AvoidUsingCmdletAliases.md

description	ms.date	ms.topic	title
Avoid Using Cmdlet Aliases or omitting the 'Get-' prefix.	06/28/2023	reference	AvoidUsingCmdletAliases

AvoidUsingCmdletAliases

Severity Level: Warning

Description

An alias is an alternate name or nickname for a cmdlet or for a command element, such as a function, script, file, or executable file. You can use the alias instead of the command name in any PowerShell commands.

There are also implicit aliases. When PowerShell cannot find the cmdlet name, it will try to append Get- to the command as a last resort. Therefore using the command verb will execute Get-Verb.

Every PowerShell author learns the actual command names, but different authors learn and use different aliases. Aliases can make code difficult to read, understand and impact availability.

Using the full command name makes it easier to maintain your scripts in the the future.

Using the full command names also allows for syntax highlighting in sites and applications like GitHub and Visual Studio Code.

How to Fix

Use the full cmdlet name and not an alias.

Alias Allowlist

To prevent PSScriptAnalyzer from flagging your preferred aliases, create an allowlist of the aliases in your settings file and point PSScriptAnalyzer to use the settings file. For example, to disable PSScriptAnalyzer from flagging cd, which is an alias of Set-Location, set the settings file content to the following.

# PSScriptAnalyzerSettings.psd1

@{
    'Rules' = @{
        'PSAvoidUsingCmdletAliases' = @{
            'allowlist' = @('cd')
        }
    }
}

Example

Wrong

gps | Where-Object {$_.WorkingSet -gt 20000000}

Correct

Get-Process | Where-Object {$_.WorkingSet -gt 20000000}