UseCompatibleCmdlets

Severity Level: Warning

Default state: Always enabled

Description

This rule detects cmdlets that aren't available for the PowerShell edition, version, and operating system you target. The rule compares each cmdlet in your script against a compatibility allow list that ships with PSScriptAnalyzer. These files are in the following location: /path/to/PSScriptAnalyzerModule/Settings.

Each file uses this naming format:

<psedition>-<psversion>-<os>.json

Where:

• <psedition> is Core or Desktop
• <psversion> is the PowerShell version
• <os> is Windows, Linux, Linux-Arm, or MacOS

Configure rule

To check whether your script is compatible with PowerShell Core 6.1 on Windows, add this configuration:

@{
    'Rules' = @{
        'PSUseCompatibleCmdlets' = @{
            'compatibility'      = @('core-6.1.0-windows')
        }
    }
}

The compatibility parameter accepts a list of one or more target identifiers, such as:

• desktop-2.0-windows
• desktop-3.0-windows
• desktop-4.0-windows (taken from Windows Server 2012 R2)
• desktop-5.1.14393.206-windows
• core-6.1.0-windows (taken from Windows 10, version 1803)
• core-6.1.0-linux (taken from Ubuntu 18.04)
• core-6.1.0-linux-arm (taken from Raspbian)
• core-6.1.0-macos

Patched PowerShell versions usually have the same cmdlet data, so this rule mainly ships major and minor version profiles.

You can also create a custom profile with New-CommandDataFile.ps1. Place the generated JSON file in the Settings folder of the PSScriptAnalyzer module. Then you can reference that file by name under compatibility.

The core-6.0.2-* files were removed in PSScriptAnalyzer 1.18 because PowerShell 6.0 reached its end of life.

While the rule is configurable, the rule is always enabled. Use one of the following methods to avoid using this rule:

• Create a custom rule configuration file to include only the rules you want or exclude the rules you don't want.
• Add the appropriate rule suppression attributes to your code to suppress the rule for specific code blocks. For more information, see the Suppressing rules section of Using PSScriptAnalyzer.