Feature Request: pwsh -x flag

[krystian-wojtas]

Posix shell

Posix shells have very helpful -x cli flag. It could be also enabled inside script code with line 'set -x'. It shows commands as they are exactly executed

Example shell code

% cat hello.sh
#!/bin/sh

set -x

msg="world"
echo "hello $msg"

Output

% ./hello.sh
+ msg=world
+ echo hello world
hello world

If there is something unexpected in script, then I can easily copy interesting line to another terminal and run it.

Powershell

My best finding is 'Set-PSDebug -Trace 2' function.

Example powershell code

% cat hello.ps
#!/usr/bin/pwsh

Set-PSDebug -Trace 2;

$msg="world"
write-host "hello $msg"

Output

% ./hello.ps
DEBUG:    5+  >>>> $msg="world"

DEBUG:     ! SET $msg = 'world'.
DEBUG:    6+  >>>> write-host "hello $msg"

hello world

Powershell shows lines of source code. It does not evaluate variables values. I would like to see write-host "hello world" as extra debug message.

Question

Is it possible to see executed lines of script code in powershell? Could it evaluate variables values before printing debug message about executing command? How to do it?

[fMichaleczek]

@krystian-wojtas you should use Trace-Command

Trace-Command -Name * -Expression {$msg="world";write-host -Message "hello $msg"} -PSHost

[iSazonov]

It does not evaluate variables values.

I thing PowerShell engine has not this explicitly as strings. I guess it is possible to enhance the engine to construct such string but only in simple cases (arguments can be complex expressions!) and this will add huge complicity in code without benefits - we can see all we need in debug and trace output.

[krystian-wojtas]

@fMichaleczek Yes, probably it is exactly what I need. This function is also promising
Set-Tracesource

Great answer, thank you very much for it.

I couldn't find these functions by myself earlier. Then I wrote some small tool as a workaround
https://gitlab.com/krystian.wojtas/powershell-debug
It works fine for small project I take part into. Next time I will use your advices. Good to know that powershell have proper way for doing it.