PowerShell / PowerShell/PSScriptAnalyzer

Global variables are erroneously reported as "never used"

Open
#1,300 4 comments 3 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

Area - PSUseDeclaredVarsMoreThanAssignments
Dominant language
C#
Stars
2.2k
Forks
414
Avg merge
13h 1m
Merged PRs (30d)
2

Description

System Details Output

### VSCode version: 1.36.1 2213894ea0415ee8c85c5eea0d0ff81ecc191529 x64

### VSCode extensions:
bierner.lit-html@1.11.0
mikeburgh.xml-format@1.0.2
MS-CEINTL.vscode-language-pack-de@1.36.2
ms-vscode.powershell@2019.5.0
msjsdiag.debugger-for-chrome@4.11.6
slevesque.vscode-hexdump@1.7.2


### PSES version:

### PowerShell version:

Name                           Value
----                           -----
PSVersion                      5.1.16299.1146
PSEdition                      Desktop
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...}
BuildVersion                   10.0.16299.1146
CLRVersion                     4.0.30319.42000
WSManStackVersion              3.0
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1
Issue Description

PowerShell extension reports global variables as assigned but not used when they are not used from within a .psm1 module file. However, global variables may be used by scripts outside that module importing it.

Expected Behaviour

Global variables should never be reported as being unused.

Actual Behaviour

PowerShell extension reports global variables as assigned but not used when they are not used from within a .psm1 module file.

global variables error

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

No source files, tests, or entry points are named. Start by locating the analyzer logic that reports assigned-but-unused variables and the tests covering module or global-variable scope. Confirm the current behavior, then update the relevant test expectations so global variables are not reported as unused and run the affected analyzer tests.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
csharp, powershell
Domain
tooling
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.