Foreach-Object -Parallel examples of how to report progress

[scott1138]

It would be great if we could get more examples of some complex scenarios using the -Parallel parameter. Recently I wanted to use Write-Progress, but as I had assumed, it doesn't work across runspaces. I resorted to using the concurrent bag collection to add objects at the start of the runspace and then get the count of items and then over-write the same line with "x of n completed" sort of thing. If there is a better way to do this I would love to see some examples.

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• ID: da56c3ce-409c-dd44-888b-6a875e93d4a4
• Version Independent ID: 7ba53b91-ed64-cc24-0cf0-a5dc3f3dc9d0
• Content: ForEach-Object (Microsoft.PowerShell.Core)
• Content Source: reference/7.1/Microsoft.PowerShell.Core/ForEach-Object.md
• Product: powershell
• GitHub Login: @SteveL-MSFT
• Microsoft Alias: slee

[sdwheeler]

@PaulHigin Any ideas here?

[WithHolm]

I have tested a solution using synced hashtable.
The thing with synced hashtable is that its persistent over several runspaces or threads, so a value you set in the runspace can be read by the parent session using this object.

Combine that with the -asjob parameter, you get to start the processing and then read the progress output from the synced hashtable.

this required you to define a [int]$ID for each object in the |foreach, so the correct progess is written to.

https://gist.github.com/WithHolm/74b833a328c8881c51081b84a356bfc3

let me know if this could help you :)

[scott1138]

@WithHolm That's a really interesting idea! I hadn't thought to start the process as a job and then watch it using the threadsafe variable. Thanks for the help!

[chasewilson]

@PaulHigin this looks like a pretty viable solution. What are your thoughts and are there any more options you would like to see?

[chasewilson]

@WithHolm , Your example is a great resource and we have a new article in which we'd love to use your example. You can review the PR here and as long as you are ok with it, we will go ahead and publish it.

[WithHolm]

I'm glad to hear it benefits the community! You may use it