UseCompatibleCmdlets

Severity Level: Warning

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

Example

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.