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Manual Package Download

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The PowerShell Gallery supports downloading a package from the website directly, without using the PowerShellGet cmdlets. You can download any package as a NuGet package (.nupkg) file, which you can then copy to an internal repository.

Note

Manual package download is not intended as a replacement for the Install-Module cmdlet. Downloading the package doesn't install the module or script. Dependencies aren't included in the NuGet package downloaded. The following instructions are provided for reference purposes only.

Using manual download to acquire a package

Each page has a link for Manual Download, as shown here:

Package display page with install options

To download manually, click on Download the raw nupkg file. A copy of the package is copied to the download folder for your browser with the name <name>.<version>.nupkg.

A NuGet package is a ZIP archive with extra files containing information about the contents of the package. Some browsers, like Internet Explorer, automatically replace the .nupkg file extension with .zip. To expand the package, rename the .nupkg file to .zip, if needed, then extract the contents to a local folder.

A NuGet package file includes the following NuGet-specific elements that aren't part of the original packaged code:

  • A folder named _rels - contains a .rels file that lists the dependencies
  • A folder named package - contains the NuGet-specific data
  • A file named [Content_Types].xml - describes how extensions like PowerShellGet work with NuGet
  • A file named <name>.nuspec - contains the bulk of the metadata

Installing PowerShell modules from a NuGet package

Note

These instructions DO NOT give the same result as running Install-Module. These instructions fulfill the minimum requirements. They aren't intended to be a replacement for Install-Module. Some steps performed by Install-Module aren't included.

The easiest approach is to remove the NuGet-specific elements from the folder. Removing the elements leaves the PowerShell code created by the package author. For the list of NuGet-specific elements, see Using manual download to acquire a package.

The steps are as follows:

  1. Unblock the Internet-downloaded NuGet package (.nupkg) file, for example using Unblock-File -Path C:\Downloads\module.nupkg cmdlet.
  2. Extract the contents of the NuGet package to a local folder.
  3. Delete the NuGet-specific elements from the folder.
  4. Rename the folder. The default folder name is usually <name>.<version>. The version can include -prerelease if the module is tagged as a prerelease version. Rename the folder to just the module name. For example, azurerm.storage.5.0.4-preview becomes azurerm.storage.
  5. Copy the folder to one of the folders in the $env:PSModulePath value. $env:PSModulePath is a semicolon-delimited set of paths in which PowerShell should look for modules.

Important

The manual download doesn't include any dependencies required by the module. If the package has dependencies, they must be installed on the system for this module to work correctly. The PowerShell Gallery shows all dependencies required by the package.

Installing PowerShell scripts from a NuGet package

Note

These instructions DO NOT give the same result as running Install-Script. These instructions fulfill the minimum requirements. They aren't intended to be a replacement for Install-Script.

The easiest approach is to extract the NuGet package, then use the script directly.

The steps are as follows:

  1. Unblock the Internet-downloaded NuGet package (.nupkg) file, for example using Unblock-File -Path C:\Downloads\package.nupkg cmdlet.
  2. Extract the contents of the NuGet package.
  3. The .PS1 file in the folder can be used directly from this location.
  4. You may delete the NuGet-specific elements in the folder.

For the list of NuGet-specific elements, see Using manual download to acquire a package.

Important

The manual download doesn't include any dependencies required by the module. If the package has dependencies, they must be installed on the system for this module to work correctly. The PowerShell Gallery shows all dependencies required by the package.