Install Required Modules for PowerShell Development Projects

This repository is for the Install-RequiredModule script you can find on the PowerShell Gallery. It was meant as a tool for developers, so you can put a RequiredModules.psd1 file in a repository and in just two steps, install all of the modules you need, whether interactively on a dev box, or in a CI build script:

Install-Script Install-RequiredModule
Install-RequiredModule

The Install-RequiredModule command parses a hashtable from a file (named RequiredModules.psd1 by default, but you can pass a path to any file name) or on the command-line. The format of the RequiredModules hashtable specifies the module name and version, using NuGet's version range syntax. It also supports specifying the repository (either the URL or the registered name). Some examples:

@{
    "PowerShellGet"    = "1.0.0"
    "Configuration"    = "[1.0.0,2.0)"
    "ModuleBuilder"    = @{
        Version = "2.*"
        Repository = "https://www.powershellgallery.com/api/v2"
    }
}

NOTE: We're using NuGet's syntax for version ranges because the PowerShell Gallery uses NuGet, and PowerShellGet wraps it. Their versions use square braces to mean matches including the number, and round parenthesis to exclude it. There's support for wildcards and ranges, etc. See NuGet's documentation for more details.

Latest Changes

This version allows installing from any trusted repository! In this version, we no longer only (and automatically) use PSGallery. Instead, you must ensure that there is a repository registered and trusted, and we'll use whatever repostories you have trusted.

For instance, you could ensure the default PSGallery is registered, and trust it:

Register-PSRepository -Default -ErrorAction Ignore -InstallationPolicy Trusted
Get-PSRepository -Name PSGallery | Set-PSRepository -InstallationPolicy Trusted

By default, we only install from trusted repositories, but there is a new TrustRegisteredRepositories switch which ensures all of the repositories that are registered are treated as trusted for the purposes of installing the required modules.

There is a new syntax for the RequiredModules hashtables to support specifying a specific repository for each module.

Remember, Install-RequiredModule does not explicitly require PowerShellGet. PowerShell 5+ automatically include a version of it, and we assume that you're using it to install this script. If you need a higher version (which you very well may) you should put it in your RequiredModules manifest.

Missing Functionality

• We need to handle PowerShellGet (and PackageManagement) specially. If they are in the list, install them first AND import them. This would allow clean environments to install pre-release modules.
• We should read the hashtable in RequiredModules.psd1 in order. The Configuration module can do this, but obviously it would be problematic for Install-RequiredModule to have a module dependency...

Contributing

This project is MIT licensed and I'm happy to accept PRs, feature requests or bug reports.

If you're interested in helping, please realize that all of the scripts in source/private define a filter, not a function. The difference is simple: the default body of a filter defines the process block, rather than the end block -- so all of these are pipeline-enabled by default.