Get-Help cannot open if there are duplicates #11205

watkins656 · 2019-11-27T19:49:12Z

Steps to reproduce

Clone any help file - example: about_Scheduled_Jobs
Type command: Get-Help about_Scheduled_Jobs
There is no way to open the help, even attempting with -ShowWindow

Expected behavior

There should be a way to open the help file, even with duplicates.

Actual behavior

Nothing can be opened

Environment data

Name Value

PSVersion 5.1.17134.858
PSEdition Desktop
PSCompatibleVersions {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...}
BuildVersion 10.0.17134.858
CLRVersion 4.0.30319.42000
WSManStackVersion 3.0
PSRemotingProtocolVersion 2.3
SerializationVersion 1.1.0.1

The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered:

vexx32 · 2019-11-27T21:36:22Z

@watkins656 can you reproduce this issue in the latest stable or preview versions of PowerShell? 5.1 is a legacy version and is not being actively maintained. 🙂

alexandair · 2019-11-27T23:19:11Z

Yes, it could be reproduced in the latest preview:

PowerShell 7.0.0-preview.6
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

PS C:\Users\aleksandar> help about_psreadline

Name                              Category  Module                    Synopsis
----                              --------  ------                    --------
about_PSReadLine                  HelpFile
about_psreadline                  HelpFile

PS C:\Users\aleksandar>

rkeithhill · 2019-11-28T00:21:16Z

This bug just won't go away. WTH? You can workaround the bug like so:

get-help about_psreadline | select -f 1 | % ToString | more

But seriously, this bug needs to be fixed.

vexx32 · 2019-11-28T03:37:40Z

/cc @SteveL-MSFT

The behaviour arises because Get-Help acts as a search when it finds two help files by the same name. I would think that the behaviour should be:

If the name provided matches multiple entries, and the names of the returned entries are identical, then
The most up to date (by version I suppose) entry should be automatically selected. Otherwise,
Return to current behaviour (allow multiple entries to be displayed when there is more than one match).

Additionally, we should probably expose the version of the module that this help is coming from so as to provide a way to distinguish the files, and provide a way for Get-Help to target a specific version should it be required.

iSazonov · 2019-11-28T11:30:58Z

It seems we already have such issue.

mklement0 · 2019-11-29T20:15:03Z

Good points, @vexx32; with side-by-side module installations, a way to target a specific version is definitely called for.

@iSazonov: Yes, the issue at hand was originally reported in #9215, but since there's more information here now, can you please close #9215 as a duplicate?
There's also a bit more background in this Stack Overflow answer.

Worth noting that the problem only affects conceptual help topics (about_*, more generally, presumably all HelpFile category files, *.help.txtfiles).

With cmdlet help topics, the same module version that the module auto-loading mechanism targets is apparently targeted (first module by that name in the folders listed in $env:PSModulePath examined in sequence, highest version wins among multiple versions installed in the same folder), and no duplicates occur.

There are additional oddities:

WinPS apparently always lists the about topics from its $PSHOME folders first.
PS Core now seems to ignore a $PSHOME version if one is installed with a module that comes first in $env:PSModulePath; however, with the very specific combination of installing PSReadLine 1.2 alongside 2.0.0-beta6 (Install-Module PSReadLine -Force -SkipPublisherCheck), I can still reproduce the symptom in PowerShell Core 7.0.0-preview.6
Generally, it seems that *.help.txt files are even picked up in irregularly named folders (not named for module versions) that the module auto-loader ignores.

Here's a quick helper function that finds all help files by file-name substring (e.g., Get-HelpFile psReadline).

function Get-HelpFile($fileNamePart) { 
  # Note the use of Split-Path -Parent, because help files can be in sibling
  # folders of $env:PSModulePath folders.
  Split-Path -Parent ($env:PSModulePath -split [IO.Path]::PathSeparator) | 
      Get-ChildItem -File -Recurse -Filter *$fileNamePart* |
        Where-Object Name -match '(?:\.help\.txt|-help.xml)$'
}

SteveL-MSFT · 2020-08-25T22:32:29Z

I took a look at this and unfortunately it's not so straightforward to fix. The problem is that as help is discovered, it is emitted. Since we don't know the order before hand if there are dupes, we don't know which of the duplicates is the right one to show until we have the full results. If we change this to a synchronous model where we filter first before displaying, then this breaks the current user experience where they see found results as they are found. This means that if there is a large set of results, you wouldn't see anything until the very end (we'd add a progress bar I suppose).

Assuming we agree to break the user experience, there isn't any version information related to the module in updateable help. The help content is stored in a Help folder. In the case of PSReadLine, you have one under your personal powershell\help folder and the other in <modulepath>\help. I think it makes sense to prefer the updateable help version in the case of a dupe, but we still have the problem #1 above.

In the case where you have multiple versions of the same module in different places that have local help that gets found by the helpsystem, it would probably make sense to show the one from the path where the module is imported.

All of this is not a small change. Moving out of 7.1 as I don't see such changes making it in time.

iSazonov · 2020-08-26T04:35:20Z

I think it makes sense to prefer the updateable help version in the case of a dupe, but we still have the problem #1 above.

So if user loaded new module version from another path it will get old help. I think we should do that we do to get a cmdlet version - go through a module manifest.
In about_ we could add a comment header in these files with version and others that we could use for right file selection.

SteveL-MSFT · 2020-08-26T22:11:44Z

@PowerShell/powershell-committee discussed this, we propose:

Add Path member to HelpInfoShort type, this allows the user to differentiate between dupes
Enable Get-Help to accept a HelpInfoShort and perform the ToString() on it

This allows the use case:

get-help psreadline | select -first 1 | get-help

vexx32 · 2020-08-26T22:38:34Z

That's a partial fix, but IMO unless a wildcard is present, Get-Help should do some basic filtering to ensure it doesn't output duplicate results.

microsoft-github-policy-service · 2023-11-16T04:37:03Z

This issue has not had any activity in 6 months, if this is a bug please try to reproduce on the latest version of PowerShell and reopen a new issue and reference this issue if this is still a blocker for you.

microsoft-github-policy-service · 2023-11-16T04:37:03Z

This issue has not had any activity in 6 months, if this is a bug please try to reproduce on the latest version of PowerShell and reopen a new issue and reference this issue if this is still a blocker for you.

microsoft-github-policy-service · 2023-11-16T04:37:03Z

This issue has not had any activity in 6 months, if this is a bug please try to reproduce on the latest version of PowerShell and reopen a new issue and reference this issue if this is still a blocker for you.

microsoft-github-policy-service · 2023-11-23T12:08:14Z

This issue has been marked as "No Activity" as there has been no activity for 6 months. It has been closed for housekeeping purposes.

watkins656 added the Issue-Question ideally support can be provided via other mechanisms, but sometimes folks do open an issue to get a label Nov 27, 2019

iSazonov added the WG-Interactive-HelpSystem help infrastructure and formatting of help label Nov 28, 2019

iSazonov mentioned this issue Nov 30, 2019

Get-Help reports multiple versions of conceptual help topics for side-by-side modules #9215

Closed

SteveL-MSFT added this to the 7.0-Consider milestone Dec 2, 2019

SteveL-MSFT modified the milestones: 7.0-Consider, 7.1-Consider Dec 10, 2019

SteveL-MSFT self-assigned this Aug 25, 2020

SteveL-MSFT modified the milestones: 7.1-Consider, 7.2-Consider Aug 25, 2020

SteveL-MSFT removed their assignment Aug 25, 2020

SteveL-MSFT added the Review - Committee The PR/Issue needs a review from the PowerShell Committee label Aug 25, 2020

SteveL-MSFT added Committee-Reviewed PS-Committee has reviewed this and made a decision and removed Review - Committee The PR/Issue needs a review from the PowerShell Committee labels Aug 26, 2020

iSazonov mentioned this issue Aug 31, 2020

Online support for about_... help topics #13550

Closed

SteveL-MSFT modified the milestones: 7.2-Consider, 7.3-Consider Dec 7, 2020

SteveL-MSFT modified the milestones: 7.3-Consider, 7.2-Consider Dec 14, 2020

iSazonov mentioned this issue Apr 20, 2021

Fix tab completion for unlocalized about* topics #15265

Merged

22 tasks

microsoft-github-policy-service bot added Resolution-No Activity Issue has had no activity for 6 months or more labels Nov 16, 2023

microsoft-github-policy-service bot removed this from the 7.2-Consider milestone Nov 23, 2023

microsoft-github-policy-service bot closed this as completed Nov 23, 2023

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Get-Help cannot open if there are duplicates #11205

Get-Help cannot open if there are duplicates #11205

Get-Help cannot open if there are duplicates #11205

Get-Help cannot open if there are duplicates #11205

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Steps to reproduce

Expected behavior

Actual behavior

Environment data