Last Updated on October 18, 2024 by Mathew Diekhake

PowerShell is a task automation and configuration management framework from Microsoft, consisting of a command-line shell and the associated scripting language. Initially a Windows component only, known as Windows PowerShell, it was made open-source and cross-platform on 18 August 2016 with the introduction of PowerShell Core. The former is built on the .NET Framework, the latter on .NET Core.

With 255 non-merge commits since v0.4.0, here are the major changes:

  • Paths given to cmdlets are now slash-agnostic (both / and \ work as directory separator)
  • Lack of cmdlet support for paths with literal \ is a known issue
  • .NET Core packages downgraded to build rc2-24027 (Nano’s build)
  • XDG Base Directory Specification is now respected and used by default
  • Linux and OS X profile path is now ~/.config/powershell/profile.ps1
  • Linux and OS X history save path is now ~/.local/share/powershell/PSReadLine/ConsoleHost_history.txt
  • Linux and OS X user module path is now ~/.local/share/powershell/Modules
  • The ~/.powershell folder is deprecated and should be deleted
  • Scripts can be called within PowerShell without the .ps1 extension
  • Trace-Command and associated source cmdlets are now available
  • Ctrl-C now breaks running cmdlets correctly
  • Source Depot changesets up to 715912 have been merged
  • Set-PSBreakPoint debugging works on Linux, but not on Windows
  • MSI and APPX packages for Windows are now available
  • Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts is available on Windows
  • Microsoft.PowerShell.Archive is available on Windows
  • Linux xUnit tests are running again
  • Many more Pester tests are running

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