Please clarify the platform-specific constraints on the use of -OutputType

[mklement0]

It seems that using -OutputType to intentionally create persistent assemblies only works on Windows at the moment and there only in Windows PowerShell - at least when it comes to -OutputType ConsoleApplication - not sure about -OutputType Library (whereas -OutputType WindowsApplication is self-evidently Windows-only).

Please clarify in the topic which combinations are supported in PowerShell Core and on non-Windows platforms, if any.

(If it turns out that only Windows PowerShell is supported, we should look into modifying / extending Add-Type accordingly.)

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• ID: 90513733-758f-faf3-b117-3fbfc4e065ab
• Version Independent ID: b550e1f5-2481-7908-1d62-607923d09a2b
• Content: Add-Type (Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility) - PowerShell
• Content Source: reference/7.1/Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility/Add-Type.md
• Product: powershell
• GitHub Login: @JamesWTruher
• Microsoft Alias: jimtru

[sdwheeler]

This sounds like a product bug. Waiting on the product team to respond before deciding on the documentation changes.

[daxian-dbw]

I don't think ConsoleApplication and WindowsApplication curentlly work in PowerShell 7. And I doubt if they actually work in .NET Core. They both can produce an executable on Windows, neither works when running the executable.

For 'ConsoleApplication':

PS> Add-Type -TypeDefinition 'public class Foo { public static void Main() { System.Console.WriteLine("Hello World!"); } }' -OutputAssembly c:\blah.exe -OutputType ConsoleApplication
PS> C:\blah.exe
Unhandled Exception: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'System.Runtime, Version=4.2.2.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

For 'WindowsApplication':

PS> Add-Type -TypeDefinition 'public class Foo { public static void Main() { System.IO.File.Create(@"C:\arena\tmp\daxian"); } }' -OutputAssembly c:\zoo.exe -OutputType WindowsApplication
PS> C:\zoo.exe
PS> Test-Path C:\arena\tmp\daxian
False

@mklement0 Are you able to successfully use -OutputType with either ConsoleApplication or WindowsApplication?

[mklement0]

@daxian-dbw, I've only tried with ConsoleApplication, which indeed doesn't work in PS Core - please see PowerShell/PowerShell#13344

We need to understand what should work in PS Core - and make that work - and with respect to what cannot be expected to work we need to (a) document the limitation and (b) make Add-Type error out before producing a broken binary.

[sdwheeler]

Tested this on v6.2.7 and got the same results.

[sdwheeler]

The behavior was changed in PowerShell/PowerShell#13440

edit: fix link to correct PR