append a NoteProprety to each "System.Diagnostics.Process" object instances.

But then, I just wanted more intuitive way(well i just wanted to mess around...) to retrieve "Service" information associated with a process id and .. Ta~da~... There was types.ps1xml...
One of the beauties of PowerShell is that, you can extend .NET types as you want. (Anyways, for more links concerning Type Extension feature and articles, go to http://del.icio.us/powershell/TypeExtension...)

This time, I have yet again, tried to extend another .NET type, System.Diagnostics.Process as I did in previous post( [MSH] Extending System.Security.SecureString ).

<Type>
  <Name>System.Diagnostics.Process</Name>
    <Members>
   ... Other membersets and properties ...
    <ScriptProperty>
      <Name>Service</Name>
      <GetScriptBlock>
       $svc = @(, (Get-WmiObject Win32_Service -Filter "ProcessId='$($this.Id)'" | Group-Object ProcessId).Group)
       if ($svc[0] -eq $null) { "N/A" } else { $svc }
      </GetScriptBlock>
    </ScriptProperty>
  </Members>
</Type>

Ok, now let's see. What's going on here?
In $pshome\types.ps1xml, I am extending System.Diagnostics.Process type (System.Diagnostics.Process) to include a ScriptProperty () which contains a script block () to retrieve Service information associated with current Process's id ($this.Id) from Win32_Service WMI object.

The reason I have added the "if" statement on the second line in is because when you run "tasklist /svc", if there is no service(s) associated with a process ID, it is returned as "N/A".

There are two gotchas, here that you have to be careful of.

```
$svc = @(, (Get-WmiObject ...
```
```
if ($svc[0] ...
```

For the first case, I am actually including a null object to force an array with one item to be interpreted as an array with multiple items.
To illustrate the point, let's see the following case.

[^_^]PS[142]>$a = @(1)
[^_^]PS[143]>$a | Get-Member
TypeName: System.Int32
Name MemberType Definition
---- ---------- ----------
CompareTo Method System.Int32 Compa
...
[^_^]PS[144]>, $a | Get-Member
TypeName: System.Object[]
...

Although I have declared $a as an array of one item, "Get-Member" will return "System.Int32" , which is the type of the array item(1), as its TypeName for $a although most of people would expect an array type to be returned. Anyways, there was this NG post or a blog entry that dealt with this problem and I will try to update the blog later on for links concerning this problem.

For the second problem, well, I was checking for "$svc.Length -lt 1" but it turns out that, $svc.Length is always equal to or great than 1 because $svc will always contain a null object.(this is not that clear of an explanation... since I haven't understood this clearly, yet)

Why did I even bother going through the gotchas?
Well, if i hadn't used "@(, (Get-Wmi..." and used just "@(Get-Wmi..." then what you might get is something as ugly as

[^_^]PS[10]>gps svchost | select name,id,service | ft -auto

Name Id Service
---- -- -------
SVCHOST 972 {DcomLaunch, TermService}
SVCHOST 1072 \\IT03\root\cimv2:Win32_Service.Name="RpcSs"
SVCHOST 1204 \\IT03\root\cimv2:Win32_Service.Name="Dnscache"
SVCHOST 1264 {Alerter, LmHosts, SSDPSRV, WebClient}
SVCHOST 1284 {AppMgmt, AudioSrv, BITS, Browser...}
SVCHOST 3540 \\IT03\root\cimv2:Win32_Service.Name="stisvc"
SVCHOST 3772 \\IT03\root\cimv2:Win32_Service.Name="usnsvc"

where you see a full type name for Service property with only ONE service associated thereof.

The reason for the "if" is hmm well, if you run "tasklist /svc", for process Id's with no associated service(s), it returns "N/A" so I just wanted to mimic the behavior...

Well, that's it folks...
Ah, lastly, I have to tell you that running "Get-Process | Select-Object name,id,service" takes quite a long time(about 4 seconds!!! compared to 0.3 & 0.2 seconds by "tasklist /svc" and "plist" function). It is defniately not an efficient way to retrieve Service information associated with a process id. Extend your type and have fun at your own risk... ;)

[^_^]PS[2]>Measure-Command { Get-Process | Select-Object name,id,service }

Days : 0
Hours : 0
Minutes : 0
Seconds : 4
Milliseconds : 198
Ticks : 41988791
TotalDays : 4.85981377314815E-05
TotalHours : 0.00116635530555556
TotalMinutes : 0.0699813183333333
TotalSeconds : 4.1988791
TotalMilliseconds : 4198.8791

[^_^]PS[3]>Measure-Command { tasklist /svc }

Days : 0
Hours : 0
Minutes : 0
Seconds : 0
Milliseconds : 244
Ticks : 2440259
TotalDays : 2.82437384259259E-06
TotalHours : 6.77849722222222E-05
TotalMinutes : 0.00406709833333333
TotalSeconds : 0.2440259
TotalMilliseconds : 244.0259

[^_^]PS[4]>Measure-Command { plist * | Format-Table name,id,service }

Days : 0
Hours : 0
Minutes : 0
Seconds : 0
Milliseconds : 341
Ticks : 3419322
TotalDays : 3.95754861111111E-06
TotalHours : 9.49811666666667E-05
TotalMinutes : 0.00569887
TotalSeconds : 0.3419322
TotalMilliseconds : 341.9322

Tags : Monad msh PowerShell

"Prompt" function

2006-06-11T15:12:00.000-04:00

EDIT2*: Well, That weird out-of-order registration of commands in history is not so funky any more after reading Bruce Payette's post on Microsoft.Public.Windows.PowerShell NG...
"Command that's creating a nested prompt level is complete only after you exit the nested level"...

EDIT*: This is kind of funky...

When you look at the output of Get-History in the 6th prompt, Start-NewScope are registered into history after Exit... and moreover, after each Exit, history counts have incremented by 2 instead of 1...

Uhm, I am kind of bored so I am gonna just post my "Prompt" function source in my "Profile.Ps1".
I have 3 parts in my PowerShell prompt

Nested Prompt Level([^_^] <- when the nested prompt level is "0")
"PS" in red(Uhm, I forgot where i saw that flashy red MSH> Prompt last year for the first time...)
History Count([2], not count of last history but the history count of what you will run)

Here is the screenshot of my prompt

I have found history count(refer to Lee Holmes' blog on "A History Browsing Prompt" for extracting history count, there are few quirks here and there.) to be quite useful as I find myself copying and pasting from console and history(by the way, check out How Keith Hill got around the problem with a SelectHistory script)

Below is my "Prompt" function and "Start-NewScope"(function invoked on the screenshot) can be found on PowerShell Team blog http://blogs.msdn.com/monad/archive/2006/04/15/576996.aspx

# reference: For History Count, 
# Author: DBMwS
#    http://www.leeholmes.com/blog/CommentView,guid,0a552b85-2abe-4528-be41-d55762eb41de.aspx
#     and Jeffrey Snover's comment on NG for nested prompt(or Start-NewScope)
function prompt
{
  if (($NestedPromptLevel -eq $null) -or ($NestedPromptLevel -eq 0)) {
    # I want to see more friendly Prompt... so chose "^_^" over "0"
    $private:level = "^_^"
  } else { $private:level = $NestedPromptLevel }

  $private:h = @(Get-History)
  $private:nextCommand = $private:h[$private:h.Count - 1].Id + 1

  Write-Host -NoNewline -ForeGroundColor Blue [$private:level]
  Write-Host -NoNewline -ForeGroundColor Red PS;
  Write-Host -NoNewLine -ForeGroundColor Cyan [$private:nextCommand]; ">"
}

I would like to address why i am checking for ($NestedPromptLevel -eq $null) in the "if" statement(According to Jeffrey Snover, "BTW - every time you enter a nested prompt, $NESTEDPROMPTLEVEL is incremented so I include this information in my prompt", but I could find out about it on "get-help about_automatic_variables", thought).

At the time I wrote this function(I am sorry. I have to admit that I almost blatantly copied and pasted from Lee Holmes' blog...), when the powershell started, $NestedPromptLevel was set to a null instead of "0" but I think it seems to have been fixed in RC1 Update.

Tony (Msh For Fun) has a blog entry on how to modify your prompt function the way you like it(like displaying time, and colorizing your prompt, evening randomizing prompt the color...) and what Prompt function is about and why you should bother at all... Great stuff.~

Prompt related links can be found on http://del.icio.us/powershell/Prompt(I have only 3 links so far but I will be tagging more later on.)

Tags : Monad msh PowerShell

Extending TabExpansion function Part 2

2006-06-08T23:41:00.000-04:00

EDIT2*:Pastebin.com site's been down for a while so pasted the colorized source on the bottom...

EDIT*: Modified the source a bit but no functional changes made
Simply changed name of Script variables($_Method, $_ScopeNames) in "begin" blocks to $Script:Method and $Script:ScopeNames respectively according Mow's suggestion.
It can be found here

On completion of PowerShell Tab Completion Part 4, /\/\o\/\/ has suggested me that I should do multilevel scoped variable completion.

I had to cheat a bit by taking Mow's piece of code and turning it into a function for a reuse.
The source is on PowerShell.Pastebin.com.

In my version of TabCompletion, Mow's Multilevel variable completion functionality is in a function called "MultiLevelPropertyExpansion" in "begin" block.
Since list of functionalities are listed on PowerShell Tab Completion Part 4 already, I will just mention one tiny improvement.

In previous version, tab expansion occurred only on the first level
$global:Host.U[tab] -> $global:Host
$global:Host.UI.R[tab] -> $global:Host.UI

But now, multi-level expansion works, as well for scoped variables
$global:Host.u[tab] -> $global:Host.UI
$global:Host.UI.r[tab] -> $global:Host.UI.RawUI

$global:hos[tab].u[tab].r[tab].g[tab] -> $global:Host.UI.RawUI.get_BackgroundColor(

Uhm, "TabExpansion.ps1"

# TabExpansion.ps1
# Version 0.4
# Replacement of default TabExpansion function
# /\/\o\/\/ 2006

function TabExpansion {
   # This is the default function that gets called for tab expansion.
   # Edited by /\/\o\/\/ from the original to handle :
   #  - Cached tab completion on types (janel / mow).
   #  - Methods and properties of types
   #  - shows get_ methods
   #  - MultiLevel variable Tab Completion
   #  - Bracet Removal
   # Edited by DBMwS: Added Progressbar and Scoped variable name expansion
   #  - MultiLevel variable Tab Completion for Scoped variables
   #  - Changed $_* variables to $Script:*

param($line, $lastWord)

begin {
 $Script:Method = [Management.Automation.PSMemberTypes] `
  'Method,CodeMethod,ScriptMethod,ParameterizedProperty'
 $Script:ScopeNames = @("global", "local", "script", "private")

 function MultiLevelPropertyExpansion {
  param($parent, $child)

  $private:explodedChild = $child.split('.')
  $private:level = $explodedChild.Count
  $private:value = $parent
  if ($private:level -gt 1) {
   $private:value += ".$($explodedChild[0..($level - 2)])"
  }
  $private:pattern = $private:explodedChild[($level -1)] + '*'

  # /\/\o\/\/ removed : -and $n -notmatch '^[ge]et_'
  # to get get_ methods on WMI and AD objects
  $private:result = @()
  $private:inputObject = '$' + $private:value
  invoke-expression "Get-Member -InputObject $inputObject" |
  Sort-Object name | where {$_.name -like $pattern } |
  foreach {
   $private:result += @{
    MemberType = $_.MemberType;
    Name = $_.Name;
    Value = $private:value;
   }
  }

  return $private:result
 }

}

process {
 switch -regex ($lastWord)
 {
  # Handle methods of Types (/\/\o\/\/).
  # E.g.) [DateTime]::F[tab]
  '(\[.*\])::(\w*)' {
   invoke-expression "$($matches[1]) | gm -static" |
   where { $n = $_.Name;
    $n -like "$($matches[2])*" -and `
    $n -notmatch '^([gs]et|op)_'} |
   foreach {
    if ($_.MemberType -band $Script:Method) {
     "$($matches[1])::$($_.name)" + '('
    } Else {
     "$($matches[1])::$($_.name)"
    }
   }
   break;
  }


  # Remove Brackets from typename (/\/\o\/\/)
  '(\[.*\])=(\w*)' {
   "$($matches[1].replace('[','').replace(']',''))"
   break;
  }


  # Cache and Handle namespace and TypeNames (/\/\o\/\/) ..
  '\[(.*)' {
   $matched = $matches[1]
   # only the first time Fill a DataTable with
   # Typenames,namespaces and dotCount (level)
   if (!($global:dtAssemblies)) {
    $global:dtAssemblies = New-Object System.Data.Datatable
    [void]($global:dtAssemblies.Columns.Add('name',[string]))
    [void]($global:dtAssemblies.Columns.Add('DC',[int]))
    [void]($global:dtAssemblies.Columns.Add('NS',[string]))
    $assemblies = [appdomain]::CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies()
    [void] ($assemblies | % {$i = 0} {
     $i++;
     [int]$assemblyProgress =
      ($i * 100) / $assemblies.Length
     Write-Progress Caching "$assemblyProgress" `
      -perc $assemblyProgress

     $types = $_.GetTypes()
     $types |
     foreach {$j = 0} {
      $j++;
      if (($j % 500) -eq 0) {
       [int]$typeProgress = ($j * 100) / $types.Length
       Write-Progress "Adding types" "$typeProgress" `
        -perc $typeProgress -id 1
      }

      $dc = $_.fullName.split(".").count - 1
      $ns = $_.namespace
      $global:dtAssemblies.rows.add("$_",$dc,$ns)
     }
     Write-Progress "Adding types" "100" -perc 100 -id 1
    })
   }

   # actual tab completion
   $dots = $matches[1].split(".").count - 1
   switch ($dots) {
    0 {"[System","[Microsoft"}
    Default {
     $res = @()
     $res += $global:dtAssemblies.select(
      "ns like '$($matched)%' and dc = $($dots + 1)") |
       Select-Object -Unique ns |
       foreach {"[$($_.ns)"};
     $res += $global:dtAssemblies.select(
      "name like '$($matched)%' and dc = $dots") |
       foreach {"[$($_.name)]"}
     $res
    }
   }
   break;
  }


  # Handle property and method expansion (MultiLevel added /\/\o\/\/)...
  '\$(\w+)\.(.*)' {
   # parent variable name e.g.) $host.ui.-> parent is "host"
   $parent = $matches[1];
   # child variable name e.g.) $host.ui.rawui-> child is "ui.rawui"
   $child = $matches[2]

   MultiLevelPropertyExpansion $parent $child |
   foreach {
    $output = "$" + $_["Value"] + '.' + $_["Name"]
    if ($_["MemberType"] -band $Script:Method) { $output += "(" }
    return $output
   }

   break;
  }


  # Handle expansions for both "Scope Variable Name"
  # and "Type Variable Names" (DbmwS)
  '(.*^\$)(\w+):(\w+)(\.(.*))*$' {
   # "function", "variable", "alias", "env:", etc...
   $type = $matches[2];
   # E.g.) '$' + 'function'
   $prefix = $matches[1] + $type;
   # e.g. in '$function:C', $typeName will be 'C'
   $typeName = $matches[3];
   # e.g. in '$global:host.ui.rawui', child will be 'ui.rawui'
   $child = $matches[5];

   # Scope Variable Name Expansion for $global:, $private:, $script:, $local:
   if ($Script:ScopeNames -contains $type) {
    if ($child) {
     # Handle *multi-level* property and method expansion
     MultiLevelPropertyExpansion $typeName $child |
     foreach {
      $output = $prefix + ":" + $_["Value"] + '.' + $_["Name"]
      # Append "(" for method
      if ($_["MemberType"] -band $Script:Method) { $output += '('}
      return $output
     }
    } else { # Expand scope variable name
     foreach ($scopeVariable in
      (Get-Variable "$($typeName)*" -Scope $type |
      Sort-Object name)) {
      $prefix + ":" + $scopeVariable.Name
     }
    }
   } else {
    # Type name expansion for $function:, $variable, $env:, etc
    foreach ($t in
     (Get-ChildItem ($type + ":" + $typeName + '*') |
     Sort-Object name)) {
     $prefix + ":" + $t.Name
    }
   }

   break;
  }


  ###
  ### Default functions below this line
  ###


  # Handle property and method expansion...
  '\$(\w+)\.(\w*)' {
   $variableName = $matches[1]
   $val = Get-Variable -value $variableName
   $pat = $matches[2] + '*'
   Get-Member -inputobject $val |
   where { $n = $_.name; `
    $n -like $pat -and $n -notmatch '^([gs]et|op)_' } |
   foreach {
    if ($_.MemberType -band $Script:Method) {
     # Return a method...
     '$' + $variableName + '.' + $_.name + '('
    } else {
     # Return a property...
     '$' + $variableName + '.' + $_.name
    }
   }
   break;
  }


  # Handle variable name expansion...
  '(.*^\$)(\w+)$' {
   $prefix = $matches[1]
   $varName = $matches[2]
   foreach ($v in Get-Childitem ('variable:' + $varName + '*')) {
    $prefix + $v.name
   }
   break;
  }


  # Do completion on parameters (original) ...
  '^-([\w0-9]*)' {
   $pat = $matches[1] + '*'

   # extract the command name from the string
   # first split the string into statements and pipeline elements
   # This doesnt handle strings however.
   $cmdlet = [regex]::Split($line, '[|;]')[-1]

   #  Extract the trailing unclosed block
   if ($cmdlet -match '\{([^\{\}]*)$') {
    $cmdlet = $matches[1]
   }

   # Extract the longest unclosed parenthetical expression...
   if ($cmdlet -match '\(([^()]*)$') {
    $cmdlet = $matches[1]
   }

   # take the first space separated token of the remaining string
   # as the command to look up. Trim any leading or trailing spaces
   # so you dont get leading empty elements.
   $cmdlet = $cmdlet.Trim().Split()[0]

   # now get the info object for it...
   $cmdlet = @(Get-Command -type 'cmdlet,alias' $cmdlet)[0]

   # loop resolving aliases...
   while ($cmdlet.CommandType -eq 'alias') {
    $cmdlet = @(Get-Command -type 'cmdlet,alias' `
     $cmdlet.Definition)[0]
   }

   # expand the parameter sets and emit the matching elements
   foreach ($n in ($cmdlet.ParameterSets |
    Select-Object -expand parameters)) {
    $n = $n.name
    if ($n -like $pat) { '-' + $n }
   }
   break;
  }
 } # EO switch
}  # EO Process
}

Tags : Monad msh PowerShell

Extending TabExpansion function

2006-06-04T21:49:00.000-04:00

EDIT:* Changed "new" to "New-Object"(Thanks Martin and Mow) in the source on PasteBin.com and jEdit IDE comments, "#{{{", "#}}}" are gone.
Moreover, there is a little bit of change on Mow's tab expansion on PowerShell Tab Completion 2, that when caching for loaded assembly type names occur, progress bars(with help from /\/\o\/\/ again~) are displayed. So when you try out [System.m[tab], you will see two progress bars during caching. But it actually seems to slow down caching process a bit

EDIT2:* Screenshot: Showing progressbars while caching assembly type names to speed up TabExpansion.
The following happens the first time and the first time only(well that is until you actually delete $global:dtAssemblies) during first Type Name expansion [Sys[tab]

EDIT3:* Modified TabExpansion http://powershell.pastebin.com/764311.
Thanks, justin for pointing out the regex problem~

Inspired by /\/\o\/\/'s PowerShell Tab Completion 1 & 2 and was playing around with him on #powershell on FreeNode, I just decided to expand the tabExpansion function a bit more(with tips from Mow on IRC chatroom for Sorting and expanding partial variable names).

In the second part of Mow's PowerShell Tab Completion Part 2, Mow has saved cached assembly type names in $global:dtAssemblies.

Default tabExpansion function does not handle variable names with scope identifier appeneded. So the following will not work

$global:[tab]
$local:[tab]
$script:[tab]
$private:[tab]

So why not just extend tabExpansion function.
While at it, let's support "$variable:", "$env:" and "$function:" as well since they have the same variable name matching patterns.

'(.*^\$)(\w+):(\w*)$' {
$type = $matches[2];          # function, variable, etc.. that are not scopes
$prefix = $matches[1] + $type;  # $ + function
$typeName = $matches[3];        # e.g. in '$function:C', value will be 'C'
   if ($_ScopeNames -contains $type) {
      # Scope Variable Name Expansion
 foreach ($scopeVariable in
 (Get-Variable "$($typeName)*" -Scope $type  Sort-Object name)) {
 $prefix + ":" + $scopeVariable.Name
}
} else {
# Type name expansion($function:, $variable, $env: ,etc)
      foreach ($t in (Get-ChildItem ($type + ":" + $typeName + '*')  Sort-Object name)) {
 $prefix + ":" + $t.Name
}
}
   break;
}

I am not sure what to call "$function:", "$variable:" and "$env:" so I just called them as "Type".
In the above code snippet, '(.*^\$)(\w+):(\w*) matches "$function:", "$env:" or anything like "$" + "foo" + ":" and variable names with scope name appended are expanded differently from the ones with types.(<- well how should i be expressing this in clearer terms...) Scope names are checked with if ($_ScopeNames -contains $type) and "$_ScopeNames" is an array containing "global", "local", "script" and "private" and "$_ScopeNames" is declared in "begin{}" block of TabExpansion function like the following (All Regular Expression checks are processed inside "process{}" block.)

begin {
$_Method = [Management.Automation.PSMemberTypes] 'Method,CodeMethod,ScriptMethod,ParameterizedProperty'
$_ScopeNames = @("global", "local", "script", "private")
}

Now, not only the following works,

$global:[tab]
$local:[tab]
$script:[tab]
$private:[tab]

But also, you can expand variable names for

$env:[tab]
$function:[tab]
$variable:[tab]

A simple extension to TabExpansion makes life on Console much less painful... ;)
You can find the full source of my TabExpansion function, which includes sources posted on Mow's blogs "PowerShell Tab Completion 1 & 2", on powershell.pastebin.com

Tags : Monad msh PowerShell

PowerShell Del.icio.us bookmarks

2006-05-29T12:34:00.000-04:00

I was fed up with all the favoriates I have about PowerShell links and decided to put'em all on my Windows Live Favoriates site but I had some difficulties managing/adding contents to the site.

I just decided to go for del.icio.us and started adding PowerShell bookmarks yesterday (05/28/2006) on http://del.icio.us/powershell.

There is a FireFox extension for Delicious so I installed it and it was a breeze to add bookmarks.
Anyways, I wish people could leave comments on what kind of categories/tags I should and should not include on delicious

http://del.icio.us/powershell certainly is not well tagged in my opinion since I just was adding without much thoughts initially...

Oh yeah, I would also appreciate if someone can provide me more links to PowerShell related posts or sites.

Tags : Monad msh PowerShell Delicious

PowerShell RC1 Updates

2006-05-06T08:54:00.000-04:00

Because of some issues discovered, PowerShell team has released an updated version of PowerShell RC1.

The links to download sites can be found on the Windows PowerShell blog home page

Tags : Monad msh PowerShell

Option Explicit, I mean "Strict" switch...

2006-04-27T21:49:00.000-04:00

I have been waiting for this feature for quite a while.
Setting Visual Basic's "Option Explict" statement like switch in PowerShell.

The Magic Word is..
Set-PSDebug -Strict
Upon executing the command, according to help page(Get-Help Set-PSDebug),

the interpreter will throw an exception if the referenced variable hasn’t been set yet.

Let's see when that feature might come in handy.

PS> Set-PSDebug -Off
PS> function add($x, $y) { $x + $z }
PS> add 1 10
1
PS> $z = 100
PS> add 1 10
101

As you can see, with "Strict" mode off(well "Strict" flag is of type Switch, and all the Boolean flags were replaced with Switches), the PowerShell interpreter simple accepts the fact that function "add" just adds value of $x and $z without caring about what the value of $z is.

Now, let's set the "Strict" option on

PS> Set-PSDebug -Strict
PS> ri function:add; rv z # remove "add" function and the variable $z
PS> function add($x, $y) { $x + $z }
PS> add 1 10
The variable $z cannot be retrieved because it has not been set yet.
At line:1 char:31
+ function add($x, $y) { $x + $z <<<< }

Although the demo is really too simple of a case, in your scripts, you might have variables that you are not keeping track of but being still used somewhere in your scripts.

Well, if you are using PowerShell just for interactive uses for a quick and dirty operations, forget about this feature but then if you are writing cmdlets, setting this option always would be a good idea.

Tags : Monad msh PowerShell

[MSH] Extending System.Security.SecureString

2006-04-01T17:37:00.000-05:00

I was reading Monad Technology Blog about Base64 Encode/Decode a string, which deals with extending a .NET object System.String to include script properties (which you can also add in an interactive mode through "add-member -type ScriptProperty" but lasts only during the given session) called "ToBase64String" and "FromBase64String".

Well, to apply the concept, I have decided to extend System.Security.SecureString by creating a new Monad XML type file called "my.types.mshxml"(the name is from Monad Technology blog) at $MshHome(for most of people, it should be "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Command Shell\v1.0") and then extended SecureString to include a script property called UnsecureString.
UnsecureString decodes SecureString's content.

*NOTE: I won't go into details on how you can view SecureString content. If you would like to know how you can view a secure string content and want to find out more about Windows Data Proctection, please refer to following sites

/\/\o\/\/'s blog: Get-credential and Decrypting a SecureString in MSH
MSDN: Windows Data Protection(or follow the link on Mow's blog)

My.Types.Mshxml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Types>
    <Type>
        <Name>System.Security.SecureString</Name>
        <Members>
            <ScriptProperty>
                <Name>UnsecureString</Name>
                <GetScriptBlock>
                    [Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto([Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($this))
                </GetScriptBlock>
            </ScriptProperty>
        </Members>
    </Type> 
</Types>

Then, as you see in Monad Technology Blog, load the newly created custom type data:
Update-TypeData $MshHome\My.Types.Mshxml

Let's see if System.Security.SecureString has been extended or not

MSH>$admin = get-credential administrator
MSH>($admin.password).getType().fullName
System.Security.SecureString
MSH>$admin.password | get-member -MemberType ScriptProperty | format-list

TypeName   : System.Security.SecureString
Name       : UnsecureString
MemberType : ScriptProperty
Definition : System.Object UnsecureString {get=[Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto([Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($this));}

Now, you can see that SecureString type has been extended with "UnsecureString".
From this point on,

MSH>$admin.password
System.Security.SecureString
MSH>$admin.password.UnsecureString
*** secret ***

where *** secret *** is your decoded password string.

But this raises a couple of questions.

Displaying clear, unsecure string for the credential object is a security threat
I can't answer "IMPORTANT" note posted on Monad Technolog Blog site

<IMPORTANT POINT>
Whenever you are adding some functions, you should make a conscious decision about whether those functions are best exposed as a "function" or as a "type extension".
</IMPORTANT POINT>

I don't know when extending SecureString would come in handy without causing any security problems.
Will anyone be able to justify the need for extending SecureString to display clear string?
Well it's all up to you whether you would want to or not. (I just like to mess around...)

Tags : Monad msh

[MSH] How to change a Process's Priority

2006-03-26T14:21:00.000-05:00

There are a lot of posts about how to get processes' name and priorities but I haven't been able to find ways to change a process's priority easily.

Suppose that you are (un)zipping a large file and would like to change the priority of the operation set to "High" to finish the task quickly. One can simply just fire up a Task Manager and set the priority of the process manually with mouse clicks.

But why do so when there is a way to do it with few keystrokes...

If you want to change the process of zip operation you can simply do something like

#RealTime is generally not recommended...(NOTE: One-liner)
gps -p zip.exe | foreach { $_.PriorityClass = "RealTime" }

where valid values for "PriorityClass" can be retrieved through the following function

MSH>[Enum]::getNames("Diagnostics.ProcessPriorityClass")
Normal
Idle
High
RealTime
BelowNormal
AboveNormal

But the problem with using "foreach" statement in the next pipe is that, when pipe more than one process into the foreach statement, all of them will have their priority set to "RealTime". I don't like the following solution but just to be on the safe side, you can do the following

# Apply the process priority only to the first input object(NOTE: One-liner)
gps -processname "process_name" | &{ $input.moveNext(); $input.Current.PriorityClass = "RealTime" }

Basically you are setting the priority of the first passed pipe object(represented by $input)

You might as well create a function to change the priority more easily

function set-ProcessPriority { 
    param($processName = $(throw "Enter process name"), $priority = "Normal")

    get-process -processname $processname | foreach { $_.PriorityClass = $priority }
    write-host "`"$($processName)`"'s priority is set to `"$($priority)`""
}
# When zip is running
MSH> set-ProcessPriority zip "High"
"zip"'s priority is set to "High"

# When zip operation is over,("Normal" is the default priority level)
MSH set-ProcessPriority zip
"zip"'s priority is set to "Normal"

To actually see what the priory level is the for given process just to make sure

MSH> gps zip | select name,priorityclass | ft -auto

Name PriorityClass
---- -------------
zip Normal

By the way, I am sure that there could be easier ways to change process priorities. I would love it if anyone can suggest other ways...

Tags : Monad msh

[MSH] display and extract zip contents

2006-03-12T15:36:00.000-05:00

In the previous post, I have talked about how to display zip contents of a file.
I have realized that ,while writing extraction script(out-ZipContent), it'd be better to convert the script into a snapin than using a simple script to support variety of features(such as extracting zip file contents into different folders) as well as using different Zip libraries(moreover, it's hard for me to use library functions Monadishly...)
So I will try to convert these scripts into Cmdlets later on and post the source on somewhere on GotDotNet...

For now, I have separated retrieving ZipStream object into another function called "Get-ZipStream", displaying logic into "Get-ZipContent" and extracting contents into "Out-ZipContent".

Well, I don't want to go too deep into usages and stuff but here is how cmdlets can be used.

To Display zip contents

MSH>get-zipstream .\zipFile.zip | get-zipContent

To Extract zip contents

MSH>get-zipstream .\zipFile.zip | out-zipContent

Get-ZipStream: Returns ZipStream

function Get-ZipStream {
 param($zipFileName = $(throw "Enter Zip File Name"))

 # Load J# library
 # used "out-null" instead of "[void]" since "out-null" would not display
 # loaded assembly even if there was an exception thrown
 [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("vjslib") | out-null

 # 1) Open "java.io.FileInputStream" for a zip file
 $fis = new-object java.io.FileInputStream($zipFileName)
 # 2) Pipe File Input stream object to "java.io.ZipInputStream"
 $zis = new-object java.util.zip.ZipInputStream($fis)

 trap {
  if ($zis -ne $null) { $zis.close() }
  if ($fis -ne $null) { $fis.close() }
  break
 }

 # Return the zip stream
 $zis
}

Get-ZipContent: Displays Zip contents

function Get-ZipContent {
 if ($args[0] -eq $null) {
  # Retrive only the first value
  $input.moveNext() | out-null
  $zipStream = $input.get_Current()
 } 
 
 # Load J# library
 # used "out-null" instead of "[void]" since "out-null" would not display
 # loaded assembly even if there was an exception thrown
 [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("vjslib") | out-null
 
 trap { break; }
 
 while (($ze = $zipStream.getNextEntry()) -ne $null) {
  $ze.toString()
 }
 
 # Close "ZipInputStream" first and then "FileInputStream"
 $zipStream.close()
 remove-variable zipStream
}

Out-ZipContent: Extracts zip file content

function Out-ZipContent {
 if ($args[0] -eq $null) {
  $input.MoveNext()
  $zis = $input.get_Current()
 } else {
  $zis = $args[0]
 }

 trap { break; }

 [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("vjslib") | out-null

 while (($ze = $zis.getNextEntry()) -ne $null) {
  $fn = $ze.getName()
  $idx = $fn.LastIndexOf("/")
  Write-Host "`$fn = $($fn)"

  # we need create a directory
  if ($idx -gt 1) {
   $dir = $fn.SubString(0, $idx)
   $dir = "$((pwd).path)\$($dir)"

   # Since the directory doesn't exist, we now create it
   if ( !(test-path $dir -type container) ) {
    new-item -path $dir -type directory
    Write-host "Created $($dir)"
   }
  }

  $file = "$((pwd).path)\$($fn)"
  # Write only for leaf files
  if ( !(test-path  $file -type container) ) {
   [sbyte[]]$buf = [sbyte[]](@(0..127) * 8)
   $fos = new-object Java.io.fileOutputStream($file)

   while ( ($len = $zis.read($buf)) -ge 0 ) {
    $fos.Write($buf, 0, $len)
   }; $fos.close()
   Write-Host "Extracted $($file)"
  }
 }
}

Tags : Monad msh

[MSH] Displaying Zip File contents

2006-02-27T16:42:00.000-05:00

Let's have some fun with zip files.

I have searched through MSDN document on whether .NET library but could not finddd
any C#/VB.net library that deals with Zip file content.

I have been googling around the web but found a useful J# library for dealing with
zip files easily. The name of J# library is called "VJSLIB.DLL".

Here is the step on how to get a Zip file content

Open "java.io.FileInputStream" for a zip file

Pipe File Input stream object to "java.io.ZipInputStream"

While there exists a content in a zip input stream, get a content of type "ZipEntry"

Close "ZipInputStream" first and then "FileInputStream"

# Author: DBMwS
# Date: 02/27/2006 @ 04:13 PM EST
# Description: Retrieve a Zip file's content
#  (either display only files inside the zip file or return ZipEntry object)
# Note: This function requires J# Library, "vjslib"
# Usage: get-ZipContent file_name [[System.Bool] -toString]
# Reference: http://codeproject.com/csharp/VmEasyZipUnZip.asp
# Params
#  1) $zipFileName: Path of zip file
# 2) $toString: return name of zip content, otherwise return ZipEntry
function Get-ZipContent {
 param($zipFileName = $(throw "Enter Zip File Name"), [bool]$toString = $true)

 # Load J# library
 # used "out-null" instead of "[void]" since "out-null" would not display
 # loaded assembly even if there was an exception thrown
 [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("vjslib") | out-null

 # 1) Open "java.io.FileInputStream" for a zip file
 $fis = new-object java.io.FileInputStream($zipFileName)
 # 2) Pipe File Input stream object to "java.io.ZipInputStream"
 $zis = new-object java.util.zip.ZipInputStream($fis)

 # 3) While there exists a content in a zip input stream, get a content of type "ZipEntry"
 while (($ze = $zis.getNextEntry()) -ne $null) {
  if ($toString) {
   # Pass string value to pipe
   Write-Object $ze.ToString()
  } else {
   # Pass actualy ZipEntry object to pipe
   $ze
  }
 }

 # 4) Close "ZipInputStream" first and then "FileInputStream"
 $zis.close()
 $fis.close()

 trap {
  if ($zis -ne $null) { $zis.close() }
  if ($fis -ne $null) { $fis.close() }
  break
 }
}

It is still not complete since, it does not list a zip file inside a given zip file name(no recursive listing)
But I have left that part out on purpose since "get-ZipContent" can be called recursively in a while loop in another function.

Here is how one can utilize "Get-ZipContent"

MSH>ls | where {!$_.MshIsContainer -and $_.name -like "*.zip"} | foreach { get-zipcontent $_.fullname } | where { $_ -like "*.jpg" }

In above code snippet, i have used "where {!$_.MshIsContainer -and $_.name -like "*.zip"}" to filter out directories and select files with only "*.zip" extension
(Well, if you don't filter out files that way, get-ZipContent would fail half way when a directory or a non-zip file has been passed to it)

Well, I will be talking about how to actually "extract" the contents in the next blog.

EDIT: Tested under both Monad v3.0 & v3.1 ;) Refer to /\/\o\/\/'s blog on Beta v3.1 release here

Reference: Zip and Unzip from a C# program using J# runtime by Valeri

Tags : Monad msh

[MSH] MSH Analyzer

2006-02-25T17:02:00.000-05:00

Well, Karl Prosser has create his own GUI Msh hosting environment.
I think it's still in pre-alpha status(well Karl calls it a "Proof of Concept" stage)

It supports both one-line and multi-line command support and automatically dumps returned objects' class information. In the current screenshot on his site, you don't see "XML" table, but if you do something like


$xml = [xml]"<xml><title>some title</title><name>some name</name></xml>"
$xml

You can see parsed xml data as you see in Internet explorer.
Well, just try it out yourself.

Go download the executable file here

[MSH] How to a[void] returning multiple values from a function

2006-02-22T23:43:00.000-05:00

I have succesfully made one of C# application I was working on at work to call MSH script on the fly during runtime. Everything seemed to have been working fine until I have encounted this problem that MSH functions can return mutiple values I have passed a variable named $arr of type System.Collections.ArrayList to the Msh Script through

Runspace rs = RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace();
rs.SessionStateProxy.SetVariable("arr", new ArrayList());
/*** snip ***/
string cmd = ". .\\parse-file.msh";
Pipeline pl = rs.CreatePipeline(cmd);

From here on, a variable named $arr is visible in "parse-file.msh".

Now in "parse-file.msh" script, I tried something like(NOTE: In actual "parse-file.msh", there is no initialization code for $arr to ArrayList, in the following function, $arr are initialized as a demonstrative purpose only, /\/\o\/\/, I have cleared it up here :))

MSH>function bar {
>> $arr = new-object System.Collections.ArrayList
>> $arr.Add(1)
>> $arr.Add(2)
>> $arr.Add(3)
>> 
>> return $arr
>> }
>> 
MSH>bar
0
1
2
1
2
3

And the function returns 4 values, 3 int32 values and 1 3-element ArrayList object, instead of just the contents of $arr.
We can confirm that through the following snippet

MSH>function multiple-returns {
>> $arr = new-object System.Collections.ArrayList
>> $arr.Add(5)
>> $arr.Add(6)
>> $arr.Add(7)
>> return $arr}
>> 
MSH>multiple-returns
0
1
2
5
6
7
MSH>$a, $b, $c, $d, $e = multiple-returns
MSH>$a
0
MSH>$b
1
MSH>$c
2
MSH>$d
5
6
7
MSH>$e
MSH>$d.getType().Name
ArrayList
MSH>$e.getType().Name
You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression.
At line:1 char:11
+ $e.getType( <<<< ).Name

First 3 return values(0, 1, 2) were caused by the fact that ArrayList returns "index at which the value has been added".
Well, But then, what if you don't actually want to return indexes at which value has been added?

There are two choices(and as far as I understand, they work about the same although the background principle is different)
*EDIT*: there are 3 choices( Thanks /\/\o\/\/ for another solution :), Check out "comments" section )

[void]

out-null

> $null

[void] in front of a method indicates that, the method does not return a value.
For example, try out the following(yes, do try them out!)

MSH>[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Windows.Forms")

GAC Version Location
--- ------- --------
True v2.0.50727 C:\WINDOWS\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Windows.Forms\2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e08...
MSH>[void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Windows.Forms")
MSH>[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Windows.Forms") | out-null
MSH>[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("system.windows.forms") >$null
MSH>

Let's see what just happened

Calling Assembly.LoadWithPartialName return the loaded assembly and the result is returned.

Looking at the second "[void]Assembly.LoadWithPartialName", you can tell that it didn't return anything(although Assembly is still loaded)

Third command also did not return anything(Well technically it did return something but it was sent to null)

Fourth command, you are sending output to null in different fashion.

Now Let's revise the function "bar".

MSH>function bar {
>> $arr = new-object System.Collections.ArrayList
>> [void]$arr.Add(1)
>> [void]$arr.Add(2)
>> [void]$arr.Add(3)
>> 
>> return $arr
>> }
>> 
MSH>bar
1
2
3

MSH>function bar {
>> $arr = new-object System.Collections.ArrayList
>> $arr.Add(1) | out-null
>> $arr.Add(2) | out-null
>> $arr.Add(3) | out-null
>> 
>> return $arr
>> }
>> 
MSH>bar
1
2
3

Now those functions did not return added index positions during "ArrayList.Add" operations.
I tend to go with [void] since it sounds technically right to mark(or cast, not sure about how to call it) a method as not returning any value

Tags : Monad msh

Blogger and Technoroti problem

2006-02-21T09:56:00.000-05:00

Well, it seems like a lot of people's updated Blogger posts are not being updated in Technorati because of some problem on Blogger.com

I have seemed to fixed it by going to my Technorati account -> Your Blogs -> View & Edit Blog All Blog Info -> Update Ping

It was kind of annoying not to be able to see other MSH and Monad posts being updated :)

Tags : Blogger Monad msh

[MSH] print-image Snapin version

2006-02-18T17:59:00.000-05:00

During my spare time, i spent sometime converting "print-image" cmdlet into a Snapin version.

I have extended its functionality just by a tiny bit by adding "Landscape" mode printing. Well, I still haven't tried adding a "help" file yet so I will try to add one when I have more time(so for now, something like "print-image -?" will complain that cmdlet cannot find a help xml file).

Anyways, here is the usage for "print-image" for this this version.

This command also supports only one ubiquitous parameter: -Verbose(-vb)

print-image [-FileName|-fn] System.String [[-Printer|-p|-pn] System.String] [[-Landscape|-l|-ls] System.Boolean]

Where,

FileName: Fully Qualified File Name

Printer: Name of print to send image to

Landscape: Print images in Landscape mode

Well, if you would like to change "margins", there are two options. First one is you go to your printer setting and change the margin size there, or modify the msh script to be able to receive margin data.

To retrieve available printer names on your current machine, you can load "System.Drawing" assembly and then retrieve "System.Drawing.Printing.PrinterSettings.InstalledPrinters" property like the following

MSH>[reflection.assembly]::loadwithpartialname("system.drawing")

GAC Version Location
--- ------- --------
True v2.0.50727 C:\WINDOWS\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Drawing\2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\Syst...

MSH>[Drawing.Printing.PrinterSettings]::InstalledPrinters
Microsoft Office Document Image Writer
HP LaserJet 8150 PCL 5e
HP LaserJet 5000 Series PCL 5e
HP Color LaserJet 5500 PCL6(Color)
Adobe PDF
MSH>

and then use the printer names listed above

Here is how you can use the "print-image"

Uhm, I don't have any storage areas where I can just put my source or compiled binaries on... So, i am just pasting the source here...

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Drawing.Printing;

using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Management.Automation;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

namespace D2D.Snapins
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Prints image files
    /// </summary>
    /// <remarks>
    /// @TODO: Display Preview form
    /// </remarks>
    [RunInstaller(true)]
    public class PrintImageSnapin : MshSnapIn
    {
        public override string Description
        {
            get { return "Prints an image file"; }
        }

        public override string Name
        {
            get { return "D2D_print-image"; }
        }

        public override string Vendor
        {
            get { return "DontBotherMeWithSpam"; }
        }
    }

    [Cmdlet("print", "image")]          
    public class PrintImageCommand : MshCmdlet
    {
        #region Private Member Variables
        /// <summary>
        /// Fully qualified image file name to print
        /// </summary>
        private string fileName;
        /// <summary>
        /// Name of printer to use
        /// </summary>
        private string printer;
        /// <summary>
        /// Should we use landscape mode or not
        /// </summary>
        private bool landscape;


        /// <summary>
        /// Responsible for printing image document
        /// </summary>
        private PrintDocument doc;

        /// <summary>
        /// Image to constructed from input file name
        /// </summary>
        private Bitmap img;

        /// <summary>
        /// Holds exception thrown in functions other than 
        /// "BeginProcessing", "EndProcessing", "ProcessRecord"
        /// </summary>
        private Exception ex;
        #endregion

        #region MSH Parameters
        /// <summary>
        /// Fully qualified image file name to print
        /// </summary>
        [Alias("fn")]
        [Parameter(Mandatory = true, Position = 0, ValueFromPipeline = true,
            HelpMessage = "Fully qualified image file name to print")]
        public string FileName
        {
            get { return this.fileName; }
            set { this.fileName = value; }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Name of printer to use
        /// </summary>
        [Alias("p", "pn")]
        [Parameter(Mandatory = false, Position = 1, ValueFromPipeline = true,
            HelpMessage = "Name of printer to print image")]
        public string Printer
        {
            get { return this.printer; }
            set { this.printer = value; }
        }

        [Alias("l", "ls")]
        [Parameter(Mandatory = false, Position = 2, ValueFromPipeline = false,
            HelpMessage = "Toggle Landscape mode")]
        [DefaultValue(false)]
        public bool Landscape
        {
            get { return this.landscape; }
            set { this.landscape = value; }
        }
        #endregion

        protected override void EndProcessing()
        {
            this.doc = new PrintDocument();

            this.doc.BeginPrint += new PrintEventHandler(doc_BeginPrint);
            this.doc.PrintPage += new PrintPageEventHandler(doc_PrintPage);
            this.doc.EndPrint += new PrintEventHandler(doc_EndPrint);

            this.doc.Print();

        }

        #region PrintDocument Event Handlers
        /// <summary>
        /// Construct image to print
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="sender"></param>
        /// <param name="e"></param>
        private void doc_BeginPrint(object sender, PrintEventArgs e)
        {
            // Construct image to print
            try
            {
                this.img = new Bitmap(this.FileName);
                this.doc.DocumentName = Path.GetFileName(this.FileName);
                this.doc.DefaultPageSettings.Landscape = this.Landscape;
                if (this.Printer != "")
                {
                    this.doc.PrinterSettings.PrinterName = this.Printer;
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                // We have failed create an image from the given file name
                // No need to process any further, actually... 
                /// How do i abort the script at this point?
                ErrorRecord err = new ErrorRecord(ex, "doc_BeginPrintError",
                    ErrorCategory.InvalidData, this.fileName);
                WriteError(err);

                e.Cancel = true;    // abort printing job
            }

            //e.PrintAction = this.PrintAction;
            e.Cancel = false;

            WriteVerbose(string.Format(
                "==================== {0} ====================",
                this.doc.DocumentName));
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Print constructed image according to PrintAction
        /// </summary>
        private void doc_PrintPage(object sender, PrintPageEventArgs e)
        {
            WriteVerbose(string.Format("Printing {0}",
                this.doc.DocumentName));

            Graphics g = e.Graphics;
            Rectangle paperBounds = e.MarginBounds;
            SizeF adjSize = AdjustImageSize(this.img.Size, paperBounds);

            if (this.ex == null)
            {

                // Calculate source and destination sizes
                RectangleF destRec = new RectangleF(paperBounds.Location, adjSize);
                RectangleF srcRec = new RectangleF(0, 0, img.Width, img.Height);

                // Print to according to "PrintAction"
                g.DrawImage(this.img, destRec, srcRec, GraphicsUnit.Pixel);
            }
            else
            {
                ErrorRecord err = new ErrorRecord(this.ex, "AdjustImageSizeError",
                    ErrorCategory.NotSpecified, null);
                WriteError(err);
            }

            // Nothing else to print...
            e.HasMorePages = false;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Clean up used resources
        /// </summary>
        private void doc_EndPrint(object sender, PrintEventArgs e)
        {
            // Free Bitmap resource
            if (this.img != null)
            {
                this.img.Dispose();
                this.img = null;
            }

            WriteVerbose(string.Format(
                "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx {0} xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
                this.doc.DocumentName));
        }
        #endregion

        /// <summary>
        /// Adjust image size to fit to the paper size
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="imgSize">Size of image to adjust to fit to paper size</param>
        /// <param name="paperBound">Bounding area of paper</param>
        /// <returns>Adjusted size of image that fits on the paper</returns>
        /// <remarks>If image's width is bigger than its height, try to fit width, else fit height</remarks>
        private SizeF AdjustImageSize(Size imgSize, RectangleF paperBound)
        {
            bool fitWidth = (imgSize.Width > imgSize.Height);   // Fit width or the height?
            double ratio = 1;
            SizeF adjSize = new SizeF(imgSize.Width, imgSize.Height);  // adjusted size to return

            try
            {
                // Image size is smaller than actual paper size to print on,
                // so we use the original image's size
                if ((imgSize.Width > paperBound.Width) &&
                    (imgSize.Height > paperBound.Height))
                {
                    // If width is longer than the height of its image,
                    // we get the ratio of the width, else get the ratio of the height
                    if ((fitWidth == true))
                    {
                        ratio = (double)(paperBound.Width / imgSize.Height);
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        ratio = (double)(paperBound.Height / imgSize.Height);
                    }

                    adjSize = new SizeF(
                        // Flip the width of the image in Landscape mode
                        (this.Landscape ? paperBound.Height : paperBound.Width),
                        (float)(imgSize.Height * ratio));
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                this.ex = ex;
            }

            return adjSize;
        }
    }
}

Tags : Monad msh

[MSH] print-image

2006-02-14T10:57:00.000-05:00

Your boss comes at your desk with a pile of CDs filled with high quality tiff images(roughly 20000 x 20000 pixels)
He tells you to print all the image files fit into a "letter" sized paper in 2 days

Well, that sort of stuff happend to me...

Man, was I frusted...

But that's when MSH came into rescue~
Well, the first thing that came up in my head was, "out-printer" cmdlet.
So I tried the following

MSH>$bitmap = new-object System.Drawing.Bitmap c:\test.tif
MSH>out-printer -printer "Adobe PDF" -in $bitmap

Voila. Now i was excited to see a picture in PDF format through "out-printer".
Wrong!

All I saw in the generated PDF file was

Tag :
PhysicalDimension : {Width=14454, Height=21957}
Size : {Width=14454, Height=21957}
Width : 14454
Height : 21957
HorizontalResolution : 1016
VerticalResolution : 1016
Flags : 77888
RawFormat : [ImageFormat: b96b3cb1-0728-11d3-9d7b-0000f81ef32e]
PixelFormat : Format1bppIndexed
Palette : System.Drawing.Imaging.ColorPalette
FrameDimensionsList : {7462dc86-6180-4c7e-8e3f-ee7333a7a483}
PropertyIdList : {256, 257, 258, 259, 262, 270, 273, 277, 278, 279, 282, 283, 32781}
PropertyItems : {256, 257, 258, 259, 262, 270, 273, 277, 278, 279, 282, 283, 32781}

, which is data you see just typing "MSH>$bitmap" in console.

Gosh, was I frusted, again. I looked into "out-printer" help page if there was some kind of "-encoding" option to print binary files(images) but there wans't any...

I resorted to using System.Drawing.Printing.PrintDocument

Well, using that Class, printing is an image is a breezy job
So i created a cmdlet called "print-image" which takes an image name and print it

Here is the usage of the cmdlet

print-image "image name" [printer name] [fit image to paper]

The cmdlet takes the mandatory parameter "image name" with optional printer to print to and whether image size should fit on a paper

Following is how the cmdlet can be used

MSH> ls *.tif | foreach { print-image $_ }

Well and that's exactly what i did... :)

function print-image {
 param([string]$imageName = $(throw "Enter image name to print"),
    [string]$printer = "",
    [bool]$fitImageToPaper = $true)

 trap { break; }

 # check out Lee Holmes' blog(http://www.leeholmes.com/blog/HowDoIEasilyLoadAssembliesWhenLoadWithPartialNameHasBeenDeprecated.aspx)
 # on how to avoid using deprecated "LoadWithPartialName" function
 # To load assembly containing System.Drawing.Printing.PrintDocument
 [void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Drawing")

 # Bitmap image to use to print image
 $bitmap = $null

 $doc = new-object System.Drawing.Printing.PrintDocument
 # if printer name not given, use default printer
 if ($printer -ne "") {
  $doc.PrinterSettings.PrinterName = $printer
 }
 
 $doc.DocumentName = [System.IO.Path]::GetFileName($imageName)

 $doc.add_BeginPrint({
  Write-Host "==================== $($doc.DocumentName) ===================="
 })
 
 # clean up after printing...
 $doc.add_EndPrint({
  if ($bitmap -ne $null) {
   $bitmap.Dispose()
   $bitmap = $null
  }
  Write-Host "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx $($doc.DocumentName) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
 })
 
 # Adjust image size to fit into paper and print image
 $doc.add_PrintPage({
  Write-Host "Printing $imageName..."
 
  $g = $_.Graphics
  $pageBounds = $_.MarginBounds
  $img = new-object Drawing.Bitmap($imageName)
  
  $adjustedImageSize = $img.Size
  $ratio = [double] 1;
  
  # Adjust image size to fit on the paper
  if ($fitImageToPaper) {
   $fitWidth = [bool] ($img.Size.Width > $img.Size.Height)
   if (($img.Size.Width -le $_.MarginBounds.Width) -and
    ($img.Size.Height -le $_.MarginBounds.Height)) {
    $adjustedImageSize = new-object System.Drawing.SizeF($img.Size.Width, $img.Size.Height)
   } else {
    if ($fitWidth) {
     $ratio = [double] ($_.MarginBounds.Width / $img.Size.Width);
    } else {
     $ratio = [double] ($_.MarginBounds.Height / $img.Size.Height)
    }
    
    $adjustedImageSize = new-object System.Drawing.SizeF($_.MarginBounds.Width, [float]($img.Size.Height * $ratio))
   }
  }

  # calculate destination and source sizes
  $recDest = new-object Drawing.RectangleF($pageBounds.Location, $adjustedImageSize)
  $recSrc = new-object Drawing.RectangleF(0, 0, $img.Width, $img.Height)
  
  # Print to the paper
  $_.Graphics.DrawImage($img, $recDest, $recSrc, [Drawing.GraphicsUnit]"Pixel")
  
  $_.HasMorePages = $false; # nothing else to print
 })
 
 $doc.Print()
}

Oh yeah, I would appreciate it if anyone can tell me how i can format the code to fit on to the site :)

Tags : Monad msh

[MSH] Clipboard Snapin...

2006-01-31T00:44:00.000-05:00

Thanks to both /\/\o\/\/ and Keith Hill, I was able to somewhat improve the Clipboard snapin by adding "Get-Clipboard" cmdlet.

I was able to fix "Out-Clipboard" cmdlet to receive an input from pipe by setting type of "inputData" to that of "string" from "object"(thanks /\/\o\/\/).

Well, I just couldn't improve much from Keith's orignal Clipboard Cmdlet other than the fact that this is now a Snapin and fixed one small bug(refer to OutClipboardCommand.SetObject)...

Anyways, here is how this Clipboard Snapin can be used

Here is a simple one.

MSH> "Hello, World!" | Out-Clipboard
MSH> Get-Clipboard
Hello, World!
MSH>

Now let's try to send the output of "get-process" to the clipboard

MSH> get-process | Out-Clipboard
MSH> Get-Clipboard
System.Diagnostics.Process (ahnsd)
System.Diagnostics.Process (ahnsdsv)
...
System.Diagnostics.Process (winlogon)
System.Diagnostics.Process (wmiprvse)
MSH>

Now, what is going on here? Well, I don't want to go too deep with that because it was explained in Keith's blog on MSH: Get-Clipboard and Set-Clipboard Cmdlets already.

Anyways, the problem is that, "out-clipboard" is receiving unformatted input string so MSH user have to explicitly have to convert piped data to string (through "out-string") before sending the data to Out-Clipboard(well, that is why the cmdlet only supports data of type string, for now)

So, i was searching and reading documents on MSDN and was looking for ways to put that "out-string" behavior inside "out-clipboard". Well, I haven't found the answer yet... It seems like there is not "a recommanded way invoking a cmdlet that is a subclass of MshCmdlet from another cmdlet" according to Kevin Loo who also suggested me to create a new function defined like the following

function set-clipboard {$input | out-string | out-clipboard}

Using "set-clipboard", try to run "get-process | set-clipboard", "get-childitem | set-clipboard", etc... But the problem with "set-clipboard" approach is that, you can't explicitly pass the object to "set-clipboard"... while something like "out-clipboard $(dir)" would work(although not how you might expect it to work).
I guess a workaround for that problem might be my next topic...

For instructions on how to compile and install the snapin, please refer to Appendix D in "Getting Started" document for MSH.

Here is how to load Clipboard Snapin

MSH> set-alias installutil $env:windir\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\installutil
MSH> cd [go to Snapin assembly directory]
MSH> installutil Snapins.dll
MSH> get-mshsnapin -r
Name : ClipboardSnapin
MshVersion : 1.0
Description : Provides retrieving/sending data from/to Clipboard
MSH> add-mshsnapin ClipboardSnapin

Now, ClipboardSnapin is loaded and you are good to go.

Well, the source's below... but I was deliberately trying to make each line shortern than 80 columns... so it looks longer than it should be...

using System;
using System.Text;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Threading;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Management.Automation;

namespace D2D.Snapins
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Define basic information of this snap in
    /// </summary>
    [RunInstaller(true)]
    public class ClipboardSnapin : MshSnapIn
    {
        public ClipboardSnapin() : base()
        {
        }

        public override string Name
        {
            get { return "ClipboardSnapin"; }
        }

        public override string Vendor
        {
            get { return "DontBotherMeWithSpam"; }
        }

        public override string Description
        {
            get { return "Provides retrieving/sending data from/to Clipboard"; }
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Cmdlet to return clipboard text to pipe
    /// </summary>
    /// <remarks>
    /// Original Author: Keith Hill (http://spaces.msn.com/keithhill)
    /// Original Source URL: http://home.comcast.net/~rkeithhill/MSH/Clipboard.cs
    /// Modified by: DBMwS
    /// Date: 01/31/2006 @ 12:59AM
    /// 
    /// Removed, "timeout" feature
    /// </remarks>
    [Cmdlet("Get", "Clipboard")]
    public class GetClipboardCommand : Cmdlet
    {
        private Exception ex;
        private string dataObject = "";

        protected override void BeginProcessing()
        {
            Thread t = new Thread(new ThreadStart(GetObject));

            try
            {
                t.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
                t.Start();
                t.Join();
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                ErrorRecord err = new ErrorRecord(ex, "GetClipboardError",
                    ErrorCategory.NotSpecified, t);
                WriteError(err);
            }

            if (this.ex != null)
            {
                WriteError(new ErrorRecord(this.ex, 
                    "GetClipboard::GetObjectError", 
                    ErrorCategory.NotSpecified, null));
            }

            WriteVerbose(string.Format("Sending '{0}' to pipe", 
                this.dataObject.ToString()));
            WriteObject(this.dataObject, 
                (this.dataObject.GetType().IsArray));
        }

        private void GetObject()
        {
            try
            {
                this.dataObject = Clipboard.GetText();
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                this.ex = ex;
            }
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// send output string to clipboard
    /// </summary>
    [Cmdlet("Out", "Clipboard")]
    public class OutClipboardCommand : Cmdlet
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Unhandled exception
        /// </summary>
        private Exception ex;
        /// <summary>
        /// Actuall worker thread
        /// </summary>
        private Thread t;
        /// <summary>
        /// Holds all the necessary input data to send to Clipboard
        /// </summary>
        private StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

        /// <summary>
        /// Input data received either from pipe or as an argument
        /// </summary>
        private string []inputData;
        /// <summary>
        /// Input data to send to clipboard
        /// </summary>
        [Parameter(Mandatory = true, Position = 0, ValueFromPipeline = true)]
        public string []InputData
        {
            get { return inputData; }
            set { inputData = value; }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Create a STA thread to start later on.
        /// </summary>
        protected override void BeginProcessing()
        {
            WriteVerbose("Begin Processing(Creating a new STA thread)...");

            t = new Thread(new ThreadStart(SetObject));
            t.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Append all input lines into one
        /// (with a newline appended for each input data)
        /// </summary>
        protected override void ProcessRecord()
        {
            WriteVerbose("Processing Record...");

            try
            {
                if (this.InputData != null)
                {
                    WriteVerbose(
                        string.Format("\tAppending {0}", this.InputData));
                    foreach (string line in this.InputData)
                    {
                        this.sb.AppendLine(line);
                    }
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                // Well I don't know what happened, 
                // so send the error to the host...
                ErrorRecord err = new ErrorRecord(ex, "OutClipboardError", 
                    ErrorCategory.NotSpecified, t);
                WriteError(err);
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Start a thread to send input data to Clipboard
        /// </summary>
        protected override void EndProcessing()
        {
            try
            {
                t.Start();
                t.Join();
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                ErrorRecord err = new ErrorRecord(ex, "OutClipboardError", 
                    ErrorCategory.NotSpecified, t);
                WriteError(err);
            }

            // Handle error occurred while sending text to clipboard
            // Well, try out something as stupid as "clear-host | out-clipboard"...
            if (this.ex != null)
            {
                WriteError(new ErrorRecord(this.ex, 
                    "OutClipboard::SetObjectError", 
                    ErrorCategory.NotSpecified, null));
            }
            WriteVerbose("End Processing...");
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Send input data to clipboard
        /// </summary>
        private void SetObject()
        {
            try
            {
                // Before sending the inputData to clipboard, 
                // we need to drop the last newline character
                string text = this.sb.ToString();
                text = text.Substring(0, 
                    (text.Length - System.Environment.NewLine.Length));

                Clipboard.SetText(text);
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                this.ex = ex;
            }
        }

    }
}

Tags : Monad msh

[MSH Snapin] Need help implementing Out-Clipboard Snapin

2006-01-28T14:22:00.000-05:00

Well, while playing around with new MSH beta 3 feature, MSH Snapin, I came across with /\/\o\/\/'s MSH Clipboard use workaround blog.

Since, Msh engine is created using Muti-Thread Apartment model, it's still not possible to create or use an object that requires STA. /\/\o\/\/'s solution uses in-memory compilation and dynamic object instantiation using CodeDom namespace.

Well, since we have a new Snapin feature, I have decided to create my own "out-clipboard" cmdlet.

In the topic i have mentioned that, there is some problems with the Snapin. I can't seem to get an input to be passed from pipe although I have specified "ValueFromPipeline=true" in "Parameter" attribute. Oh well, it is far from being complete, but posting about this code to ask about the problem and how I should be improving it at usenet or at forums...

So far, only sending text to clipboard works...

MSH>Out-Clipboard "Hello, World"
Begin Processing...
Processing Record...
Setting String
End Processing...
MSH>"Hello, World" | Out-Clipboard
Begin Processing...
Processing Record...
Setting MshObject
End Processing...

I have pasted "Hello, World" in the second MSH prompt through mouse and then piped the data to "out-clipboard". The first case works while the latter case doesn't as I have mentioned above...

Comment on source:
This snapin basically creates a new STA thread and send input argument to clipboard through callback.

using System;
using System.Threading;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Management.Automation;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

namespace snapins
{
    [RunInstaller(true)]
    public class OutClipboardSnapin : System.Management.Automation.MshSnapIn
    {
        public OutClipboardSnapin() : base()
        {
        }

        public override string Name
        {
            get { return "OutClipboardSnapin"; }
        }

        public override string Vendor
        {
            get { return "DontBotherMeWithSpam"; }
        }

        public override string Description
        {
            get { return "This snapin receives piped output into Clipboard"; }
        }
    }

    [Cmdlet("Out", "Clipboard")]
    public class OutClipboardCommand : Cmdlet
    {
        private Thread t;
        private object inputData;
        /// <summary>
        /// Input data to send to clipboard
        /// </summary>
        [Parameter(Mandatory = true, Position = 0, ValueFromPipeline=true)]
        public object InputData
        {
            get { return inputData; }
            set { inputData = value; }
        }

        protected override void BeginProcessing()
        {
            t = new Thread(new ThreadStart(SetObject));
            t.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);

            WriteObject("Begin Processing...");
        }

        protected override void  ProcessRecord()
        {
            WriteObject("Processing Record...");
            WriteObject("Setting " + this.InputData.GetType().Name);
            t.Start();
        }

        protected override void EndProcessing()
        {
            t.Join();
            WriteObject("End Processing...");
        }

        private void SetObject()
        {
            if (this.InputData.GetType() == typeof(string))
            {
                Clipboard.SetText(this.InputData.ToString());
            }
            else
            {
                Clipboard.SetDataObject(this.InputData);
            }
        }
    }
}

Tags : Monad msh

Simple tools for complex jobs

2006-01-16T22:25:00.000-05:00

While listening to "Inside the Net" podcast episode #5 "Jason Fried of 37Signals", I have realized something.

As an application or scripts gets more mature, they tend to do more stuff than it supposed to do. For an example, Adobe Photoshop is extremely bloated so that it includes a lot of functionalities that normal users are not even aware of.

Now, we could come up with an analogy that, if you would want to disassemble, you would normally use screw drivers. But if you have a Swiss Army knife, you do can get a job done but you would have to search for the right tool that's bundled with the Swiss Army Knife. Swiss Army KNife can get other tasks accomplished but it's bloated.

So what I am trying to accomplish in this Blog is that, I would like to create simple tools or scripts or functions to accomplish other many things.

For example, when using Windows Forms, one would normally have to import "System.Windows.Forms" through excruciatingly long statement as followed.

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Windows.Forms")

Would you actually like to have multiple of those "[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName" functions in your script?
Coming from a C# community, i could not stand such long function names clogging up my scripts.

So I have created a such script like,

function using-library {
    param($ns = $(throw "Enter Namespace to import"), [bool]$SuppressOutput = $false)
    
    trap { throw "Could not import Namespace $($ns)" }
    
    if ($SuppressOutput) {
        [void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName($ns)
    } else {
        [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName($ns)
    }
}

MSH>Set-Alias using using-library

Now, in a script, one can simply use C# style "USE" statement in their scripts without having to know inner details on how to import and can simply concentrate on what his/her script needs to do.
What is more great about such abstraction is that, since "LoadWithPartialName" function is now obsolete according to WinFX document, one can simply change function implementation of "using-library" without having to change all scripts with "LoadWithPartial" name.

Well, the predicament I am in now is, HOW can I put all the scripts in one place so that it'd be easy to to use all the functions, load them or unload them with ease. Ah there is also a name collision issues that I have to cope with. It'd be nice if MSH had one of those Namespace concepts as in .NET library.
Tags : Monad msh

[MSH] Change Default "Get-Credential" Prompt Behavior

2006-01-13T00:29:00.000-05:00

/\/\o\/\/ has pointed out that the default prompt mode for "get-content" in Monad Beta 3 is through "CredUI", meaning, if you type "get-content" in Monad Beta 3,
you will see one of these familiar Windows Credential UI:

According to Abhishek Agrawal on Usenet post,

The default implementation for get-credential now uses the Windows CredUI
functionality for collecting credentials. This is a requirement for being
complaint with Windows Common Criteria. We still retain the console mode
which can be enabled by setting the registry key "ConsolePrompting" under
HLKM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSH\1\ShellIds to "True" (string)

Ah, now, i go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSH\1\ShellIds(Well, I can see that Registry structure has been modified slightly from pre-Beta 3 version of Monad), you won't see a registry key named "ConsolePrompting". You can simply create that key and set the value to whichever mode you set the value of key to. I prefer "GUI" mode so mine is set to "false". But i just want to switch between two modes easily so created the following script that will simply change the prompt mode with a simple function(SetConsoleCredPrompt).

MSH> SetConsoleCredPrompt
Your Credential Prompting Mode has been changed to "Console" Mode.
MSH> SetConsoleCredPrompt($false)
Your Credential Prompting Mode has been changed to "Gui" Mode.

SetConsoleCredPrompt simply navigates to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSH\1\ShellIds and then change the value of "ConsolePrompt" to "true" or "false".

This is one of the advantage of knowing how to script... I don't have to do much manually by having to open up the registry editor, navigate to the right path and change the key(BTW, isn't Registry Provider just awesome or what?).

Well the source? Nothing interesting about it...

# author: DBMwS
# date: 01/12/2005 @ 11:14 PM
# description: "Get-Credential" prompting method between "console" and "CredUI"
# note: Works only for Beta 3 of Monad
function SetConsoleCredPrompt() {
    # default is $private:false since in Monad Beta 3, CredUI is the default way to
    # prompt end-user for entering username and password
    # But should i throw an Exception here or not... That's the problem...
    param([bool] $ConsoleMode = $private:true)
    
    # Ready for the unexpected...(such as running this script for non beta 3 version of Monad
    trap { Write-Host "Some Unknown error has occurred, Aborting Mission..."; return; }
    
    # MSH Beta 3 ShellID
    $private:path = [string] "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSH\1\ShellIds"
    # A new key name to create.
    $private:key = [string] "ConsolePrompting"
    
    # Check if the location we need to reach exists or not, else abort the script
    if (test-path $private:path) {
        set-property $private:path -Property $private:key -Type String -Value $ConsoleMode.ToString()
    } else {
        throw "Could not find Registry Path($($private:path)) to change Creditial Prompt Setting`nMaybe you are running pre-beta3 MSH?"
    }
    
    Write-host -n "Your Credential Prompting Mode has been changed to `"" 
    if($ConsoleMode) { Write-host -n -f "red" "Console" } else { Write-Host -n -f "green" "Gui" }
    Write-host "`" Mode."
}

Tags : Monad msh

/\/\o\/\/ on MSH (Monad): Report MP3 count and size by User from MSH

2006-01-10T01:12:00.000-05:00

/\/\o\/\/ on MSH (Monad): Report MP3 count and size by User from MSH

Just a great fun MSH script to play around with... As the topic says, it simply reports MP3 file statistics... on either local machine or on a network computer, etc...

But what is up with those @{expression=...;Name=...} stuff?

wow

If you scroll down a bit, then you will run into two of "select" cmdlets with weird arguments.
Don't worry about it so much, argument is simply an array of a hashtable...

So let's see...
Let's take a look at,

# group them per user

"`n$Extension Per User"
$Userfiles | group Username | select @{expression={$_.Name};Name="User"},
@{expression={($_.group | measure-object).count};Name="Count"},
@{expression={($_.group | measure-object -property RoundedSize -sum).sum};Name="MB"}

you will just simply see an array of hashtable object with two keys with matching values

1st element
1. expression: {$_.Name}
2. Name: "User"
2nd element
1. expression: {($_.group | measure-object).count}
2. Name: "Count"
3rd element
1. expression: {($_.group | measure-object -property RoundedSize -sum).sum}
2. Name: "MB"

The value of "Name" key of each Hashobject is used as a header for the output while the values of "expression" evaluate piped input data object(in this case, System.Management.Automation.Commands.GroupInfo object) and spits out the output on the console.
In /\/\o\/\/'s case,


User                                    Count                                            MB
----                                    -----                                            --
Usr001                                    141                                        998,52
Usr002                                    547                                       3746,62

You can see that "User", "Count", and "MB" as headers and the results are simply calculated values from the piped input data.

BTW, to save typing, you don't have to go with something like expression={$_.filename}; name="Filename"(probably for better readability?) since there is no real meaning to name your keys("expression" & "name") that long... For me being such a lazy typist... i was satisfied with the following...

$Userfiles | group Username | select @{e={$_.Name};N="User"},
@{e={($_.group | measure-object).count};N="Count"},
@{e={($_.group | measure-object -property RoundedSize -sum).sum};N="MB"}

Anyways, it was a fun fun script there /\/\o\/\/~~~

Tags : Monad msh

[FUN] (Poor Man's) SONY Rootkit Revealer

2006-01-08T20:30:00.000-05:00

I was listening to "Security Now" episode #12 (Transcript for that episode and links to the podcast on the top of the page) and SONY's Rootkit can be revealed by creating any file that starts with "$sys".

NOTE:To those who still haven't heard of the term Rootkit it's advised that you either "google" about it or check out Security Now Episode #9

Well.. I was sitting down and see if i had rootkit or not...
Ah.. all this does is just simply creating a file that starts with $sys$($sys$test.txt) and check if exists after creating it(and deletes later on). There is no fancy stuff done here...

# author: dance2die
# title: Ghetto SONY Rootkit Revealer~ :)
# date: 01/08/2005 @ 20:05
# comment: LOL, this is quite funny...

function RevealSONYRootkit {
    # create a file(in a current dir)
    # that starts with "$sys$" which is what SONY used to hide their files.
    $private:testFile = ".\`$sys`$test.txt"

    trap [System.IO.FileNotFoundException] {
        # well something happend so i am guessing that the a rootkit is on the machine..
        Write-Host -foregroundColor "red" -backgroundcolor "white" "You might have SONY rootkit installed... I am chickening out..."
        if ([System.IO.File]::Exists($private:TestFile)) remove-item $private:testFile
        break
    }
    
    If (![System.IO.File]::Exists($private:testFile)) {
        # i am not using [void] here since new-item will display the file created on console... to make sure that people get to see the result
        new-item -type file $private:testFile
    } else {
        Write-Host -foregroundColor "green"  -backgroundcolor "white" "Your system is clean..."
        # i don't usually like to have multiple exit points in a function but wth...
        return
    }

    if ([System.IO.File]::Exists($private:testFile)) {
        Write-Host -foregroundColor "green"  -backgroundcolor "white" "Your system is clean..."
    } else {
        Write-Host -foregroundColor "red" -backgroundcolor "white" "FATAL:You have a SONY Rootkit installed!!!`nReinstall your Windows!!!"
    }
    
    remove-item $private:testFile
}

If you don't have SONY Rootkit then you will see:

Or.. if you happened to be one of those unlucky ones...:

Wouldn't it be great if someone could modify this to run this function over network? :)
Ah.. an instance of "System.Management.Automation.MshCredential" class argument can come in handy..

Well.. Run it at your own risk.. :)

Tags: fun Monad msh security

[TechNet] Do Scripters Dream of Magenta-Colored Text?

2006-01-07T03:59:00.000-05:00

I was going over one of the highlighted Microsoft TechNet MSH Scripting article
Do Scripters Dream of Magenta-Colored Text?

The highlighted article talks about how to "Display Output in Color Using the Microsoft Shell". The gist of the whole discussion was about "-foreground" flag of "write-host" cmdlet(pronounced as Commandlet) which would let the scripter to decide which color(any of System.ConsoleColor retrievable through "MSH>$host.ui.rawui.foregroundcolor | gm -static")

The script seems to be from the guys who has written many VBScript tech scripts because the author has used WMI Class called "Win32_Process" which holds current process information of local or remote machine. I had a feeling that the author had no idea about "get-process".

Anyways, the following is the Scripting Guy's solution for displaying current process information in "Magenta" color.

$strComputer = "." 

$colItems = get-wmiobject -class "Win32_Process" -namespace "root\CIMV2" ` 
-computername $strComputer | write-object 

foreach ($objItem in $colItems) { 
      write-host $objItem.Name, $objItem.WorkingSetSize -foregroundcolor "magenta" 
}

The following is the shorter version using "get-process"

MSH>get-process | foreach { write-host $_.name, $_.WorkingSet -foregroundcolor "magenta" }

Woah, wasn't that much shorter and easier to write and read?
Anyways, one draw back of the latter approach is that it does not display "System Idle Process"... But not like anyone cares about that none process... :)

Tags:msh Monad

Strange "Get-Member" behavior(Title borrowed from Mow's blog)

2005-12-11T15:35:00.000-05:00

Ok, it was weird that whenever I was trying to see if a returned value if of a type array or a scalar.

I have been frusted to see foreach or .length property of output to see if the returned value is an array or not.

But I don't think I would have to worry about it no more.

Strangely enough,

MSH>((get-help get-childitem)."#comment") | gm

would result in displaying type information for type of stored information in the result array object instead of displaying the type of actual array.

But apparently there was at least one another person who was having the similiar problem.

Mow gave me the answer on Usenet newsgroup post and
Here is the answer he posted.

MSH>,((get-help get-childitem)."#comment") | gm

TypeName: System.Management.Automation.MshObject[]

Note that, only difference here was that "," is used to before piping the output to "gm".

For more extensive coverage and answer for this behavior, I recommend
/\/\o\/\/ on MSH (Monad): Create System Variable From MSH (Part2)

If you read through his blog, there is another way to retrieve type information of the array.

gm -input ((get-help get-childitem)."#comment")

Apparently this latter solution works as well.
But why?

Thanks /\/\o\/\/ for another tip there :)

Calling Win32 API functions through MSH

2005-12-04T15:57:00.000-05:00

I have always been wondering if there is a native(in terms of MSH context) way to call Win32 API functions inside MSH. There isn't a built-in way to call Win32 API functions directly.

Oh, don't be disappointed, though. There is a work-around; Dynamic in-memory compilation of C#/VB.net code does the trick.

Well, another day and another day at UseNet newsgroup, I have found the answer.
Solutions were provided by /\/\o\/\/(with VB.net solution) and Jeffery Snover for in-memory compilation of C# code snippet.

My next project will be creating a utility MSH function to ease the pain of declaring and using Win32 API functions

e.g.) new-win32_function declaration [[-ns namespace] [-cn classname]]
new-win32_function "public static extern int puts(string c)" -ns TestNs -cl TestApp
Would let me use "puts" function like the following
MSH> [TestNs.TestApp]::puts("test")

/\/\o\/\/'s VB.NET solution

$provider = new-object Microsoft.VisualBasic.VBCodeProvider
$params = new-object System.CodeDom.Compiler.CompilerParameters
$params.GenerateInMemory = $True
$refs = "System.dll","Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll"
$params.ReferencedAssemblies.AddRange($refs)


# VB.NET EXAMPLE 
$txtCode = @'
Class mow
   Declare Auto Function MyMessageBox Lib “user32.dll” Alias _
   “MessageBox” (ByVal hWnd as Integer, ByVal msg as String, _
   ByVal Caption as String, ByVal Tpe as Integer) As Integer
Sub Main()
     MyMessageBox(0, "Hello World !!!", "Project  Title", 0)
End Sub
end class
'@


$results = $provider.CompileAssemblyFromSource($params, $txtCode)
$mAssembly = $results.CompiledAssembly
$i = $mAssembly.CreateInstance("mow")
$r = $i.main()

and here is the C# solution(Modified a bit to fix syntax error)
Jeffery's C# solution

##################################################### 
#  This is a general purpose routine that I put into a file called 
#   LibraryCodeGen.msh and then dot-source when I need it. 
##################################################### 
function Compile-Csharp ([string] $code, $FrameworkVersion="v2.0.50727",
[Array]$References)
{
    # 
    # Get an instance of the CSharp code provider 
    # 
    $cp = new-object Microsoft.CSharp.CSharpCodeProvider


    # 
    # Build up a compiler params object... 
    # 
    "${framework}\System.Data.dll,${framework}\System.dll,${framework}\system.xml.dll"


    $framework = Combine-Path $env:windir "Microsoft.NET\Framework\$FrameWorkVersion"
    $refs = new-object Collections.ArrayList
    $refs.AddRange( @("${framework}\System.dll",
        "${mshhome}\System.Management.Automation.dll",
        "${mshhome}\System.Management.Automation.ConsoleHost.dll",
        "${framework}\system.windows.forms.dll",
        "${framework}\System.data.dll",
        "${framework}\System.Drawing.dll",
        "${framework}\System.Xml.dll"))
    if ($references.Count -ge 1)
    {
        $refs.AddRange($References)
    }


    $cpar = New-Object System.CodeDom.Compiler.CompilerParameters
    $cpar.GenerateInMemory = $true
    $cpar.GenerateExecutable = $false
    $cpar.OutputAssembly = "custom"
    $cpar.ReferencedAssemblies.AddRange($refs)
    $cr = $cp.CompileAssemblyFromSource($cpar, $code)


    if ( $cr.Errors.Count)
    {
        $codeLines = $code.Split("`n");
        foreach ($ce in $cr.Errors)
        {
            write-host "Error: $($codeLines[$($ce.Line - 1)])"
            $ce out-default
        }
        Throw "INVALID DATA: Errors encountered while compiling code"
    }



}

######################################################### 
#  Here I leverage one of my favorite features (here-strings) to define 
# the C# code I want to run.  Remember - if you use single quotes - the 
# string is taken literally but if you use double-quotes, we'll do variable 
# expansion.  This can be VERY useful. 
######################################################### 
$code = '
using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace test
{
    public class Testclass
    {
        [DllImport("msvcrt.dll")]
        public static extern int puts(string c);
        [DllImport("msvcrt.dll")]
        internal static extern int _flushall();


        public static void Run(string message)
        {
            puts(message);
            _flushall();
        }
    }


}
'

######################################################## 
# So now we compile the code and use .NET object access to run it. 
######################################################## 
compile-CSharp $code
[Test.TestClass]::Run("Monad ROCKS!")

Has anyone ever noticed that "Solution" sounds better than simply referring it as "answer"?

PDC05 Hands-On Lab on Creating Monad Providers

2005-11-30T00:21:00.000-05:00

what is "PDC05 Hands-On Lab on Creating Monad Providers" you ask? It is one of the Word doc that comes with MSH Beta 2 documentation.

Hmm.. I must say that it is really darn good of a tutorial for dealing with creating a new provider for MSH...
The lab basically deals with creating a new MSH provider for accessing MDB file(Microsoft Access DB) as if it were a local filesystem.

It is possible to implement the provider to handle all the basic MSH core commands(help page available through "get-help about_core_commands" on the MSH prompt), such as "get-childitem"(aliased as "ls" or "dir"), "get-content"(aliased as "gc"), "set-localtion"(aliased as "cd"), and etc...

Some of the implementations for features like deleting(implementing "RemoveItem" for "NavigationCmdletProvider"), adding("NavigationCmdletProvider.NewItem") and updating Access DB data are intentionally left out for people to try to implement.

Overall, spending 2~3 hours on this lab was surely worth it.

[MSH] Disposing COM object.

2005-11-12T17:43:00.000-05:00

I had a problem with this "Speak" function I had posted on 11/08/2005, Here

The problem was that, "Speak" function did not dispose the excel object create so even after MSH was exited, the COM object would still be alive and could be seen in Task Manager. So i hit the Newsgroup and have found the answer(Thanks to both "Jouko Kynsijärvi" and "Keith Hill") on how to dipose that darn COM object.

Keith Hill
Nov 12, 12:55 pm show options

Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.server.scripting
From: "Keith Hill" - Find messages by this author
Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2005 10:55:39 -0700
Local: Sat, Nov 12 2005 12:55 pm
Subject: Re: [MSH] How to dispose a COM object
Reply | Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse

"Jouko Kynsijärvi" wrote in message

news:%23pf9pW65FHA.2040@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...

> You can release the COM object by using Marshal.ReleaseComObject():

Keep in mind that if you marshal a COM object back and forth between
different COM servers and MSH, the ref count on the RCW can get bumped up
past 1. That means that if you really, really want to get rid of the COM
object you typically do this:

while
([System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject([System.__ComObject]$excel)
-gt 0) {}

Essentially ReleaseComObject returns the new ref count and you want to
continue calling it until the ref count reaches 0. At least this was the
way it worked in .NET 1.1. And indeed the .NET 2.0 docs say:

Note
To ensure that the runtime callable wrapper and the original COM
object are released, construct a loop from which you call this method until
the returned reference count reaches zero.

Yeah I've been bit by this issue before.

--
Keith

[Non-MSH] Stupid function practice

2005-11-12T16:52:00.000-05:00

As I was browsing MSDN2 website to see if there is any useful classes and function I could use to maintain SQL 2000 server or my comp.

I have come across a namespace Microsoft.SqlServer.Server.

Ah, great, there should be a lot of fun stuff in it.
So I thought.

But i ran into this rather interestingly named function ExecuteAndSend of SqlPipe class.

AFAIK, a function should do ONE thing and ONE thing only, WELL.
Is it that hard to write a code like

SqlContext.Pipe.Execute(); 
SqlContext.Pipe.Send(); 

// Instead of  
SqlContext.Pipe.ExecuteAndSend();

BTW, this "ExecuteAndSend" reminds of "SendAndExit"(i think i saw something like this from Outlook) and "SaveAndExit" functionality in Crystal Reports Formula Editor

I tend to despise such a coding practice...

Show Desktop in MSH way

2005-11-11T20:39:00.000-05:00

Ok, I have modified "/\/\o\/\/" yet further.
I have lost that darn "show desktop" button and it was a pain in the ass to get it back on to my "quick launch". Ah, and yeah, when i program, I need to title windows either horizontally or vertically so that i could compare two code side by side.

But oh well, to tile windows, i had to select windows one by one pressing controls and then title'em all... So i created another MSH script that do just what I mentioned.

There are many options that Shell.Application offers and I will be extending this script to support all the functionalities that Shell.Application offers...


# ShellUtil.msh
# author: dance2die
# original code author: /\/\o\/\/# date: 11/11/2005 @ 08:51PM
 

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Drawing") 
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.windows.forms") 

function ShellUtil { 

    $shell = new-object -com shell.application 

    $form = new-object System.Windows.Forms.form 
    $cm = new-object System.Windows.Forms.ContextMenu         
    $mi = new-object System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem         
    $ni = new-object System.Windows.Forms.NotifyIcon         


    # Display "Show Desktop" menu 
    $miToggle = new-object System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem 
    $miToggle.Index = 0 
    $miToggle.Text = "&Show Desktop" 
     
    # Display "Minimize All" menu 
    $miMinAll = new-object System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem 
    $miMinAll.Text = "&Minimize All Windows" 
    $miMinAll.Index = 1 
     
    # Display "Undo Minimize All" menu 
    $miUndoMinAll = new-object System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem 
    $miUndoMinAll.Index = 2 
    $miUndoMinAll.Text = "&Undo Minimize All Windows"; 
     
    # Display "Tray Properties" menu 
    $miTrayProps = new-object System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem 
    $miTrayProps.Index = 3 
    $miTrayProps.Text = "&Tray Properties..." 
     
    # Display "Cascade Windows" menu 
    $miCascade = new-object System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem 
    $miCascade.Index = 4 
    $miCascade.Text = "&Cascade Windows" 
     
    # Display "Tile Horizontally" menu 
    $miTileH = new-object System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem 
    $miTileH.Index = 5 
    $miTileH.Text = "Tile Windows &Horizontally" 
     
    # Display "Tile Vertically" menu 
    $miTileV = new-object System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem 
    $miTileV.Index = 6 
    $miTileV.Text = "Tile Windows &Vertically" 
     
    # Display "Exit" menu 
    $miExit = new-object System.windows.Forms.MenuItem 
    $miExit.Index = 10 
    $miExit.Text = "E&xit" 


    $form.contextMenu = $cm         
    $form.contextMenu.MenuItems.Add($miToggle) 
    $form.contextMenu.MenuItems.Add($miMinAll) 
    $form.contextMenu.MenuItems.Add($miUndoMinAll) 
    $form.contextMenu.MenuItems.Add($miTrayProps) 
    $form.contextMenu.MenuItems.Add($miCascade) 
    $form.contextMenu.MenuItems.Add($miTileH) 
    $form.contextMenu.MenuItems.Add($miTileV) 
    $form.contextMenu.MenuItems.Add($miExit) 
     
     
    $form.ShowInTaskbar = $False         
    $form.WindowState = "minimized"      
    $form.add_Closing({ $form.ShowInTaskBar = $False }) 

    $ni = $ni         
    $ni.Icon = New-object System.Drawing.Icon("c:\programming\msh\icons\test.ico") 
    $NI.ContextMenu = $cm         
    $NI.Text += "Shell Utility"; 

    $tipTitle = "Bah" 
    $tipText = "Bah" 

    $miToggle.add_Click({  
        $shell.ToggleDesktop() 
        $tipTitle = "Show Desktop" 
        $tipText = "Toggle Desktop..." 
    }) 
    $miMinAll.add_Click({ 
        $shell.MinimizeAll() 
        $tipTitle = "Minimize All..." 
        $tipText = "Minimize All windows..." 
    }) 
    $miUndoMinAll.add_Click({  
        $shell.UndoMinimizeAll()  
        $tipTitle = "Undo minimize all" 
        $tipText = "Undo minimize all" 
    }) 
    $miTrayProps.add_Click({  
        $shell.TrayProperties() 
        $tipTitle = "Display Tray Properties" 
        $tipText = "Modify system tray properties..." 
    }) 
    $miCascade.add_Click({ 
        $shell.CascadeWindows() 
        $tipTitle = "Cascade windows" 
        $tipText = "Cascade all windows" 
    }) 
    $miTileH.add_Click({ 
        $shell.TileHorizontally() 
        $tipTitle = "Tile Horizontally" 
        $tipText = "Tile windows horizontally" 
    }) 
    $miTileV.add_Click({ 
        $shell.TileVertically() 
        $tipTitle = "Tile Vertically" 
        $tipText = "Tile windows vertically" 
    }) 
    $miExit.add_Click({ 
        $form.Close() 
        $NI.visible = $false 
    }) 
     
    $ni.ShowBalloonTip(0, $tipTitle, $tipText, [System.Windows.Forms.ToolTipIcon]"Info") 

    $NI.Visible = $True 
    $form.showDialog()   
} 


ShellUtil

Speak, your mind... In Excel that is...

2005-11-09T20:10:00.000-05:00

I think what i am posting is quite old of a stuff.
But oh well... Like I care...

Let excel "speak" what you type...

function speak {
param([string] $text = "Hello, World!")

$ex = new-object -com excel.application
$ex.speech.speak($text, $null, $null, $null)
}

now,

MSH> speak "your mind..."

Oh yeah, the problem is that, after each "speak", an instance of "excel" will be shown on your Task Manager. So if you would like to spam "speak", create an instance of excel object "outside" of function speak, then use that excel object repeately.

Bah, i am not sure how to dispose that $ex when it's out of scope of function speak yet. I thought it was gonna be done automatically... I guess i should mess around with scope, tomorrow...

2005-11-08T12:30:00.000-05:00

/\/\o\/\/ on MSH (Monad): MSH start. Function

Another fun msh script by "/\/\o\/\/".

Here is a bit modified version that I have put on my "profile.msh".
This one basically takes a directory to open Windows Explorer for.
Default is the current directory so...

# original code author: /\/\o\/\/ 
function startHere { 
  param([string] $dir = (pwd).path) 

  $sh = new-object -com shell.application 
  $sh.explore($dir)  
}

Displaying Weather Info through RSS with MSH

2005-11-07T23:28:00.000-05:00

Uhm, I have been trying to display Weather data through MSH scripting.
Man, after struggling for 30 minutes, i got kind of tired and didn't event get to finish the fully working demo.

I just have pasted something i have been fiddling around a bit(WARNING: hardcore hardcoding)

Most of Form window code was copied from MSH directory watcher with popup-balloon and RSS part can be found from Monad and RSS, Part 2

I was having trouble with getting a description for each "$rssData.rss.channel.item". The description was in "CData" form and it wouldn't let me access the property named "#cdata-section". I guess i just don't know how to access the property... Bah, time to go and hit the usenet...

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Drawing")
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.windows.forms")

function weather {
$form = new-object System.Windows.Forms.Form
$cm = new-object System.Windows.Forms.ContextMenu
$miExit = new-object System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem
$miRefresh = new-object System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem
$ni = new-object System.Windows.Forms.NotifyIcon

$form.ContextMenu = $cm
$form.ContextMenu.MenuItems.Add($miRefresh)
$form.ContextMenu.MenuItems.Add($miExit)
$form.ShowInTaskbar = $false
$form.WindowState = "minimized"
$form.add_Load({
$wc = new-object System.Net.WebClient
$uri = "http://weather.msn.com/RSS.aspx?wealocations=wc:USNY0833&weadegreetype=F"
$rssData = [xml] $wc.DownloadString($uri)

$title = $rssData.rss.channel.title
$desc = $rssData.rss.channel.item[0].title

$ni.ShowBalloonTip(100, $title, $desc, [system.windows.forms.ToolTipIcon]"Info")
})

$ni = $ni
$ni.Icon = new-object System.Drawing.Icon("c:\msh\icons\test.ico")
$ni.ContextMenu = $cm

$miRefresh.Index = 0
$miRefresh.Text = "&Refresh"
$miRefresh.add_Click({
$wc = new-object System.Net.WebClient
$uri = "http://weather.msn.com/RSS.aspx?wealocations=wc:USNY0833&weadegreetype=F"
$rssData = [xml] $wc.DownloadString($uri)

$title = $rssData.rss.channel.title
$desc = $rssData.rss.channel.item[0].title

$ni.ShowBalloonTip(100, $title, $desc, [system.windows.forms.ToolTipIcon]"Info")
})

$miExit.Index = 1
$miExit.Text = "E&xit"
$miExit.add_Click({ $form.Close() })

$ni.visible = $true
$form.showDialog()
}

weather

MSDN monad blog

2005-11-06T14:12:00.000-05:00

I think i will just start checking out the official monad technology blog

Seems quite interesting...

Wait a second.
What about Reskit-MSH

Keeping track with
/\/\o\/\/ is getting harder and harder for him coming up with all the new stuff to play around with...

If you go to MS Scripting on Google Newsgroup, you can see a lot of useful questions posted concerning MSH. Ah, IIRC, the most notable poster seems to be "/\/\o\/\/"

/\/\o\/\/ on MSH (Monad): MSH directory watcher with popup-balloon

2005-11-04T01:41:00.000-05:00

/\/\o\/\/ on MSH (Monad): MSH directory watcher with popup-balloon

Now, here is some short, but a very serious script written by /\/\o\/\/

The page basically deals with a script which monitors a directory(which is passed as an argument) for and displays this "Balloon" tip at icon tray when the watching directory has been changed.

If you simply copy and paste the code on that page, it won't work as expected by throwing an error. Ah, gosh, it was because path to an icon file for NotifyIcon object wasn't there(since /\/\o\/\/ had hardcoded it as "g:\monad\mow.ico".

And also if you copy the whole script including the comment, it will generate an error so make sure that you save the whole script either as a file + .msh or copy and paste excluding the comment to run...(hey, but don't forget about who the original author[/\/\o\/\/] of the script is...)

I have modified the code a bit for more events(deleted and created) and also added "Start Monitoring" & "Stop Monitoring" context menu for NotifyIcon($NI in /\/\o\/\/'s code) object.

For feeling a bit buzzed from beer, i will be posting the modified source later.

Msh fun~

2005-10-23T21:39:00.000-04:00

Ok, i am currently trying out MSH beta 2.

There is this d00d called "Mow"(spelled as "/\/\o\/\/") and he has some fun stuff.
If you go to Mow's blog he has posted some fun and possibly useful MSH tricks.

The title of his blog is called

/\/\o\/\/ on MSH(Monad), Playing with MY-Object from MSH

Enjoy everyone~

::::::::: PowerShell :::::::::

Installing PowerShell with Unattended Windows CD

While Creating a Simple EventLog PsProvider -Part 2

While Creating a Simple EventLog PsProvider (in C#)

Add-Member: Extended Example

Back up SQL Server database with SQL Server Objects(SMO) using PowerShell

Re-inventing the wheel for fun.

Windows Desktop Search Powershell Cmdlet by Sean McLeod

Extending TabExpansion function Part 3

Domain Names

Getting Services associated with a Process via PowerShell (.NET Type Extension)

"Prompt" function

Extending TabExpansion function Part 2

Extending TabExpansion function

PowerShell Del.icio.us bookmarks

PowerShell RC1 Updates

Option Explicit, I mean "Strict" switch...

[MSH] Extending System.Security.SecureString

[MSH] How to change a Process's Priority

[MSH] display and extract zip contents

[MSH] Displaying Zip File contents

[MSH] MSH Analyzer

[MSH] How to a[void] returning multiple values from a function

Blogger and Technoroti problem

[MSH] print-image *Snapin* version

[MSH] print-image

[MSH] Clipboard Snapin...

[MSH Snapin] Need help implementing Out-Clipboard Snapin

Simple tools for complex jobs

[MSH] Change Default "Get-Credential" Prompt Behavior

/\/\o\/\/ on MSH (Monad): Report MP3 count and size by User from MSH

[FUN] (Poor Man's) SONY Rootkit Revealer

[TechNet] Do Scripters Dream of Magenta-Colored Text?

Strange "Get-Member" behavior(Title borrowed from Mow's blog)

Calling Win32 API functions through MSH

PDC05 Hands-On Lab on Creating Monad Providers

[MSH] Disposing COM object.

[Non-MSH] Stupid function practice

Show Desktop in MSH way

Speak, your mind... In Excel that is...

Displaying Weather Info through RSS with MSH

MSDN monad blog

/\/\o\/\/ on MSH (Monad): MSH directory watcher with popup-balloon

Msh fun~

[MSH] print-image Snapin version