Looking for Some Best Practices for Managing Large PowerShell Scripts!

PowerShell Help
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Hi all,

I have recently started working on some complex PowerShell scripts for automating administrative tasks in my environment. As the scripts grow larger…, I am finding it challenging to maintain readability, troubleshoot issues and ensure scalability.

I wanted to ask the community here for advice on best practices for managing large PowerShell scripts effectively. Specifically:

Modularization :- How do you approach breaking scripts into reusable functions or modules: ?? Are there any naming conventions or organization tips you follow: ??
Error Handling :- What’s the best way to implement robust error handling, especially for scripts with multiple moving parts: ??
Documentation :- Do you use any particular tools or methods to document your scripts to make them easier for others to understand later: ??
Version Control :- How do you integrate version control systems like Git into your PowerShell workflow: ??
Testing :- Are there any frameworks or tools you recommend for testing PowerShell scripts: ??

I have also read this thread https://forums.powershell.org/t/what-should-be-in-all-scripts-best-practices-mendix but looking forward to hearing your thoughts and learning from your experiences !!

Thanks in advance,
Daniel Jose

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For modularization - Follow the DRY principle, but otherwise I don’t think there’s a defined approach other than group like functions together

Error Handling - should be pretty extensive (often there is more code dedicated to error handling than doing work)

Documentation - only document complex code sections ( don’t comment the obvious like #this is a for loop )

Version Control - this is really kind of up to the developer and if there are more than 1, not a bad idea to use

Testing - use pester

There is also the strongly encouraged Powershell best practices Strongly Encouraged Development Guidelines - PowerShell | Microsoft Learn

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Modularization :- I try to follow the principle that a function should only do one thing. This is how PowerShell commands are designed, so my functions follow that principle whenever possible. You probably also want to investigate turning the component functions into a PowerShell module. The hope would be that your core script would be simple and easy to understand, with all of the complexity in a collection of functions.

Error Handling :- Breaking your code into single purpose functions really helps with error handling. Each function would handle its own errors, so building out the module framework for error handling can be broken down into smaller pieces.

Documentation :- For functions, comment based help is my go-to. Copilot is of great help here.

Version Control :- We store all of our code in GitHub repos. This makes code management really easy, and allows opportunities for deployment automation. It’s not the only version control tool, but GitHub copilot makes this a great option.

Testing :- Definitely Pester.

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Not sure if this is really relevant, but part of my “error handling” posture is extensive logging to file via PowerShell Start-Transcript.

FWIW

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