Updated PowerShellV2 task changes Powershell behavior for users.

[MattGal]

Required Information

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Question, Bug, or Feature?
Type: Bug

Enter Task Name: PowerShell

Environment

Not applicable - Any Windows

Issue Description

This change broke our pipelines' usage of the PowerShell task, specifically by changing the scope of some variables.

From reading the arguments put forth by the change I expect we will not be able to convince you to put this back, but I'm putting this info here in case it's relevant to other users and to raise awareness.

Contents of entrypoint.ps1

param(
  [Parameter(Mandatory=$false)][string] $Variable1= "stuff",
  [Parameter(Mandatory=$false)][string] $Variable2 = "things",
  [Parameter(Mandatory=$false)][string] $Variable3 = "pizza"
)

. $PSScriptRoot\other-script.ps1

Write-Host "Hello from entrypoint Script! v1 = $Variable1, v2 = $Variable2, v3 = $Variable3"

MethodInOtherScript("trying this")

Contents of other-script.ps1:

function MethodInOtherScript([string]$arg)  { 
  Write-Output "Function called, with arg '$arg'"

  try {
    Write-Output "Not Global"
    Get-Variable Variable1
    Get-Variable Variable2
    Get-Variable Variable3
   
    Write-Output "Global"
    Get-Variable Variable1 -Scope Global
    Get-Variable Variable2 -Scope Global
    Get-Variable Variable3 -Scope Global
  }
  catch {
    Write-Host $_
    ExitWithExitCode 1
  }
}

powershell -NoProfile -NonInteractive -Command ". .\entrypoint.ps1"

Hello from entrypoint Script! v1 = stuff, v2 = things, v3 = pizza
Function called, with arg 'trying this'
Not Global

Name                           Value
----                           -----
Variable1                      stuff
Variable2                      things
Variable3                      pizza
Global
Variable1                      stuff
Variable2                      things
Variable3                      pizza

powershell -NoProfile -NonInteractive -Command "& .\entrypoint.ps1"
Hello from entrypoint Script! v1 = stuff, v2 = things, v3 = pizza
Function called, with arg 'trying this'
Not Global

Name                           Value
----                           -----
Variable1                      stuff
Variable2                      things
Variable3                      pizza
Global
Get-Variable : Cannot find a variable with the name 'Variable1'.
At D:\Git\mattgal-experimental\other-script.ps1:11 char:5
+     Get-Variable Variable1 -Scope Global
+     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (Variable1:String) [Get-Variable], ItemNotFoundException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : VariableNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetVariableCommand

Get-Variable : Cannot find a variable with the name 'Variable2'.
At D:\Git\mattgal-experimental\other-script.ps1:12 char:5
+     Get-Variable Variable2 -Scope Global
+     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (Variable2:String) [Get-Variable], ItemNotFoundException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : VariableNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetVariableCommand

Get-Variable : Cannot find a variable with the name 'Variable3'.
At D:\Git\mattgal-experimental\other-script.ps1:13 char:5
+     Get-Variable Variable3 -Scope Global
+     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (Variable3:String) [Get-Variable], ItemNotFoundException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : VariableNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetVariableCommand

[anatolybolshakov]

Hi @MattGal we are working on the fix for this issue currently, we will let you know once it's resolved to verify

[EzzhevNikita]

Hey @MattGal, we have reverted this change and delivered hotfix for this issue. Could you please check and confirm that it works as expected now?

[MattGal]

Hey @MattGal, we have reverted this change and delivered hotfix for this issue. Could you please check and confirm that it works as expected now?

Awesome, thank you! I didn't expect this outcome. For the parts of our infrastructure this broke which we noticed I think we've found a workaround but I'll keep an eye out for anything else unusual.

[MattGal]

@EzzhevNikita at least as of this morning, I am still seeing 2.179.0 get used and that it still contains this behavior.

[EzzhevNikita]

@MattGal Could you please share you organisation name? I'll check if the fix was applied for it

[MattGal]

Sure, it's https://devdiv.visualstudio.com/

[EzzhevNikita]

Hotfix was provided and @MattGal confirmed in Teams that updated task appeared in his org. So closing this.