How to enable autocompletion while entering paths?

Question

Back in cmd.exe, I used

set /P file=Enter path to the file: 

to enter file path from console (if it wasn't supplied as a parameter), and I could press Tab to get path auto-completion. However, when I execute in Powershell

$file = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter path to the file"

then I cannot use Tab to get auto-completion, it just inserts a tabulation in the input. IS there a way to simulate the former behaviour?

Helbon

IMAO the only way is to write from scratch a custom Read-host cmdlet with path-tabcompletion feature. – Pinky

This might help: github.com/lzybkr/PSReadLine – Hypnoanalysis

Answer 1

I know, I know... not really an answer to your question directly, but still totally worth mentioning IMHO. Why ask the user to type out a path (and chance typos) when you can just pop up a Open File dialog box? Drop this function at the beginning of the script:

function Get-FileName($initialDirectory)
{   
    [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.windows.forms") |
    Out-Null

    $OpenFileDialog = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.OpenFileDialog
    $OpenFileDialog.initialDirectory = $initialDirectory
    $OpenFileDialog.filter = "All files (*.*)| *.*"
    $OpenFileDialog.ShowDialog() | Out-Null
    $OpenFileDialog.filename
}

Then when you need to get a file name and path you can just do $file = get-filename and be done with it. If you only want certain file types you can change the filter line to only allow the user to see certain kinds of files, or even a specific file name (i.e. you need them to locate 'computerlist.csv' on the hard drive or something, you can change the . in the filter to computerlist.csv).

Sedimentology

It's... well. Yes, it indeed solves my actual problem (providing full path to files manually) in all scenarios I use, so I accept it. However, if you try to execute a script remotely without GUI (i.e., not via mstsc.exe), it won't work. Probably. Maybe WinRM is more sophisticated than I think of it, but PsExec almost definitely won't work. – Helbon

I had almost the same problem, and this GUI solution has significant limitations, GUI is slow, and will be separated from cli operation mode,which is distressing. – Crossways

Answer 2

Based on the idea of JG in SD, the version of the selection folder is given here.

function Get-FolderPath($initialDirectory)
{   
    [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.windows.forms") > $null
    $FolderBrowserDialog = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.FolderBrowserDialog
    $FolderBrowserDialog.SelectedPath = $initialDirectory
    $FolderBrowserDialog.ShowDialog() > $null
    $FolderBrowserDialog.SelectedPath
}

Crossways

Answer 3

Here is an updated (PSVersion 5.1 and newer) version of JG in SD's post:

function Get-FileName {   
    
  param
  (
    $initialDirectory
  )
  
  $null = Add-Type -AssemblyName System.windows.forms

  $OpenFileDialog = New-Object -TypeName System.Windows.Forms.OpenFileDialog
  $OpenFileDialog.initialDirectory = $initialDirectory
  $OpenFileDialog.filter = 'All files (*.*)| *.*'
  $null = $OpenFileDialog.ShowDialog()
  $OpenFileDialog.filename
}

Hyman

Answer 4

I resolved this by using cmd.exe. I could not find a way to capture the output directly without powershell somehow disabling command completion, so I had to use Invoke-Expression and a temp file to pass back the result.

    Invoke-Expression 'cmd /v:on /c set /P file=Enter target path: `& if defined file echo !file! `> %TEMP%\temp.tmp'
    $TargetPath = $null
    If ( Test-Path -PathType Leaf "$ENV:TEMP\temp.tmp" ) { $TargetPath = (Get-Content "$ENV:TEMP\temp.tmp").Trim() 2>$null }
    Remove-Item "$ENV:TEMP\temp.tmp" 2>$null

Prevention