Comment-Based Help Keywords
This topic lists and describes the keywords in comment-based help.
Keywords in Comment-Based Help
The following are valid comment-based Help keywords. They're listed in the order in which they typically appear in a Help topic along with their intended use. These keywords can appear in any order in the comment-based Help, and they're not case-sensitive.
Note that the .EXTERNALHELP
keyword takes precedence over all other comment-based help keywords.
When .EXTERNALHELP
is present, the Get-Help cmdlet doesn't display comment-based help, even
when it can't find a help file that matches the value of the keyword.
.SYNOPSIS
A brief description of the function or script. This keyword can be used only once in each topic.
.DESCRIPTION
A detailed description of the function or script. This keyword can be used only once in each topic.
.PARAMETER <Parameter-Name>
The description of a parameter. You can include a .PARAMETER
keyword for each parameter in the
function or script.
The .PARAMETER
keywords can appear in any order in the comment block, but the order in which the
parameters appear in the Param
statement or function declaration determines the order in which the
parameters appear in Help topic. To change the order of parameters in the Help topic, change the
order of the parameters in the Param
statement or function declaration.
You can also specify a parameter description by placing a comment in the Param
statement
immediately before the parameter variable name. If you use both a Param
statement comment and a
.PARAMETER
keyword, the description associated with the .PARAMETER
keyword is used, and the
Param
statement comment is ignored.
.EXAMPLE
A sample command that uses the function or script, optionally followed by sample output and a description. Repeat this keyword for each example.
.INPUTS
The Microsoft .NET Framework types of objects that can be piped to the function or script. You can also include a description of the input objects.
.OUTPUTS
The .NET Framework type of the objects that the cmdlet returns. You can also include a description of the returned objects.
.NOTES
Additional information about the function or script.
.LINK
The name of a related topic. Repeat this keyword for each related topic. This content appears in the Related Links section of the Help topic.
The .LINK
keyword content can also include a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) to an online
version of the same Help topic. The online version opens when you use the Online
parameter of
Get-Help
. The URI must begin with "http" or "https".
.COMPONENT
The name of the technology or feature that the function or script uses, or to which it's related.
The Component parameter of Get-Help
uses this value to filter the search results returned by
Get-Help
.
.ROLE
The name of the user role for the help topic. The Role parameter of Get-Help
uses this value
to filter the search results returned by Get-Help
.
.FUNCTIONALITY
The keywords that describe the intended use of the function. The Functionality parameter of
Get-Help
uses this value to filter the search results returned by Get-Help
.
.FORWARDHELPTARGETNAME <Command-Name>
Redirects to the Help topic for the specified command. You can redirect users to any Help topic, including Help topics for a function, script, cmdlet, or provider.
.FORWARDHELPCATEGORY <Category>
Specifies the Help category of the item in .FORWARDHELPTARGETNAME
. Use this keyword to avoid
conflicts when there are commands with the same name.
Valid values are:
- Alias
- Cmdlet
- HelpFile
- Function
- Provider
- General
- FAQ
- Glossary
- ScriptCommand
- ExternalScript
- Filter
- All
.REMOTEHELPRUNSPACE <PSSession-variable>
Specifies a session that contains the Help topic. Enter a variable that contains a PSSession. This
keyword is used by the Export-PSSession
cmdlet to find the Help topics for the exported commands.
.EXTERNALHELP <XML Help File>
Specifies the path and/or name of an XML-based Help file for the script or function.
The .EXTERNALHELP
keyword tells the Get-Help cmdlet to get help for the script or function
in an XML-based file. The .EXTERNALHELP
keyword is required when using an XML-based help file for
a script or function. Without it, Get-Help
will not find a help file for the function or script.
The .EXTERNALHELP
keyword takes precedence over all other comment-based help keywords. When
.EXTERNALHELP
is present, the Get-Help cmdlet doesn't display comment-based help, even when
it can't find a help file that matches the value of the keyword.
When the function is exported by a script module, the value of .EXTERNALHELP
should be a filename
without a path. Get-Help
looks for the file in a locale-specific subdirectory of the module
directory. There are no requirements for the filename, but a best practice is to use the following
filename format: <ScriptModule>.psm1-help.xml
.
When the function isn't associated with a module, include a path and filename in the value of the
.EXTERNALHELP
keyword. If the specified path to the XML file contains UI-culture-specific
subdirectories, Get-Help
searches the subdirectories recursively for an XML file with the name of
the script or function in accordance with the language fallback standards established for Windows,
just as it does for all XML-based Help topics.
For more information about the cmdlet Help XML-based Help file format, see Writing Windows PowerShell Cmdlet Help.