Feature Request / enable the creation of alias with cmdlet and its params together

Summary of the new feature/enhancement

Currenly, we can only create alias to a cmdlet name only, it would be nice to be able to create alias to the cmdlet and with its params also.

The workaround that I could find till now is to create in advance a new custom cmdlet (via function{}) which calls the target cmdlet with the expected params, and then create an alias that points to this new cmdlet.

# The workaround by creating a new cmdlet, 
# ok for complexe functions, 
# but not cool for calling just a cmdlet with params in one line.

function Out-StringWithStream {
    Out-String -Stream
}

Set-Alias oss Out-StringWithStream

Proposed technical implementation details (optional)

Set-Alias oss Out-String -Stream

# or with ScriptBlock
Set-Alias oss {Out-String -Stream}

[KirkMunro]

My old pspx module makes this easier. I could refresh that for PowerShell v.Current. It’s one of those things where I felt like a rather extreme propeller head and wondered if anyone was actually using the functionality it provided, but it would allow for something like this:

New-ProxyFunction `
    -CommandName Out-String `
    -ProxyName Out-WithStringStream `
    -RemoveParameter Stream `
    -Begin {
        $PSPassThruParameters.Add('Stream',$true) > $null
    } `
    -DefineNow

I don’t know if you can actually get the code for that module from that link anymore, but I have it local, and started refreshing it a little while ago. I would need to think about how I would do the same thing if I were to design it for PowerShell today.

Even with that though, there is definitely something to be said about associating an identifier (like an alias, but I think functions are better for this) with a command plus a default set of parameter values, and having PowerShell know exactly what to do. It’s quite a simple concept, really. My New-ProxyFunction command could do much, much more than that, but the simple case would be quite useful.

What if the identifier was not an alias? What if we added a New-Function command that had one parameter set to simply define a function (like you can with New-Item, today, taking a name and a script block), and another parameter set that accepts a name, the name of a command you want to proxy, and a hashtable of parameters you want passed in by default. I wouldn’t call that New-ProxyFunction – the fact that it creates a proxy is a little beside the point, and the name shouldn’t add complexity to what it does IMHO. I would just call it New-Function, and let the -CommandToInvoke parameter indicate that it’s actually proxying something. That would allow for an even simpler syntax than what pspx provided, like this:

New-Function `
    -Name Out-WithStringStream `
    -CommandToInvoke Out-String `
    -Parameters @{
        Stream = $true
    }

Since you can create proxy cmdlets, I wonder if I should just do that but create proxy cmdlets instead for better performance than proxy functions. 🤔

[KirkMunro]

@iSazonov I disagree with the resolution of this issue. Answering a request by saying “just go do this really complicated thing” (proxy commands are not trivial) is not an answer. At a minimum, it should be left open to see if others have similar interest or to continue the discussion. Having it marked as closed and answered signals that there isn’t a discussion to be had here.