PowerShell / PowerShell/PSScriptAnalyzer

Invoke-Formatter is not idempotent on `--%` verbatim arguments

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Dominant language
C#
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Description

Steps to reproduce

Run the formatter repeatedly on a native command that uses the stop-parsing token:

$formatted = $null
1..3 | ForEach-Object {
    $formatted = Invoke-Formatter ($formatted ?? 'cmd --% raw | text & stuff')
    $formatted
}

Expected behavior

Formatting already formatted output should be a no-op. Spacing adjacent to the verbatim argument should either be left untouched or normalized once to a stable result.

Actual behavior

One additional space is inserted before | on every run:

cmd --% raw  | text & stuff
cmd --% raw   | text & stuff
cmd --% raw    | text & stuff

The output grows without bound in a format-on-save loop.

The verbatim-argument token owns the text up to the pipe. PSUseConsistentWhitespace with CheckPipe sees a zero-width gap before | and inserts a space inside the verbatim argument's extent on each formatting pass.

Environment data

Reproduced with:

  • PSScriptAnalyzer 1.25.0 on PowerShell 7.5.2
  • PSScriptAnalyzer 1.25.0 on PowerShell 7.6.3
  • PSScriptAnalyzer built from main at PowerShell/PSScriptAnalyzer@4b0117ca7d2887711c9699f467ba7171f8859156 on PowerShell 7.6.4

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

Start by reproducing the repeated Invoke-Formatter example with a native command using the --% stop-parsing token. Inspect PSUseConsistentWhitespace's CheckPipe handling around the verbatim-argument extent; done means repeated formatting leaves spacing stable instead of inserting another space before |.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
powershell
Domain
tooling
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
55/100

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