What are PowerShell cmdlets?

 

What are PowerShell cmdlets?

A PowerShell cmdlet is a command that manipulates a single feature. Cmdlets are named using a verb-noun convention, such as Get-Process or Format-Table. Cmdlet authors are encouraged to keep cmdlets simple and single-purpose.

The base PowerShell product ships with cmdlets that work with features such as sessions and background jobs. You can add modules to your PowerShell installation to get cmdlets that manipulate other features. For example, there are third-party modules to work with FTP, administer your operating system, access the file system, and so on.

The Get-Help cmdlet displays the help file for any cmdlet. For example, to get help on the Get-ChildItem cmdlet, enter the following statement in a Windows PowerShell session:

Code snippet

Get-Help -Name Get-ChildItem -Detailed

Cmdlet benefits

Cmdlets offer several benefits over traditional command-line tools:

• They are more concise and easier to remember.
• They are more consistent in their naming conventions.
• They can be chained together to create complex commands.
• They can be used in scripts and functions.
• They are well-documented.

If you're new to PowerShell, I encourage you to learn about cmdlets. They are a powerful tool that can help you automate tasks and manage your Azure resources.