PowerShell functions, scripts and aliases

Monday 28/11/2011 – 8:00 PM    

 

While I have been using PowerShell for years now, I have only used it as a literal replacement for the command prompt without benefiting from the additional functionality that PowerShell brings. However, in the past year or so, I have been come to see the light and have been using PowerShell for doing things that are either difficult or impossible to do in the command prompt.

 

Here's a list of functions, scripts and aliases that I use on frequent or semi-frequent basis. I am very interested in knowing if they can benefit someone else. I also welcome suggestions on improving and expanding them.

 

S#	Item	Type	Commands	Description	Examples
1	mf	Function	function mf($path) { ni –type file $path }	Make a file	mf d:\a.txt
2	uptime	Function	function uptime() { [string]::Format( "{0:0} Hours", [System.Environment]::TickCount/3600000) }	Get number of hours since machine was last restarted	uptime
3	fs	Function	function fs() {     $disks = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName "." -Class Win32_LogicalDisk          foreach ($disk in $disks)     {         if ($disk.DriveType -eq 3)         {             [string]::Format("Drive Letter: {0:N0}", $disk.DeviceID)             [string]::Format("Volume Name: {0:N0}", $disk.VolumeName)             [string]::Format("Total Size: {0:N0} MB", $disk.Size/(1024*1024))             [string]::Format("Free Space: {0:N0} MB", $disk.FreeSpace/(1024*1024))             echo ""         }     } }	Display the Drive Letter, Volume Name, Total Size and Free Space of all hard drive partitions	fs

Working with Mercurial and CodePlex

Thursday 24/11/2011 – 3:49 PM

There is an MSDN article on using TortoiseHg with CodePlex but it doesn't say anything about working with Hg via command line.

Saving Custom Aliases in Notepad++ using NppExec

NPPExec has a rather convulated way of doing this. Here's what you need to do:

1. Start by creating a text file for the commands. I named mine 'NppStartScript.txt' and saved it in the 'scripts' folder. Here's what the folder structure should look like:$(NPP_DIRECTORY)\scripts\NppStartScript.txt where $(NPP_DIRECTORY) represents your Notepad++ application folder.
2. Locate the 'NppExec.ini' file. It should be in the '$(NPP_DIRECTORY)\plugins\config' folder. Open the file, add the following configuration setting at the bottom of the file (separated from the rest of the settings with a line break) and save the file:
   [Options]
   ScriptNppStart=$(NPP_DIRECTORY)\scripts\NppStartScript.txt
3. Create the 'NppStartScript.txt', type your command(s) and save the file. In your case it would be:npe_cmdalias alias = Full command
4. "Full command" should be a npp_exec directive to a file which will contain the commands that you want to execute repeatedly. Here's what my run python command looks like: npe_cmdalias rpy = npp_exec "$(NPP_DIRECTORY)\scripts\rpy.txt"
5. The "rpy.txt" contains the command to invoke the python interpreter on the file that is open in the current Notepad++ tab. Here's what I have written: D:\Portable Apps\Python\python.exe "$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)"
6. Restart Notepad++, open the NPPExec console and type your alias. It should run the command that you specified