qbikez / ps-pathutils

Functions for manipulating paths, PATH variable and PowerShell modules loading paths.

Overview

This module contains a few usefull functions for operating paths, PATH variable and PowerShell modules paths.

Installation

Install from PowershellGallery:

> Install-Module -Name PathUtils

Usage

Add some path to PATH variable:

> "c:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_74\bin\" | Add-ToPath
> java
Usage: java [-options] class [args...]
     (to execute a class)

Note: By default, the variable is modified in the process scope. If you want to persist the change, add -p switch

Refresh PATH variable (i.e. when modified by some other process)

> Refresh-Env

Check if given command is available on PATH (like where/which)

> Where-Is notepad

Source                               Name        CommandType Version
------                               ----        ----------- -------
c:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin\notepad notepad     Application
c:\Windows\System32\notepad.exe      notepad.exe Application
C:\Windows\notepad.exe               notepad.exe Application

Use a PowerShell module directly from source control

Let's say you found a usefull PowerShell module, like this one and you want to hack a little on it. Instead of dropping it in your PsModulesPath, you could use mklink to add a link to it in some predefined modules location.

> git clone https://github.com/qbikez/ps-pathutils
> Install-ModuleLink ps-pathutils/src/pathutils

Note: this command calls mklink underneath to creata a link in global modules directory (`c:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules') and requires elevation.

While you're onto that, you can pull latest changes for this linked module, using Update-ModuleLink:

> update-modulelink pathutils
running git pull in 'C:\src\ps-modules\pathutils\src\pathutils'
Already up-to-date.