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PSReleaseTools

This PowerShell module provides a set of commands for working with the latest releases from the PowerShell GitHub repository. The module contains commands to get summary information about the most current PowerShell version as well as functions to download some or all of the release files or install the latest stable and/or preview build of PowerShell.

These commands utilize the GitHub API, which is subject to rate limits. It is recommended that you save results of commands like Get-PSReleaseAsset to a variable. If you encounter an error message for Invoke-RestMethod like "Server Error" then you have likely exceeded the API limit. You will need to wait a bit and try again. You do not need to have or use a GitHub account to use these commands.

This module should work cross-platform on both Windows PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell 7.x, but is primarily intended for Windows platforms.

You can install this module from the PowerShell Gallery.

Install-Module PSReleaseTools

The Module

The module currently has 9 commands:

All of the functions take advantage of the GitHub API which in combination with either Invoke-RestMethod or Invoke-WebRequest, allow you to programmatically interact with GitHub.

Get Current Release

The first command, Get-PSReleaseCurrent can provide a quick summary view of the latest stable or preview release.

PS C:\> Get-PSReleaseCurrent

Name                                   OnlineVersion       Released                    LocalVersion
----                                   -------------       --------                    ------------
v7.1.0 Release of PowerShell           7.1.0               11/11/2020 4:23:08 PM              7.1.0

The command writes a custom object to the pipeline which has additional properties.

PS C:\> Get-PSReleaseCurrent -preview | Select-Object *

Name         : v7.2.0-preview.2 Release of PowerShell
Version      : v7.2.0-preview.2
Released     : 12/15/2020 9:31:39 PM
LocalVersion : 7.1.0
URL          : https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/tag/v7.2.0-preview.2
Draft        : False
Prerelease   : True

Summary Information

Get-PSReleaseSummary queries the PowerShell repository release page and constructs a text summary. You can also have the command write the report text as markdown.

I put the release name and date right at the top so you can quickly check if you need to download something new. In GitHub, each release file is referred to as an asset. The Get-PSReleaseAsset command will query GitHub about each file and write a custom object to the pipeline.

PS C:\> Get-PSReleaseAsset

FileName      : powershell-7.1.0-1.centos.8.x86_64.rpm
Family        : CentOS
Format        : rpm
SizeMB        : 65
Hash          : F3985B24719534F27A6C603416C7644771E17C75AFBFD8E6D5E98390045BF9D3
Created       : 11/10/2020 8:08:04 PM
Updated       : 11/10/2020 8:08:06 PM
URL           : https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/download/v7.1.0/powershell-7.1.0-1.centos.8.x86_64.rpm
DownloadCount : 10509
...

By default, the command will display assets for all platforms, but I added a -Family parameter if you want to limit yourself to a single entry like MacOS.

PS C:\> Get-PSReleaseAsset -Family MacOS

FileName      : powershell-7.1.0-osx-x64.pkg
Family        : MacOS
Format        : pkg
SizeMB        : 63
Hash          : 9B7397266711B279B5413F42ABC899730539C8D78A29FD116E19A1BB78244D78
Created       : 11/10/2020 8:08:18 PM
Updated       : 11/10/2020 8:08:20 PM
URL           : https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/download/v7.1.0/powershell-7.1.0-osx-x64.pkg
DownloadCount : 47202

FileName      : powershell-7.1.0-osx-x64.tar.gz
Family        : MacOS
Format        : gz
SizeMB        : 63
Hash          : 10CE8B2837F30F127F866E9680F518B9AA6288222C24B62AD1CAD868FB2A66E9
Created       : 11/10/2020 8:08:21 PM
Updated       : 11/10/2020 8:08:26 PM
URL           : https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/download/v7.1.0/powershell-7.1.0-osx-x64.tar.gz
DownloadCount : 3657
...

Of course, you will want to download these files, which is the job of the last command. By default, Get-PSReleaserAsset will save all files to the current directory unless you specify a different path. You can limit the selection to a specific platform with the -Family parameter, which uses a validation set.

PS C:\> Save-PSReleaseAsset -Family Ubuntu -Path D:\Temp -WhatIf
What if: Performing the operation "Downloading https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/download/v7.1.0/powershell_7.1.0-1.ubuntu.16.04_amd64.deb" on target "D:\temp\powershell_7.1.0-1.ubuntu.16.04_amd64.deb".
What if: Performing the operation "Downloading https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/download/v7.1.0/powershell_7.1.0-1.ubuntu.18.04_amd64.deb" on target "D:\temp\powershell_7.1.0-1.ubuntu.18.04_amd64.deb".
What if: Performing the operation "Downloading https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/download/v7.1.0/powershell_7.1.0-1.ubuntu.20.04_amd64.deb" on target "D:\temp\powershell_7.1.0-1.ubuntu.20.04_amd64.deb".

You can select multiple names. If you choose Windows, there is a dynamic parameter called -Format where you can select ZIP or MSI. Save-PSReleaseAsset supports -WhatIf.

I also realized you might run Get-PSReleaseAsset, perhaps to examine details before downloading. Since you have those objects, why not be able to pipe them to the save command?

PS C:\> Get-PSReleaseAsset -Family Rhel  | Save-PSReleaseAsset -Path D:\Temp -Passthru


    Directory: D:\Temp


Mode                 LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                 -------------         ------ ----
-a----         1/13/2021  11:13 AM       67752949 powershell-7.1.0-1.rhel.7.x86_64.rpm

The current version of this module uses regular expression named captures to pull out the file name and corresponding SHA256 hashes. The save command then calls Get-FileHash to get the current file hash and compares them.

Installing a Build

On Windows, it is pretty easy to install a new build with a one-line command:

Get-PSReleaseAsset -Family Windows -Only64Bit -Format msi |
Save-PSReleaseAsset -Path d:\temp -Passthru | Invoke-Item

Or you can use one of two newer functions to install the latest 64bit release. You can specify the interaction level.

Install-PSPreview will download the latest 64-bit preview build for Windows and kick off the installation.

Install-PSPreview -Mode Passive

Install-PowerShell will do the same thing but for the latest stable release. The command retains Install-PSCore as an alias.

Install-PowerShell -Mode Quiet -EnableRemoting -EnableContextMenu -EnableRunContext

The functionality of these commands could have been combined, but I decided to leave them as separate commands, so there is no confusion about what you are installing. In both cases, an installation log file will be created at $env:TEMP\PS7Install.log.

Non-Windows platforms have existing command-line installation tools that don't need to be replaced. Plus, I don't have the resources to develop and test installation techniques for all of the non-Windows options. That is why install-related commands in this module are limited to Windows.

Preview Builds

Beginning with v0.8.0 of this module, command functions have a -Preview parameter, which will get the latest preview build. Otherwise, the commands will use the latest stable release.

PowerShell Repository Issues

A new set of commands have been introduced in v1.8.0. These commands are intended to make it easier for you to look at issues from the PowerShell GitHub repository. The idea is that you can take a peek at open issues from your PowerShell session and then open the issue in your browser to learn more or contribute.

Get-PSIssue

Get-PSIssue is intended to get open PowerShell issues from Github. With no parameters, you can get the 25 most recent issues. Use the -Count parameter to increase that value using one of the possible values. The actual number of issues returned may vary depending on the rest of your command and how GitHub pages results.

You can also fine-tune your search to get issues that have been updated since a given date. Finally, you can also limit your search to issues tagged with a specific label.

Get-PSIssue

The function writes a custom object to the pipeline and includes a default formatted view. If you are running PowerShell 7, the issue body will be rendered as markdown.

Here is another way you might use the command.

Get-PSIssue Summary

Note: The PSIssue commands use the GitHub API and anonymous connections. The API has rate limits. If you run one of these commands excessively in a short period of time, you might see an error about exceeding the rate limit. If this happens, all you can do is wait an hour and try again. You can read more about GitHub rate-limiting here.

Get-PSIssueLabel

To make it easier to search for issues based on a label run Get-PSIssueLabel. This command will list available labels from the PowerShell repository. However, you most likely won't need to run this command often. When you import the PSReleaseTools module, it will create a global variable called $PSIssueLabel.

PS C:\> $PSIssueLabel

name                         description
----                         -----------
.NET                         Pull requests that update .net code
Area-Build
Area-Cmdlets
Area-Cmdlets-Archive
Area-Cmdlets-Core
Area-Cmdlets-Management
Area-Cmdlets-Utility
Area-Console
Area-DSC
...

This variable is used as part of an argument completer for the Labels parameter on Get-PSIssue.

Open-PSIssue

Finally, you may want to respond to an issue. If you run Open-PSIssue without any parameters, it should open the Issues section of the PowerShell repository in your browser. Or you can pipe an issue object to the command, as long as you include the Url property.

Get-PSIssue | Select-Object Updated,Labels,Title,Url | Out-GridView -PassThru | Open-PSIssue

There are no plans to add a command to open a new issue from a PowerShell session. You can use Open-PSIssue to get to GitHub and then use your browser to submit a new issue.

Support

If you have suggestions or encounter problems, please post an issue in this GitHub repository. If you find this project useful, or any of my work, please consider a small support donation.

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Last Updated 2021-10-15 15:21:21Z