Another Look at PowerShell Core Version Information

As PowerShell Core begins to spread into our world, and as we start thinking about working and scripting cross-platform, it will be useful to know what type of platform you are running on. The built in $PSVersionTable is an obvious place to start. On PowerShell Core there are also some new built-in variables you can use.

But these variables are not on Windows PowerShell. So I decided to add another tool to the mix – a simple function that will provide a snapshot look at version information, including what possible remoting options are available. This should be WinRM for Windows platforms and potentially SSH. The function isn't especially complicated.

Function Get-PSVersion {
<#
.Synopsis
Get a short view of PowerShell version information

.Description
Use this command to get a quick snapshot of PowerShell version information. The
Remoting property should indicate what remoting capabilities are potentially
available.

.Example
PS C:\> Get-PSVersion

Version      : 5.1.16299.98
Edition      : Desktop
Platform     : Windows
Remoting     : {WinRM}
Computername : Win10Desk

Running on a Windows 10 desktop.

.Example
PS C:\> Get-PSVersion


Version      : 6.0.1
Edition      : Core
Platform     : Win32NT
Remoting     : {WinRM, SSH}
Computername : SRV1

Running PowerShell Core on a Windows platform with SSH installed.

.Example
PS /mnt/c/scripts> get-psversion


Version      : 6.0.1
Edition      : Core
Platform     : Unix
Remoting     : {SSH}
Computername : Bovine320

PowerShell Core running in a Linux environment.

.Link
$PSVersionTable


#>
[cmdletbinding()]
Param()

$ver = $PSVersionTable.PSVersion
$edition = $PSVersionTable.PSEdition

if ($PSVersionTable.platform) {
    $platform = $PSVersionTable.platform
}
else {
    $platform = "Windows"
}

$remoting = @()
if (Test-Path 'WSMan:') {
    $remoting+="WinRM"
}
if (Get-Command ssh -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) {
    $remoting+="SSH"
}

#use the hostname command because non-windows systems won't have
#$env:computername.
[pscustomobject]@{
    Version = $ver
    Edition = $edition
    Platform = $platform
    Remoting = $Remoting
    Computername = $(hostname)
}

}

Here's what it looks like on a variety of platforms.

I might package this into my PSScriptTools module.

Have you started embracing this cross-platform world? What challenges have you encountered and how have your overcome them? I'd love to hear your stories.

---

---