Run a local function on a remote computer?

Question

I have a simple function on my computer

MYPC> $txt = "Testy McTesterson"
MYPC> function Do-Stuff($file) { 
  cd c:\temp; 
  $txt > $file; 
}

I would like to run it on a remote computer

MYPC> Invoke-Command -ComputerName OTHERPC { Do-Stuff "test.txt" }

Understandably, Do-Stuff does not exist on OTHERPC and this does not work. How could I get it to work though? The Do-Stuff function abstracts some basic code and is invoked in a few other places so I don't want to duplicate it.

Notice that in my example values are passed into the function both via a parameter and via scope closure. Is that possible?

dugas · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-12 20:23:22Z

9

I don't know how you use the closure value, but you can pass both as parameters like so:

$txt = "Testy McTesterson"
$file = "SomeFile.txt"
function Do-Stuff { param($txt,$file) cd c:\temp; $txt > $file }
Invoke-Command -ComputerName SomeComputer -ScriptBlock ${function:Do-Stuff} -ArgumentList $txt, $file

edited Apr 12, 2013 at 20:23

answered Apr 12, 2013 at 20:11

dugas

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2 Comments

Robin Over a year ago

This appears to work if the function is defined in the parent script scope. However, if your function is in a module loaded locally, it doesn't appear to work. So far I've not found a solution to running a function defined in a local module, remotely (without the module being present on the remote computer).

Robin Over a year ago

To clarify on my above comment I've found the following: If the function is defined in a local module and it's autoloaded by it's location being present in $PSModulePath, the function can't be passed to a remote computer. If the local module is explicitly loaded in the parent script however, the function can be passed to a remote computer.

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:02:16Z

5

Not sure if anyone still cares, but you can actually load your custom functions saved in a .ps1 file to the remote computer, via a PSSession. I tried it out and it works for me. Check out this guy's solution

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:02

CommunityBot

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answered Oct 1, 2015 at 6:47

Molasses

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2 Comments

abarisone Over a year ago

Links tend to change or go missing, could you explain some of the contents or quote it here?

Molasses Over a year ago

Hey, really really super sorry for the late reply. Work and life priorities. Anyway, you can try something like what I did Invoke-Command -Session $myPSSession -FilePath "C:\dir\customFunctionFile.ps1" As long as the PSSession is open, you should be good to use any functions you defined in that loaded file. Don't forget to remove your session when you're done and just as a side note, the loaded file does get unloaded when the session is removed. LMK if you need any further help but this should be more than enough...Aloha!

Ingemar · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-05 14:24:51Z

1

Even less risk that somebody actually cares :), but here's one way of doing it.

MYPC> $myPCscript = @'
$txt = "Testy McTesterson"
function Do-Stuff($file) { 
    cd c:\temp
    $txt > $file
}
'@
MYPC> Invoke-Command -ComputerName OTHERPC { Invoke-Expression $using:myPCscript; Do-Stuff "test.txt" }

answered Jan 5, 2018 at 14:24

Ingemar

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