PowerShell Basics

PowerShell Basics#

While PowerShell is the default shell for the current Windows versions, you can also install it on Linux.

Basic Features#

  • $env:[Variable] references an environment variable.

  • $env:HOME is the user’s home directory.

  • Use ~ in a path to reference the user`s home directory (just as in Linux).

Useful Commands#

  • ls lists the current directory contents

  • (get-command python).Path gets you the path of the executable referenced by the command python.

User Profile#

The variable $PROFILE contains the path to the current user’s powershell profile file. You can define functions in this file, which are available as commands at the powershell prompt.

For example, if you paste the following script into the file referenced by $PROFILE.CurrentUserAllHosts, you can activate the anaconda base configuration from any powershell with the command conda-act.

function conda-act {
    Write-Output "Activating default Anaconda environment..."
    $condahook = "~\\Anaconda3\\shell\\condabin\\conda-hook.ps1"

    if (!(Test-Path $condahook)) {
        $condahook = "$env:PROGRAMFILES\\Anaconda3\\shell\\condabin\\conda-hook.ps1"
        if (!(Test-Path $condahook)) {
            Write-Output "ERROR: Conda hook script could not be found"
            $condahook = ""
        }
    }

    if ($condahook.length -gt 0) {
        invoke-expression -Command "& '$condahook'"
        conda activate
    } else {
        Write-Output "ERROR: Anaconda environment not activated."
    }
}
Contents