{"id":86618,"date":"2020-03-03T15:44:59","date_gmt":"2020-03-03T15:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/?p=86618"},"modified":"2021-04-29T15:25:06","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T15:25:06","slug":"how-to-create-an-ubuntu-powershell-development-environment-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/databases\/sql-server\/database-administration-sql-server\/how-to-create-an-ubuntu-powershell-development-environment-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Create an Ubuntu PowerShell Development Environment \u2013 Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

The series so far:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. How to Create an Ubuntu PowerShell Development Environment \u2013 Part 1<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. How to Create an Ubuntu PowerShell Development Environment \u2013 Part 2<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. How to Create an Ubuntu PowerShell Development Environment \u2013 Part 3<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

    Part 1 of this series covered the need for creating a Linux development environment for testing and learning. It demonstrated how to install VirtualBox and generate an Ubuntu 19.10 virtual machine.<\/p>\n

    In this article, you\u2019ll finish setting up your development environment by installing PowerShell, Visual Studio Code, and other tools into the Ubuntu VM.<\/p>\n

    This will create a foundation for a future article, in which you\u2019ll see how to install Docker, then SQL Server into your VM. You\u2019ll then see how to use PowerShell to work with SQL Server as it runs in the Docker container.<\/p>\n

    Installing PowerShell<\/h2>\n

    Now you\u2019re finally ready to install PowerShell. There are two methods for doing the install. The first is via the Ubuntu Software store. In Ubuntu, click on the big orange briefcase icon in the left-side toolbar. This will launch the Ubuntu Software store. At the top, next to the Updates button, is the search icon; it looks like a magnifying glass. Click in and enter the word PowerShell<\/em>. You\u2019ll come up with a couple of hits.<\/p>\n

    The first item, powershell<\/em>, will install the most current version of PowerShell, 6.2.3 as of this writing. The powershell-preview<\/em> item will install the next version of PowerShell, the version still in beta. As of this writing, that will be 7.0.0. There may be other items listed, but they aren\u2019t relevant to this exercise.<\/p>\n

    Using the software store via the GUI may seem easy, but PowerShell lovers are supposed to be command-line geeks! So, close the software store and return to the terminal. Once there enter the following command.<\/p>\n

    sudo snap install powershell --classic<\/pre>\n
    The basics of the snap command are straight forward. You will want to install<\/code> a snap<\/code>, and the name of the snap is powershell<\/code>. The last part of the command, --classic<\/code>, is quite important. Most snaps install with restrictions that prevent them from diving into system data or execute system-level tasks. PowerShell, however, is meant to do exactly those things. By adding --classic<\/code> to the end of the snap command, you are permitting PowerShell to have access to system-level data and commands.<\/p>\n
    <\/p>\n
    Now that it is installed, you can launch PowerShell in one of two ways. First, you can go to the Ubuntu start menu, find the PowerShell icon, and launch it.<\/p>\n
    Alternatively, from in the terminal window, you can enter pwsh<\/code> and launch the PowerShell command line.<\/p>\n
    <\/p>\n
    From here, you can enter the majority of PowerShell commands you\u2019ve come to know and love. For example, enter Get-ChildItem<\/code> to get a list of the files in the directory.<\/p>\n
    <\/p>\n
    PowerShell also has its built-in $PSVersionTable<\/code> variable. Simply enter $PSVersionTable<\/code> on the command line and press enter to return the version number and other info for your current PowerShell session.<\/p>\n
    <\/p>\n
    I would assume you are following along setting up PowerShell on an Ubuntu based distro that supports snaps. However, if you want more info and download links you can go here<\/a>. This takes you to the most current production version of PowerShell as of this writing, version 6.<\/p>\n
    PowerShell Core on Linux vs PowerShell Core on Windows<\/h2>\n
    I want to take a moment to divert from the instructions to mention a subtle but important difference in running PowerShell Core on Linux versus on Windows. In the Windows install of PowerShell Core, many native Linux commands are aliased.<\/p>\n
    Say you\u2019ve installed PowerShell Core on Windows. You can open a CMD (command) window and launch PowerShell Core by entering pwsh<\/code>, just like you did on Linux. Once open, if you enter the command ls<\/code>, you get the same information as if you\u2019d entered Get-ChildItem<\/code>.<\/p>\n
    <\/p>\n
    This is because the Windows version uses the alias abilities of PowerShell to remap most Linux commands to PowerShell cmdlets. You can see this for yourself using the Get-Alias cmdlet.<\/p>\n
    Get-Alias -Definition Get-ChildItem<\/pre>\n
    <\/p>\n
    In this output, you see three different commands all map to the Get-ChildItem<\/code> cmdlet, including the ls<\/code> command.<\/p>\n
    Return to the terminal in the Ubuntu virtual machine. If you enter the command ls, instead of the output of Get-ChildItem<\/code>, you get the standard output from ls you would expect in Linux, not the output from Get-ChildItem. Indeed, if you run the same Get-Alias -Definition Get-ChildItem<\/code> cmdlet, you\u2019ll see it is missing the mapping from ls that Windows has.<\/p>\n
    <\/p>\n
    It’s important to understand and remember when you enter Linux native commands in PowerShell Core running on Windows; they are remapped to PowerShell Core cmdlets. However, when running native Linux commands in PowerShell Core on Linux, the commands are passed through to the operating system.<\/p>\n
    Installing VSCode<\/h2>\n
    You now have the ability to run PowerShell. Next you want to have a good editor for developing and debugging your PowerShell scripts. While you could use even a simple editor like the previously installed VIM, the editor of choice is VSCode, also referred to as Visual Studio Code. While VSCode is available in the Ubuntu Software store, it is even easier to install via a snap.<\/p>\n
    sudo snap install --classic code<\/pre>\n
    Note, you may find older articles on the web stating you should install using vscode<\/em>, not code<\/em>. In the beginning days of VSCode, the snap was done and maintained by people in the community. At some point, Microsoft took over maintenance of the snap, and when they did, renamed it to just code<\/em> to distinguish it from the older community-based snap.<\/p>\n
    <\/p>\n
    Here you can see you\u2019ve successfully installed VSCode. You can launch it by either going to the Ubuntu start menu and launching it or simply entering code<\/code> on the command line.<\/p>\n
    As long as VSCode is open, configure it with a few extensions you\u2019ll need. VSCode gets its flexibility by using extensions<\/em>. Extensions provide a variety of useful features. Most notably the ability to use various languages, including syntax highlighting, compilation, and more. Other extensions extend the capabilities of VSCode by adding new components, such as toolbars, to VSCode.<\/p>\n
    Over on the left, the lower most icon will open the extensions pane (pointed to by the big arrow), click on it to open the extensions pane.<\/p>\n
    <\/p>\n
    In the search pane at the top of the extensions enter powershell<\/em>. When you do a list of PowerShell related extensions. The very top one is the one you need to provide syntax highlighting as well as adding a PowerShell terminal to VSCode. Click on the entry, and to the right, the details for the extension are shown. Just click on the green Install<\/em> button to install the PowerShell extension. Note that you will need to have PowerShell installed already for the extension to work.<\/p>\n
    After installation, you\u2019ll note the color scheme of VSCode has been updated.<\/p>\n
    <\/p>\n
    The PowerShell extension updates the colors of VSCode to look like the original PowerShell ISE from Windows. If you only use PowerShell and like the original color scheme, then you can leave it alone. I prefer the dark scheme, so if you do as well click on the Dark+ (default dark)<\/em> option to return to the original color scheme.<\/p>\n
    There are a few more extensions you\u2019ll want if you\u2019ll be working with tools like SQL Server (which the next article covers), or bash scripts. In addition, many projects are including documentation right within their VSCode projects using markdown<\/em>. Markdown provides a simple syntax for formatting your documents. It\u2019s much simpler than using HTML but being entirely text-based is not quite as simple as Microsoft Word.<\/p>\n
    Return to the extension search box, then search for and install the following extensions:<\/p>\n