Powershell start-job -scriptblock cannot recognize the function defined in the same file?

Question

I have the following code.

function createZip
{
Param ([String]$source, [String]$zipfile)
Process { echo \"zip: $source`n     --> $zipfile\" }
}

try {
    St         


        

Answer 1

If you are still new to using start-job and receive-job, and want to debug your function more easily, try this form:

   $createZip = { 
   function createzipFunc {
     param ([String]$source, [String]$zipfile)
     Process { echo "zip: $source`n     --> $zipfile" }
     }
     #other funcs and constants here if wanted...
   }
   # some secret sauce, this defines the function(s) for us as locals
   invoke-expression $createzip

   #now test it out without any job plumbing to confuse you
   createzipFunc "abd" "acd"

   # once debugged, unfortunately this makes calling the function from the job  
   # slightly harder, but here goes...
   Start-Job -initializationScript $createZip -scriptblock {param($a,$b) `
createzipFunc $a $b } -ArgumentList "abc","def"

All not made simpler by the fact I did not define my function as a simple filter as you have, but which I did because I wanted to pass a number of functions into my Job in the end.

Sorry for digging this thread out, but it solved my problem too and so elegantly at that. And so I just had to add this little bit of sauce which I had written while debugging my powershell job.