PowerShell / PowerShell/PSScriptAnalyzer

Warn when partial enumeration values are used

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Issue - New Rule
Dominant language
C#
Stars
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Forks
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

Here's a little known feature that could come back to bite someone later with a broken script:

gsv blah -ea ig

I'm not sure in which version of PowerShell this was added, but you can now use partial enumeration values and as long as that partial value leads to an unambiguous match, it will be accepted.

This may result in errors in scripts that appear to be working correctly if a new emumeration value is added with the same leading characters as those that are in use within a script. It's the same issue/risk with using partial parameter names in scripts. Shorthand should be for ad-hoc use only, and PSScriptAnalyzer should have a rule that warns whenever an enumeration value is used in a script in shorthand (such as in the command above).

Contributor guide

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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

Use the example gsv blah -ea ig as the behavior to investigate, and locate the existing PSScriptAnalyzer rule and test structure for comparable warnings. Done means a script using an unambiguous partial enumeration value produces a warning, while full values remain accepted.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

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

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