Set aliases in PowerShell using doskey macros

Question

Is this possible? I have tried this blog, but it doesn't work. I have a macrofile with about 50 or so doskey macros, which is used in cmd.exe.

I run something like:

doskey /exename=powershell.exe /macrofile=C:\macrofile.txt

or

doskey /exename=powershell.exe blah=echo blah

But trying the command blah gives an error:

blah : The term 'blah' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.

If I list them with doskey /macros:powershell.exe however, they're all there.

Is there a way I can create 50 aliases in PowerShell to map to these macros? The Set-Alias cmdlet doesn't help much since the commands are more complex than calling a simple PowerShell cmdlet. There are posts that suggest creating functions in a .ps1 script, however, this would work only if I manually write 50 different functions for each of the 50 macros in the file. Also, this would involve maintaining two files - the macrofile for cmd and a PowerShell script which translates these into functions.

"But it doesn't work" - Can you be more specific? – Bill_Stewart Jan 19 '17 at 03:45 — Bill_Stewart, Jan 19 '17 at 03:45
Thanks, edited question to include details. – vi-ap Jan 19 '17 at 03:59 — vi-ap, Jan 19 '17 at 03:59
I believe this works if you don't use `PSReadLine` module. – Bill_Stewart Jan 19 '17 at 18:39 — Bill_Stewart, Jan 19 '17 at 18:39

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 20 '17 at 01:08

4

The PSReadLine module (ships with PowerShell 5.0 or later) is not compatible with doskey, which relies on the native console input functions. I tested on Windows 10/PowerShell 5:

PS C:\> Remove-Module PSReadLine
PS C:\> doskey /exename=powershell.exe g=Get-Location
PS C:\> g

Path
----
C:\

answered Jan 20 '17 at 01:08

Bill_Stewart

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Verified! Works, thanks! It seems that Powershell 3.0 might also have the 'PsReadLine' module. I tried (on Win10): 'powershell -version 2.0' and 'powershell -version 3.0' without removing this module and the doskey macro worked on 2.0 but not 3.0. – vi-ap Jan 20 '17 at 03:30
1

FWIW, it's worth considering ditching `doskey` and the native console input features for the `PSReadline` module. I think the extra gained functionality is worth the switch. – Bill_Stewart Feb 02 '17 at 04:55

Set aliases in PowerShell using doskey macros

1 Answers1