Cmdlet
A cmdlet is a specialized PowerShell command, typically implemented as a .NET class, that performs a focused operation.
Learn PowerShell in a Month of Lunches: Fourth Edition, Covers Windows, Linux, and macOS
A cmdlet is a specialized PowerShell command that performs a focused operation and is typically implemented as a .NET class.
- How it is used
- Uses cmdlets as focused PowerShell utilities for interactive administration and later automation.
- How deep it goes
- Explains definitions, categories, naming, parameters, and discovery, but stops short of implementation details.
- Examples
- Demonstrates Get-Command, Get-Process, Start-Job, Set-AzVM, and wildcard help searches.
- What you can do after
- Apply standard naming patterns and wildcard help searches to find, identify, and begin using unfamiliar cmdlets.
Learn PowerShell Scripting in a Month of Lunches, Second Edition: Write and organize scripts and tools
A cmdlet is a specialized PowerShell command implemented as a .NET class for performing a focused operation.
- How it is used
- Uses focused commands as reusable building blocks for pipelines and larger automation processes.
- How deep it goes
- Explains cmdlets as .NET-backed wrappers and emphasizes single-task design, but does not detail class implementation steps.
- Examples
- Uses Get-Process, Stop-Process, logical-disk reporting, and decomposed user provisioning as concrete examples.
- What you can do after
- Apply cmdlets as focused, composable tools and separate individual tasks from controller-level processes.
Related concepts
- verb-noun naming formatconfigured by · A verb-noun naming format is a command-naming convention that combines an approved action verb with a descriptive singular noun.
- Objectproduces · java.lang.Object is the root class of Java’s reference-type hierarchy and defines methods inherited by Java reference types.
- Start-Processincludes · Start-Process is a PowerShell cmdlet that starts a process and can optionally wait for it to finish.
- command-line toolkind of · A command-line tool is a software program operated through textual commands, options, or arguments in a command-line interface.
- Write-Hostincludes · Write-Host is a PowerShell cmdlet that writes content directly to the host interface and information stream.
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