mattypenny

Sep 27, 2016

#TodayILearned you have to:

export-modulemember -alias * -function *

to define aliases in a Powershell module

maxtblog.com/2010/07/powershell-modules-how-to-create-aliases-for-my-functions/

Sep 23, 2016

#TodayILearned that in vim to scroll down but keep the cursor in the same place, you can do Ctrl-e

Sep 15, 2016

#TodayILearned that Powershell’s get-unique cmdlet is case sensitive.

Aug 22, 2016

#TodayILearned that Powershell’s get-help -parameter option takes a parameter of the parameter. Obvious, really :)

Aug 11, 2016

#TodayILearned this vim

:vimgrep /^functio/ %

:copen

then move to the left

Aug 10, 2016

#TodayILearned that PowerShell’s get-help has a really, really useful -window option (via @maxtrinidad , shortly b4 losing my internet :( )

Jul 5, 2016

#TodayILearned that if you’re Pester-testing a bit of a #Powershell module, and you want to Mock something you need -Module option

I think.

Jun 15, 2016

#TodayILearned this is v handy if you RunAs different users $Host.UI.RawUI.WindowTitle = $env:username

#Powershell

Mar 7, 2016

#TodayILearned that Powershell ISE snippets live in

C:\Users\matt\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Snippets

..if your name happens to be matt

I’m just getting started with Pester and I got this error

   Cannot bind argument to parameter 'Actual' because it is an empty string.
   at line: 18 in C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\pester\3.3.5\Functions\Assertions\Be.ps1

So, when it’s working it does this:

get-HugoNameAndValue -FrontMatterLine "Weighting: 103"
DEBUG: 09:15:37.6806 Start: get-HugoNameAndValue
DEBUG: - FrontMatterLine=Weighting: 103
DEBUG: - get-HugoNameAndValue.ps1: line 5
DEBUG: $PositionOfFirstColon: 9
DEBUG: $PropertyName : {Weighting}
DEBUG: $PropertyValue : { 103}
DEBUG: $PropertyValue : {103}

PropertyName PropertyValue
------------ -------------
Weighting    103          

When I ran it from Pester I got this

GetHugoNameAndValue 06/21/2016 08:45:19 $ invoke-pester
Describing get-HugoNameAndValue
DEBUG: 08:45:56.3377 Start: get-HugoNameAndValue
DEBUG: - FrontMatterLine=Weighting: 103
DEBUG: - get-HugoNameAndValue.ps1: line 5
DEBUG: $PositionOfFirstColon: 9
DEBUG: $PropertyName : {Weighting}
DEBUG: $PropertyValue : { 103}
DEBUG: $PropertyValue : {103}
 [-] returns name and value 189ms
   Cannot bind argument to parameter 'Actual' because it is an empty string.
   at line: 18 in C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\pester\3.3.5\Functions\Assertions\Be.ps1
Tests completed in 189ms
Passed: 0 Failed: 1 Skipped: 0 Pending: 0

My Pester code was:

$here = Split-Path -Parent $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path
$sut = (Split-Path -Leaf $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path).Replace(".Tests.", ".")
. "$here\$sut"

Describe "get-HugoNameAndValue" {
    It "returns name and value" {
        $Hugo = get-HugoNameAndValue -FrontMatterLine "Weighting: 103"
        $value = $Hugo.Value
        $value | Should Be '103'
    }
}

The problem here was simply that I’d got the name of the Property wrong. It was ‘PropertyName’ not just ‘Name’

So I changed the Pester

$here = Split-Path -Parent $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path
$sut = (Split-Path -Leaf $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path).Replace(".Tests.", ".")
. "$here\$sut"

Describe "get-HugoNameAndValue" {
    It "returns name and value" {
        $Hugo = get-HugoNameAndValue -FrontMatterLine "Weighting: 103"
        $value = $Hugo.PropertyValue
        $value | Should Be '103'
    }
}

….and then it worked

invoke-pester
Describing get-HugoNameAndValue
DEBUG: 09:22:21.2291 Start: get-HugoNameAndValue
DEBUG: - FrontMatterLine=Weighting: 103
DEBUG: - get-HugoNameAndValue.ps1: line 5
DEBUG: $PositionOfFirstColon: 9
DEBUG: $PropertyName : {Weighting}
DEBUG: $PropertyValue : { 103}
DEBUG: $PropertyValue : {103}
 [+] returns name and value 99ms
Tests completed in 99ms
Passed: 1 Failed: 0 Skipped: 0 Pending: 0

I’m just getting started with Pester and I got this error

   Cannot bind argument to parameter 'Actual' because it is an empty string.
   at line: 18 in C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\pester\3.3.5\Functions\Assertions\Be.ps1

So, when it’s working it does this:

get-HugoNameAndValue -FrontMatterLine "Weighting: 103"
DEBUG: 09:15:37.6806 Start: get-HugoNameAndValue
DEBUG: - FrontMatterLine=Weighting: 103
DEBUG: - get-HugoNameAndValue.ps1: line 5
DEBUG: $PositionOfFirstColon: 9
DEBUG: $PropertyName : {Weighting}
DEBUG: $PropertyValue : { 103}
DEBUG: $PropertyValue : {103}

PropertyName PropertyValue
------------ -------------
Weighting    103          

When I ran it from Pester I got this

GetHugoNameAndValue 06/21/2016 08:45:19 $ invoke-pester
Describing get-HugoNameAndValue
DEBUG: 08:45:56.3377 Start: get-HugoNameAndValue
DEBUG: - FrontMatterLine=Weighting: 103
DEBUG: - get-HugoNameAndValue.ps1: line 5
DEBUG: $PositionOfFirstColon: 9
DEBUG: $PropertyName : {Weighting}
DEBUG: $PropertyValue : { 103}
DEBUG: $PropertyValue : {103}
 [-] returns name and value 189ms
   Cannot bind argument to parameter 'Actual' because it is an empty string.
   at line: 18 in C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\pester\3.3.5\Functions\Assertions\Be.ps1
Tests completed in 189ms
Passed: 0 Failed: 1 Skipped: 0 Pending: 0

My Pester code was:

$here = Split-Path -Parent $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path
$sut = (Split-Path -Leaf $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path).Replace(".Tests.", ".")
. "$here\$sut"

Describe "get-HugoNameAndValue" {
    It "returns name and value" {
        $Hugo = get-HugoNameAndValue -FrontMatterLine "Weighting: 103"
        $value = $Hugo.Value
        $value | Should Be '103'
    }
}

The problem here was simply that I’d got the name of the Property wrong. It was ‘PropertyName’ not just ‘Name’

So I changed the Pester

$here = Split-Path -Parent $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path
$sut = (Split-Path -Leaf $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path).Replace(".Tests.", ".")
. "$here\$sut"

Describe "get-HugoNameAndValue" {
    It "returns name and value" {
        $Hugo = get-HugoNameAndValue -FrontMatterLine "Weighting: 103"
        $value = $Hugo.PropertyValue
        $value | Should Be '103'
    }
}

….and then it worked

invoke-pester
Describing get-HugoNameAndValue
DEBUG: 09:22:21.2291 Start: get-HugoNameAndValue
DEBUG: - FrontMatterLine=Weighting: 103
DEBUG: - get-HugoNameAndValue.ps1: line 5
DEBUG: $PositionOfFirstColon: 9
DEBUG: $PropertyName : {Weighting}
DEBUG: $PropertyValue : { 103}
DEBUG: $PropertyValue : {103}
 [+] returns name and value 99ms
Tests completed in 99ms
Passed: 1 Failed: 0 Skipped: 0 Pending: 0

Get the xml into a variable

[xml]$xmla = get-content D:\repair_websites\salisburywiltshireandstonehenge.wordpress.2015-10-03.xml                       

Extract the details

select-xml -xml $xmla -xpath "//channel/item" | select -expandproperty node | ? post_type -ne "attachment" | select title  

gives the following:

title                        
-----                        
Road names beginning with 'N'
Road names beginning with 'O'
Road names beginning with 'P'
Road names beginning with 'Q'
Road names beginning with 'R'
Road names beginning with 'S'
Road names beginning with 'T'
Road names beginning with 'U'
Road names beginning with 'V'
Road names beginning with 'W'

The properties of the expanded node are:

For example:

select-xml -xml $xmla -xpath "//channel/item" | select -expandproperty node | ? post_type -ne "attachment" | ? title -like "*Ramone*"

outputs:

title          : 3rd June 1977 - the Ramones visit Stonehenge. Johnny stays on the bus
link           : /on-this-day/june/3rd-june-1977-the-ramones-visit-stonehenge-johnny-stays-on-the-bus
pubDate        : Tue, 04 Nov 2014 12:33:09 +0000
creator        : creator
guid           : guid
description    : 
encoded        : {content:encoded, excerpt:encoded}
post_id        : 9267
post_date      : 2014-11-04 12:33:09
post_date_gmt  : 2014-11-04 12:33:09
comment_status : open
ping_status    : closed
post_name      : 3rd-june-1977-the-ramones-visit-stonehenge-johnny-stays-on-the-bus
status         : publish
post_parent    : 6624
menu_order     : 3
post_type      : page
post_password  : 
is_sticky      : 0
postmeta       : {wp:postmeta, wp:postmeta, wp:postmeta, wp:postmeta}

To get the actual content of the post:

select-xml -xml $xmla -xpath "//channel/item" | select -expandproperty node | ? post_type -ne "attachment" | ? title -like "*Ramone*" | select -ExpandProperty encoded | fl

…gives:

#cdata-section : <a href="/images/Joey-Ramone-visited-Stonehenge.jpg"><img src="/images/Joey-Ramone-visited-Stonehenge.jpg" alt="Joey Ramone - 'visited' 
                 Stonehenge" width="320" height="455" class="alignright size-full wp-image-9702" /></a>On either the 3rdIn 'On the Road with 
                 the Ramones', Monte A. Melnick says that the visit occurred 

                 <blockquote>'On the '77 tour we had a day off and noticed Stonehenge was on the way'[URL <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?
                 id=N7m8AwAAQBAJ&lpg=RA1-PR24&dq=ramones%20stonehenge&pg=RA1-PR25#v=onepage&q=ramones%20stonehenge&f=false">'On the Road with the 
                 Ramones', by By Monte A. Melnick, Frank Meyer</a>].</blockquote>

                 This would have been when the Ramones were travelling back from Penzance to Canterbury - the free day being June 3rd [<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ramones_concerts#1977">Wikipedia List Of Ramones Concerts</a>] or possibly the 
                 4th June 1977, the Ramones visited Stonehenge.

                 Pic: By en:User:Dawkeye [<a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html">GFDL</a>, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC-BY-SA-3.0</a> or <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5">CC-BY-SA-2.5</a>], <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AJoeyramone.jpg">via Wikimedia Commons</a>

                 More:

                 <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=c7lgKVmD0yMC&lpg=PA170&dq=ramones%20stonehenge&pg=PA171#v=onepage&q=ramones%20stonehen
                 ge&f=false" title="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=c7lgKVmD0yMC&lpg=PA170&dq=ramones%20stonehenge&pg=PA171#v=onepage&q=ramones%
                 20stonehenge&f=false">I Slept with Joey Ramone: A Family Memoir By Mickey Leigh</a>

                 <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=N7m8AwAAQBAJ&lpg=RA1-PR24&dq=ramones%20stonehenge&pg=RA1-PR25#v=onepage&q=ramones%20st
                 onehenge&f=false" title="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=N7m8AwAAQBAJ&lpg=RA1-PR24&dq=ramones%20stonehenge&pg=RA1-PR25#v=onepag
                 e&q=ramones%20stonehenge&f=false">On the Road with the Ramones By Monte A. Melnick, Frank Meyer</a>

                 <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?ei=AxPJU5u3Jae60QXB1ICQBQ&id=QTjaAAAAMAAJ&dq=ramones+stonehenge&focus=searchwithinvolume&
                 q=+stonehenge" title="http://books.google.co.uk/books?ei=AxPJU5u3Jae60QXB1ICQBQ&id=QTjaAAAAMAAJ&dq=ramones+stonehenge&focus=search
                 withinvolume&q=+stonehenge">A Time to Rock: A Social History of Rock and Roll by David P. Szatmary</a>


#cdata-section : 

I’m not entirely sure how I managed to not find out about Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfProc_Process before now. I think the ‘sort -k3n’ does a sort by CPU-usage, but I’m sure there’s a better way of doing it than that.

gwmi Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfProc_Process -ComputerName $ComputerName | 
  Sort-Object -Property PercentProcessorTime -desc | 
  select idprocess, name, IODataBytesPersec, PercentPrivilegedTime,PercentProcessorTime, PercentUserTime, workingset | 
  Select-Object -first 11 | 
  ft -AutoSize

gives:

idprocess name      IODataBytesPersec PercentPrivilegedTime PercentProcessorTime PercentUserTime workingset
--------- ----      ----------------- --------------------- -------------------- --------------- ----------
        0 _Total               849620                   100                  100              18 5667786752
        0 Idle                      0                   100                  100               0       4096
     5552 sqlservr             236135                     0                   18              18 3040718848
     3680 TmListen             344690                     6                    6               0   10211328
    10012 PccNTMon               7574                     6                    6               0    4706304
      496 services                  0                     0                    0               0   11198464
      744 svchost#3                 0                     0                    0               0   69857280
      568 svchost#2                 0                     0                    0               0   14368768
      792 svchost#1                 0                     0                    0               0   24203264
     2132 svchost                   0                     0                    0               0    5054464
     5888 Ssms#1                    0                     0                    0               0  190734336

I’m not entirely sure how I managed to not find out about Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfProc_Process before now. I think the ‘sort -k3n’ does a sort by CPU-usage, but I’m sure there’s a better way of doing it than that.

gwmi Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfProc_Process -ComputerName $ComputerName | 
  Sort-Object -Property PercentProcessorTime -desc | 
  select idprocess, name, IODataBytesPersec, PercentPrivilegedTime,PercentProcessorTime, PercentUserTime, workingset | 
  Select-Object -first 11 | 
  ft -AutoSize

gives:

idprocess name      IODataBytesPersec PercentPrivilegedTime PercentProcessorTime PercentUserTime workingset
--------- ----      ----------------- --------------------- -------------------- --------------- ----------
        0 _Total               849620                   100                  100              18 5667786752
        0 Idle                      0                   100                  100               0       4096
     5552 sqlservr             236135                     0                   18              18 3040718848
     3680 TmListen             344690                     6                    6               0   10211328
    10012 PccNTMon               7574                     6                    6               0    4706304
      496 services                  0                     0                    0               0   11198464
      744 svchost#3                 0                     0                    0               0   69857280
      568 svchost#2                 0                     0                    0               0   14368768
      792 svchost#1                 0                     0                    0               0   24203264
     2132 svchost                   0                     0                    0               0    5054464
     5888 Ssms#1                    0                     0                    0               0  190734336

I got the following error from a Powershell script I wrote to run SQLExress backups on a remote server.

The script runs on a Standard Edition server as a SQL Agent job. It creates and then runs a T-sql script on the remote server to backup all the databases to a folder on the remote server.

The error occurred when I migrated the job from a Windows 2003 server running SQL 2008 R2 to a Windows 2012 Server running SQL 2012

Message
A job step received an error at line 18 in a PowerShell script. 
The corresponding line is "invoke-sqlcmd -outputsqlerrors $True -ServerInstance $ServerInstance -QueryTimeout 3600 -InputFile d:\dbawork\admin\bin\sp_BackupDatabases.sql > $SqlOutputLog". 
Correct the script and reschedule the job. 
The error information returned by PowerShell is: "Cannot perform operation because operation "ReportWrongProviderType" is invalid. Remove operation "ReportWrongProviderType", or investigate why it is not valid.

The problem was that the Powershell didn’t like the log output being re-directed to a UNC path.

So I changed this:

$SqlOutputLog =  "\\server1\d$\sql_backup\remote_backups\log\" + $ServerInstance.replace("\", "_") + "_sql_output.log"
invoke-sqlcmd -outputsqlerrors $True -ServerInstance $ServerInstance -QueryTimeout 3600 -InputFile d:\dbawork\admin\bin\sp_BackupDatabases.sql > $SqlOutputLog

to this

$SqlOutputLog =  "d:\sql_backup\remote_backups\log\" + $ServerInstance.replace("\", "_") + "_sql_output.log"
invoke-sqlcmd -outputsqlerrors $True -ServerInstance $ServerInstance -QueryTimeout 3600 -InputFile d:\dbawork\admin\bin\sp_BackupDatabases.sql > $SqlOutputLog

i.e. I changed ‘\\server1\d$’ to ’d:'

I’m not sure what the root cause here was, to be honest. If time ever allows I’ll do some investigation.

This shows all the users with ‘dba’ in their username. Obviously you could leave out the filter clause altogether to get a complete list of AD users

Get-ADUser -Filter {samaccountname -like "*dba*"} -SearchBase "dc=mycomp,dc=co,dc=uk" |
    select samaccountname, name


samaccountname                                                      name   
--------------                                                      ----   
dba_john                                                            John Hollins
dba_terry                                                           Terry Dixon

You have to ActiveDirectory Powershell module loaded

• Go to your media library and switch to the ‘List View’

• Then under ‘Screen Options’ bump up the ‘Number of items per page’ to a big number

• Right click to ‘View Page Source, then save it somewhere on your computer

• Run the following in PowerShell

foreach ($line in select-string filename .\upload.php | Sort-Object -Property line ) {
    $line.line.split(">")[3].split("<")[0]
}

This gives you a list that looks like this:

• Go to your media library and switch to the ‘List View’

• Then under ‘Screen Options’ bump up the ‘Number of items per page’ to a big number

• Right click to ‘View Page Source, then save it somewhere on your computer

• Run the following in PowerShell

foreach ($line in select-string filename .\upload.php | Sort-Object -Property line ) {
    $line.line.split(">")[3].split("<")[0]
}

This gives you a list that looks like this:

I’ve started knocking up a function to return the last few lines of a sqlserver errorlog.

This is a little way from being finished….but I’ve already found it quite handy

function get-sqlerrorlog { 

  [CmdletBinding()]	
  Param( 
      [String] [alias("computer")] $ComputerName,
      [Int] [alias("lines")] $NumberOfLines = 5
  )

  write-verbose "Running function $([string]$MyInvocation.MyCommand.name)"
  
  Write-verbose "`$ErrorLogFolder: $ErrorLogFolder"

  $ErrorLogFolder = dir sqlserver:\sql\$ComputerName 

  # Todo: need to work out how it works more > 1 named instance. This just picks 1st
  [string]$ErrorLogFolder = $($ErrorLogFolder | select -first 1).errorlogpath
  Write-verbose "`$ErrorLogFolder: $ErrorLogFolder"

  $ErrorLogFolder = $ErrorLogFolder.replace(':', '$')
  Write-verbose "`$ErrorLogFolder: $ErrorLogFolder"

  $ErrorLogFolder = '\\' + $ComputerName + '\' + $ErrorLogFolder
  Write-verbose "`$ErrorLogFolder: $ErrorLogFolder"

  # Todo: it might be that the get-content could be speeded up by retrieving less lines
  # Todo: seperate this bit out into seperate function ?  
  get-content "$ErrorLogFolder\ERRORLOG" | select -last $NumberOfLines                                                                
 
}
set-alias gsel get-sqlerrorlog

This is fairly trivial…and I’ve no idea if ‘aliasee’ is a real word or not, but I found this quite useful today:

get-alias | select ResolvedCommand, name | sort -property resolvedcommand

On my laptop, this gives:

ResolvedCommand                Name
---------------                ----
Add-Content                    ac
Add-PSSnapin                   asnp
Clear-Content                  clc
Clear-History                  clhy
Clear-Host                     cls
Clear-Host                     clear
Clear-Item                     cli
Clear-ItemProperty             clp
Clear-Variable                 clv
Compare-Object                 diff
Compare-Object                 compare
Connect-PSSession              cnsn
Convert-Path                   cvpa
Copy-Item                      cp
Copy-Item                      copy
Copy-Item                      cpi
Copy-ItemProperty              cpp
Disable-PSBreakpoint           dbp
Disconnect-PSSession           dnsn
Enable-PSBreakpoint            ebp
Enter-PSSession                etsn
Exit-PSSession                 exsn
Export-Alias                   epal
Export-Csv                     epcsv
Export-PSSession               epsn
ForEach-Object                 foreach
ForEach-Object                 %
Format-Custom                  fc
Format-List                    fl
Format-Table                   ft
Format-Wide                    fw
Get-Alias                      gal
get-cal                        cal
Get-ChildItem                  dir
Get-ChildItem                  ls
Get-ChildItem                  gci
Get-Command                    gcm
Get-Content                    cat
Get-Content                    gc
Get-Content                    type
get-functions                  getf
Get-History                    history
Get-History                    ghy
Get-History                    h
Get-Item                       gi
Get-ItemProperty               gp
Get-Job                        gjb
Get-Location                   pwd
Get-Location                   gl
Get-Member                     gm
Get-Module                     gmo
get-os                         gos
Get-Process                    gps
Get-Process                    ps
Get-PSBreakpoint               gbp
Get-PSCallStack                gcs
Get-PSDrive                    gdr
Get-PSSession                  gsn
Get-PSSnapin                   gsnp
Get-Service                    gsv
Get-Unique                     gu
Get-Variable                   gv
Get-WmiObject                  gwmi
Group-Object                   group
help                           man
Import-Alias                   ipal
Import-Csv                     ipcsv
Import-Module                  ipmo
Import-PSSession               ipsn
Invoke-Command                 icm
Invoke-Expression              iex
Invoke-History                 r
Invoke-History                 ihy
Invoke-Item                    ii
Invoke-Locate.ps1              locate
Invoke-NullCoalescing          ??
Invoke-RestMethod              irm
Invoke-WebRequest              wget
Invoke-WebRequest              iwr
Invoke-WebRequest              curl
Invoke-WmiMethod               iwmi
Measure-Object                 measure
mkdir                          md
Move-Item                      move
Move-Item                      mv
Move-Item                      mi
Move-ItemProperty              mp
New-Alias                      nal
New-Item                       ni
New-Module                     nmo
New-PSDrive                    mount
New-PSDrive                    ndr
New-PSSession                  nsn
New-PSSessionConfigurationFile npssc
New-Variable                   nv
Out-GridView                   ogv
Out-Host                       oh
Out-Printer                    lp
Pop-Location                   popd
powershell_ise.exe             ise
Push-Location                  pushd
Receive-Job                    rcjb
Receive-PSSession              rcsn
Remove-Item                    rmdir
Remove-Item                    del
Remove-Item                    rd
Remove-Item                    rm
Remove-Item                    erase
Remove-Item                    ri
Remove-ItemProperty            rp
Remove-Job                     rjb
Remove-Module                  rmo
Remove-PSBreakpoint            rbp
Remove-PSDrive                 rdr
Remove-PSSession               rsn
Remove-PSSnapin                rsnp
Remove-Variable                rv
Remove-WmiObject               rwmi
Rename-Item                    rni
Rename-Item                    ren
Rename-ItemProperty            rnp
Resolve-Path                   rvpa
Resume-Job                     rujb
Select-Object                  select
Select-String                  sls
Set-Alias                      sal
Set-Content                    sc
set-debug                      db
Set-Item                       si
Set-ItemProperty               sp
Set-Location                   sl
Set-Location                   chdir
Set-Location                   cd
Set-PSBreakpoint               sbp
Set-Variable                   sv
Set-Variable                   set
Set-WmiInstance                swmi
Sort-Object                    sort
Start-Job                      sajb
Start-Process                  start
Start-Process                  saps
Start-Service                  sasv
Start-Sleep                    sleep
Stop-Job                       spjb
Stop-Process                   kill
Stop-Process                   spps
Stop-Service                   spsv
Suspend-Job                    sujb
Tee-Object                     tee
Trace-Command                  trcm
Update-LocateDB.ps1            updatedb
Wait-Job                       wjb
Where-Object                   where
Where-Object                   ?
Write-Output                   write
Write-Output                   echo

For reasons that aren’t necessarily relevant, I wanted to use Remote Desktop to visit a list of servers¹. I tried doing this:

foreach ($S in "server01", "server02, "server03") { 
    mstsc /f /V:$S
}

This works….but it immediately starts rdp sessions to each of the servers. This is fine in this example, where there are only 3 servers, but in real life I’ve got a list of twenty or so and I don’t really want to open 20-odd rdp sessions at once.

What I did instead to force it do the rdp’s sequentially was this:

foreach ($S in "server01", "server02, "server03") { 
    mstsc /f /V:$S
    $ThrowAway = read-host "Hit Return"
}

This was the Powershell code I used to create the all the podcasts I’ve ever tweeted about post.

I downloaded the tweets from Twitter itself - I think there was a link somewhere within ‘Settings’

The .csv file looks like this:

So the code is:

$PodTweets = Import-Csv c:temptweets.csv | ? text -like "*podcast*"

$TweetsAsHtml = foreach ($P in $PodTweets)
{
#   write-output $P.timestamp.Substring(0,10)

   # Splitting the tweet text into words to allow for the processing of urls
   $TweetTextAsArray = $P.text.split(" ")

   $TextWithLink=""

   foreach ($Word in $TweetTextAsArray)
   {
        if ($Word -like "http:*")
        {
            # if there is an expanded_url, then use that instead
            if ($P.expanded_urls -ne "")
            {
                $Word = $P.expanded_urls

                # for some reason the expanded url is sometimes repeated in the download
                if ($Word -like "*,*")
                {
                    $Word = $Word.split(",")[0]
                }
            }

            # re-format the URL as a link
            $Word = "`<a href=`"$Word`"`>$Word`<`/a`>"
        }
        $TextWithLink = "$TextWithLink$Word "


    }

    # create an object and output that
    $properties = @{'TweetDate'=$P.timestamp.Substring(0,10);
                    'TweetText'=$TextWithLink}

    $ReformattedTweets = New-Object -Type PSObject -Prop $properties

    write-output $ReformattedTweets

}

$TweetsAsHtml | fl | out-file -encoding ascii -FilePath x.txt -width 1000