Power up your PowerShell with customizations and handy custom commands

Gourav Goyal

Feb 12, 2022

Download the latest PowerShell if you haven't: https://github.com/powershell/powershell#get-powershell

Prerequisite

Any configuration or custom command needs to be written to the PowerShell Profile e.g. Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 in order to keep the changes persistant across PS sessions.

Run $profile in PowerSehll to get the location of Profile Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 (if it exists).

If the Profile doesn't exist then create an empty text file named Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 (note: file extension should be .ps1) at your PowerShell installation location e.g. C:\Program Files\PowerShell\.

Learn more about profiles.

Customize PowerShell

Autocomplete commands

Use up or down arrow keys to complete commands from history.

Paste below to Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 (see prerequisite to find location of this file)

Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Key UpArrow -Function HistorySearchBackward
Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Key DownArrow -Function HistorySearchForward

Display current Git repo status and more in prompt

We'll be using OhMyPosh to show various info in PowerShell prompt: https://ohmyposh.dev/.

Run this command from powershell to install ohmyposh module:

Install-Module oh-my-posh -Scope CurrentUser -AllowPrerelease

Install font that supports glyphs (icons) from https://www.nerdfonts.com/. I like Meslo LGM NF.
Set that font in powershell defaults settings:

Copy below to Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 set theme (same as screenshot):

Set-PoshPrompt -Theme aliens

You can choose other theme also. see preview by running Get-PoshThemes

Now open powershell at location containing git repo and you'll see the status.

Use ctrl+backspace to delete words in VSCode integrated terminal

When using PowerShell as an integrated terminal in VSCode, ctrl+backspace combo doesn't delete words. ctrl+backspace is somehow mapped to ctrl+w and we need to override this mapping.

Copy below to Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1:

if ($env:TERM_PROGRAM -eq "vscode") {
  Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Chord 'Ctrl+w' -Function BackwardKillWord
}

Custom PowerShell commands

Open PowerShell profile in Notepad

Paste below to Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1:

#OPEN PROFILE IN NOTEPAD
function open-powershell{
notepad $PSHOME\\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1
}

Now, you can run open-powershell command in PS to quickly open the profile in Notepad instead of first going to the location and then opening it in the text editor everytime.

Create a new file with touch command

Command: touch hey.js

function touch
{
    $file = $args[0]
    if($file -eq $null) {
        throw "No filename supplied"
    }

    if(Test-Path $file)
    {
        throw "file already exists"
    }
    else
    {
        # echo $null > $file
        New-Item -ItemType File -Name ($file)
    }
}

Git add, commit, push with a single command

Command: gitacp added this cool new feature (note: quotes are not required if there’s no special character in commit message)

function gitacp {
  param(
    [Parameter(ValueFromRemainingArguments = $true)]
    [String[]] $message
  )
  echo "> git add ."
  git add .

  echo "> git commit -a -m "$message""
  git commit -a -m "$message"

  echo "> git push"
  git push
}

Git amend to the latest commit

Forgot something you wanted to add to the last commit? Run gitaap to quickly add + amend + push to the latest commit.

function gitaap {

  echo "> git add ."
  git add .

  echo "> git commit --amend --no-edit"
  git commit --amend --no-edit

  echo "> git push --force"
  git push --force
}

Checkout Github PR with one command

It Requires Github CLI: https://cli.github.com/

Command: gitpr

If gitpr command is used without PR number then it’ll give the list of active PRs.

If command is used with PR number e.g. gitpr 12 then it’ll check out PR #12

function gitpr {
  param(
    [Parameter(ValueFromRemainingArguments = $true)]
    [String[]] $prNum
  )

  if($prNum){
  git fetch origin pull/"$prNum"/head && git checkout FETCH_HEAD
  git reset main
  git switch -
  echo "checked out PR: "$prNum""
  }else{
  gh pr list
  }
}

Change Git branch

Command: gitb master

function gitb {
  param(
    [Parameter(ValueFromRemainingArguments = $true)]
    [String[]] $branch
  )

  git checkout "$branch"

}

Git pull from a specific branch

Command: gitpull master

function gitpull {
  param(
    [Parameter(ValueFromRemainingArguments = $true)]
    [String[]] $branch
  )
  git pull origin "$branch"
}

Get latest commit url

Command: gitLatestCommitUrl

Output: [https://github.com/GorvGoyl/Personal-Site-Gourav.io/commit/3f43cf2de279ab59edd630d72456c477dcdf1898](https://github.com/GorvGoyl/Personal-Site-Gourav.io/commit/3f43cf2de279ab59edd630d72456c477dcdf1898)

function gitLatestCommitUrl {
    return "$($(git config --get remote.origin.url) -ireplace '\.git$', '')/commit/$(git rev-parse HEAD)"
}

Built-in PowerShell commands

Get path of PowerShell profile (Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1)

Command: $profile

Open current folder in File Explorer

Handy when working in VSCode and wants to open the present working directory in File Explorer.

Command: ii .

Run multiple commands in parallel

add single & to run parallel scripts. (and use ; to run sequentially)

Example: run 2 npm scripts in parallel: npm run hotReload & npm run dev

Check if a site is down

Command: curl -I gourav.io

Output:

HTTP/1.1 308 Permanent Redirect
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2021 20:29:43 GMT
Content-Type: text/plain
Connection: keep-alive
Location: <https://gourav.io/>
Refresh: 0;url=https://gourav.io/
server: Vercel
x-vercel-id: bom1::zfh9m-1618345783130-62d01e38e332

Command: Invoke-WebRequest <https://gourav.io>

Output:

StatusCode        : 200
StatusDescription : OK
Content           : <!DOCTYPE html><html lang="en-US"><head><script async=""
                    src="<https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-JF3BSQ1LL2>"></script><script>
                                window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
                           …
RawContent        : HTTP/1.1 200 OK
...
...

PowerShell Docs

That's all, folks!