Automate complex tasks and processes with PowerShell scripts. This amazing book teaches you how to write, test, and organize high-quality, reusable scripts for Windows, Linux, and cloud-based systems.

Learn PowerShell Scripting in a Month of Lunches, Second Edition takes you beyond command-line PowerShell and opens up the amazing world of scripting and automation. In just 27 bite-sized lessons, you’ll learn to write scripts that can eliminate repetitive manual tasks, create custom reusable tools, and build effective pipelines and workflows.

In Learn PowerShell Scripting in a Month of Lunches, Second Edition you’ll learn:

Setting up a reliable scripting environment
Designing functions and scripts
Effective pipeline usage
Scripting and security
Dealing with errors and bugs
Source control with git
Sharing and publishing scripts
Professional-grade scripting practices


The PowerShell language lets you write scripts to control nearly every aspect of Windows. Just master a few straightforward scripting skills, and you'll save yourself from hours of tedious tasks. This revised second edition is fully updated to PowerShell’s latest version, including hands-on examples that perfectly demonstrate modern PowerShell’s cross-platform applications.

Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF and ePub formats from Manning Publications.

About the technology

You can write PowerShell scripts to automate nearly any admin task on Windows, Linux, and macOS. This book shows you how! In just 27 short lessons you can complete on your lunch break, you’ll learn to create, organize, test, and share scripts and tools that will save you hours of time in your daily work.

About the book

Learn PowerShell Scripting in a Month of Lunches, Second Edition is a hands-on introduction to PowerShell automation and toolbuilding. Updated for the latest version of PowerShell, this thoroughly revised bestseller teaches you how to write efficient scripts, find and squash bugs, and organize your tools into libraries. Along the way, you’ll even pick up tips for securing and managing Linux and macOS systems.

What's inside

Setting up a reliable scripting environment
Designing functions and scripts
Effective pipeline usage
Sharing and publishing scripts



About the reader

Beginning to intermediate knowledge of PowerShell required.

About the author

James Petty is CEO of PowerShell.org and The DevOps Collective and a Microsoft MVP. Don Jones and Jeffery Hicks are the authors of the first edition of Learn PowerShell Scripting in a Month of Lunches.

Table of Contents

PART 1
1 Before you begin
2 Setting up your scripting environment
3 WWPD: What would PowerShell do?
4 Review: Parameter binding and the PowerShell pipeline
5 Scripting language: A crash course
6 The many forms of scripting (and which to choose)
7 Scripts and security
PART 2
8 Always design first
9 Avoiding bugs: Start with a command
10 Building a basic function and script module
11 Getting started with advanced functions
12 Objects: The best kind of output
13 Using all the streams
14 Simple help: Making a comment
15 Errors and how to deal with them
16 Filling out a manifest
PART 3
17 Changing your brain when it comes to scripting
18 Professional-grade scripting
19 An introduction to source control with Git
20 Pestering your script
21 Signing your script
22 Publishing your script
PART 4
23 Squashing bugs
24 Enhancing script output presentation
25 Wrapping up the .NET Framework
26 Storing data—not in Excel!
27 Never the end