Debug PowerShell with and without VS Code

In this video I walk through how to debug PowerShell code using VS Code native features and the native PowerShell debugger.

00:00 Introduction
03:38 Sample project
06:00 Adding breakpoints
07:05 Using the debugger
08:40 Step into and over
13:55 Demo code walk through
16:30 Function breakpoints
22:10 Get-PSBreakpoint
24:40 Expression and hit count breakpoints
29:10 Call stack
30:03 Create breakpoint from powershell
31:00 Native PowerShell debugging
35:27 Mixing commands together
39:55 Summary and close

[Pcketfullfsunshine]

Thanks for this John. I've been using VSCode and PowerShell together for a while now but never bothered to explore the debugging options. Really useful and well explained as usual.

[edwinpaul]

Great video John. Thanks for explaining the debug concept so well. The Breakpoint Debug Expression/Hit Count was new to me. This definitely helps. Thanks again!!

[OurstPlanet]

Excellent, one of the best videos that I have ever seen.

[sirsquirrel]

Nice one John. Enjoyed the content. All the best.

[MallocArray]

Thanks for this. I knew there was a debugger in VS Code but I had problems with getting it to do what I expected when I first switched and never went back to it. Now I'll give it another shot.

[maxhax]

I predicted that this video was coming.

Excellent approach and examples, as always :)

[ZivRivkis]

Very easy and helpful demo. Thanks John!

[iamdedlok]

Good stuff John! I learnt a couple of new things today! I never really used the power of step over, step out before! Now watching you do it was like an 'aha!' moment. I feel so dumb not using it before!! Conditional breakpoints are very common in .NET, I super psyched to see PowerShell/vscode supporting this.

Thanks again John, I have shared this video with my friends :)

[psymonious]

That was great! So far I used it just from time to time, but I think this video just bumped up my confidence to prefer this method. It is way more efficient!

[jcgermain]

I'm a newbe... And after the video, I had the feeling to be an expert, I'm not :-) Great video, everything needed for a sound start. Congrat !

[mackarof]

i know 2 guys from usa and both of them are powershell coders and power-lifters or ironmans in spare time what a coincidence - or fact that all powershell guys doin power-trainings also ? its good that myth is falling and become untrue - to being coder is to be unhealthy zombie attached to monitor whole day :D Great stuff dude 'kalokagathians' still exists! :)greetings from slovakia and cheers to all power-people :)

[danamatt]

Well done. Nice and concise!

Although I would have to say; I wouldn't bet on scissors, the odds would be against me!!! In other words; you have another bug (not that the steps you provided would help much with this one. It needs more of a unit test approach). -Maximum doesn't do what one (me for sure) might assume:

1..1000 | % {Get-Random -Minimum 1 -Maximum 9} | group | select name, count

[gopeisho]

This came in very handy the other day in debugging a foreach loop that was giving a bad value every 7th user in the loop.

[kristurk]

Good Video John, Although I spent the first 20 minutes wondering when you were going to start inputting your choice i.e. playing against the code :P

[jackgleeson]

Do you think Microsoft might fully remove powershell from Windows 10 in future versions? In favour of ps 7 and vs code.