Function Get-IniContent is not recognized – INI file support inPowerShell

Question

JeroenMostert has provided the crucial pointer in a comment:

PowerShell, as of v7.2.x, has no built-in cmdlets for processing INI files (*.ini), though introducing such cmdlets is being discussed in GitHub issue #9035.

Get-IniContent and Out-IniFile are advanced functions (cmdlet-like functions) that come with the third-party PSIni module, available from the PowerShell Gallery.

In PowerShell v5 or higher, which comes with the PowerShellGet module^[1], installation is as easy as:

Install-Module -Scope CurrentUser PsIni

^{If you omit -Scope CurrentUser, you’ll install the module for all users, but doing so requires running with administrative privileges.}

With $PSModuleAutoLoadingPreference at its default (unset), this module is then loaded automatically, on demand into a session that tries to call one of the module’s commands, such as Get-IniContent.

Here’s a complete, self-contained example that exercises the core functionality of the PsIni module:

installs the module on demand
creates a sample *.ini file from scratch with Out-IniFile, from a nested ordered hashtable.
reads the file from disk with Get-IniContent into a (new) nested ordered hashtable
modifies and removes entries
writes the modified hashtable back to the file with Out-IniFile

Note: The assumptions are that Install-Module is available, i.e., that the PowerShellGet module is installed, and that the running machine is online and permitted to download packages from https://www.powershellgallery.com/.

# Import the PsIni module.
# If necessary, install it first, for the current user.
$ErrorActionPreference="Stop" # Abort, if something unexpectedly goes wrong.
try {
  Import-Module PsIni
} catch {
  Install-Module -Scope CurrentUser PsIni
  Import-Module PsIni
}

# Create an ordered hashtable that is the in-memory representation of the
# sample *.ini file from the question, with a second section added.
$iniFileContent = [ordered] @{
  # 'XXX' is the section name.
  # The nested hashtable contains that section's entries.
  XXX = [ordered] @{  
    # IMPORTANT: 
    #  * The PsIni module only supports STRING values.
    #  * While you can assign values of different types in-memory, they are
    #    CONVERTED TO STRINGS with .ToString() and READ AS STRINGS later
    #    by Get-IniContent.
    #  * In v3+, PSIni now supports values in *.ini files that have 
    #    embedded quoting - e.g., `AB = "23"` as a raw line - which is
    #    (sensibly) *stripped* on reading the values.
    AB = '23'
    BC = '34'
  }
  # Create a 2nd section, named 'YYY', with entries 'yin' and 'yang'
  YYY = [ordered] @{
    yin = 'foo'
    yang = 'none'
  }
}

# Use Out-IniFile to create file 'file.ini' in the current dir.
# * Default encoding is UTF-8 (with BOM in Windows PowerShell, without BOM
#   in PowerShell Core)
# * Use -Encoding to override, but note that
#   Get-IniContent has no matching -Encoding parameter, so the encoding you use
#   must be detectable by PowerShell in the absence of explicit information.
# * CAVEAT: -Force is only needed if an existing file must be overwritten.
#           I'm using it here so you can run the sample code repeatedly without
#           failure, but in general you should only use it if you want to
#           blindly replace an existing file - such as after having modified
#           the in-memory representation of an *.ini file and wanting to
#           write the modifications back to disk - see below.
$iniFileContent | Out-IniFile -Force file.ini

# Read the file back into a (new) ordered hashtable 
$iniFileContent = Get-IniContent file.ini

# Modify the value of the [XXX] section's 'AB' entry.
$iniFileContent.XXX.AB = '12'

# Use the alternative *indexing syntax* (which is equivalent in most cases)
# to also modify the [YYY] section's 'yin' entry.
$iniFileContent['YYY']['yin'] = 'bar'

# Remove the 'yang' value from section [YYY]:
$iniFileContent.YYY.Remove('yang')

# Save the modified content back to the original file.
# Note that -Force is now *required* to signal the explicit intent to
# replace the existing file.
$iniFileContent | Out-IniFile -Force file.ini

# Double-check that modifying the values succeeded.
(Get-IniContent file.ini).XXX.AB # should output '12'
(Get-IniContent file.ini).YYY.yin # should output 'bar'

# Print the updated content of the INI file, which
# shows the updated values and the removal of 'yang' from [YYY].
"--- Contents of file.ini:"
Get-Content file.ini

Running the above should succeed and output the following, demonstrating that the *.ini file was successfully created, read back into memory, modified, and saved back to disk:

12
bar
--- Contents of file.ini:
[XXX]
AB=12
BC=34
[YYY]
yin=bar

^{[1] You can install PowerShellGet on demand for PowerShell versions 3 and 4 – see https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=51451}

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