Get-ScriptDirectory to the Rescue

re: Get-ScriptDirectory to the Rescue

jvierra — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 19:31:42 GMT

So being a team member doesn't make one know everything.

I put that in my startup script a long time ago. Never thought that it needed to be noted. Your blog made me realize that many things in PS are not clearly documented (It took me a bit of time to discover MyInvocation.Path.)

It just proves, once again, that everything is there. It just tazkes a bit of time and thought to uncover how to do it.

Hurray for PowerShell! Hooray for .NET!

Great stuff Jeffrey / PS Team.

re: Get-ScriptDirectory to the Rescue

aharden — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 20:51:14 GMT

Discussed in the newsgroup a few weeks ago: http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windows.powershell/browse_thread/thread/e57016f37273b1cb/6de1249b8b86936c#6de1249b8b86936c

re: Get-ScriptDirectory to the Rescue

PowerShellTeam — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 21:02:10 GMT

> Discussed in the newsgroup a few weeks ago:

Doh!!!!

Well I guess it proves this point:

... you can always just post a question to our newsgroup Microsoft.Public.Windows.PowerShell and the community will help.

Jeffrey Snover [MSFT]

Windows Management Partner Architect

Visit the Windows PowerShell Team blog at: http://blogs.msdn.com/PowerShell

Visit the Windows PowerShell ScriptCenter at: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/hubs/msh.mspx

re: Get-ScriptDirectory to the Rescue

Keith Hill — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 06:49:45 GMT

It is very nice to know the trick about using the -scope on get-variable. Thanks for pointing that out. What we tend to do in our scripts (and we use a number of dot sourced PowerShell libraries) is this:

$ScriptDir = split-path -parent $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path

. "$ScriptDir\TestUtils.ps1"

at the top of each script.

re: Get-ScriptDirectory to the Rescue

Philippe Ditroia — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 11:33:08 GMT

Another simple solution could be:

push-location myScriptPath

...

pop-location

re: Get-ScriptDirectory to the Rescue

Sneal — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 20:41:48 GMT

Thanks! That tip saved the day for me. I needed to run a powershell script from a UNC path which was loading an assembly from the same UNC path as the script. It worked flawlessly!

Re: sourcing a file in a script

Latest Newsgroup Posts — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 23:03:35 GMT

You need to "Dot source" the file. Basically, its ". <filename>". Check "Get-ScriptDirectory

re: Get-ScriptDirectory to the Rescue

Hristo Deshev — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 06:12:45 GMT

Going to the parent scope for the script-level $MyInvocation variable does not always work. I just had this situation:

function Test()

{

$inv = (Get-Variable MyInvocation -Scope 1).Value

$inv.MyCommand | Format-List *

}

function Test2()

{

Test

}

Test2

Where the parent scope is actually the Test2 function not the script scope. You can always get the script scope $MyInvocation variable by using the $script namespace prefix:

$scriptInvocation = $script:MyInvocation

This works when called from any function scope no matter how deeply nested.

I had the same problem as Hristo

Gordon Martin — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:50:01 GMT

Let me start by saying I really, really appreciate the information in this post - but I did run into the same problem as Hristo.

I think it was a disservice to make a function for this trick. A function suggests it can be referenced from numerous places, but clearly it will only work if called from the main script. Also, I don't see much point in calling this repeatedly - the answer doesn't change no matter how often you call it.

I think it makes much more sense to just put these two lines at the beginning of a script and leave the variable available for the duration of its execution:

$Invocation = (Get-Variable MyInvocation -Scope 0).Value

$ScriptPath = Split-Path $Invocation.MyCommand.Path

Then later on you just make reference to it like so:

$ReportPath = Join-Path $ScriptPath $ReportFile

Not only is this much simpler, it will also work reliably from anywhere within the program.