Should have cmdlet to verify cmdlets in a given script

[SteveL-MSFT]

Summary of the new feature / enhancement

Maybe call it Resolve-Dependency which takes a path to a ps1 (or psm1), uses PowerShell to parse to AST extracting all the commands and seeing if they are actually available on the current system.

If it's a cmdlet and not on the system, discover which module via PowerShellGet to install for that cmdlet or if a native command, just give a warning message that it wasn't found on the system. For security, make it clear if the module is from an untrusted repository.

Proposed technical implementation details (optional)

No response

[aguzev]

Not every cmdlet mentioned in a script has a chance to be called on the current system. Simple scanning might give false positives when the ps1 contains multiple system-dependent implementations. Those cases remind conditional compilation in C* languages.

# … some code …

if ($IsWindows -and $aConditionEvaluatedInTheCodeAbove) {
   # … use Windows specific dependencies …
} elseif ($IsLinux) {
   # … use Linux specific dependencies …
}

[ThomasNieto]

Does this functionally actually need to exist? I say that because it seem this functionality is already covered when author creates the script/module and defines the dependencies in the PSScriptFileInfo comment block or RequiredModules key in the module manifest.

[anamnavi]

Solving for conditionals might not be in scope for this suggested script, but we'd like to get more feedback from the community.

[aguzev]

Sure, the scope should be under control. At the same time there is a good reason for Resolve-Dependency to keep a good distance from forcing users to install unnecessary dependencies.