Set-Location \ behaviour inconsistent between operating systems

Prerequisites

• Write a descriptive title.
• Make sure you are able to repro it on the latest released version
• Search the existing issues.
• Refer to the FAQ.
• Refer to Differences between Windows PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell.

Steps to reproduce

In #18308 we found that running cd\ will do different things depending on the operating system.

Steps:

1. Navigate to any directory above your drive’s root level. > Set-Location Drive:/LizardPhotos/Skinks
2. Run Set-Location \ or cd\
3. You should now be at your drive’s root on windows, or your filesystem root on Linux & Mac.

Expected behavior

Windows, Mac, and Linux set location as the root of the current drive on`cd\`

Actual behavior

Windows sets location to the root of the current drive.
Mac and Linux sets location to the filesystem root.

Error details

N/A

Environment data

Name                           Value
----                           -----
PSVersion                      7.3.0-preview.9
PSEdition                      Core
GitCommitId                    7.3.0-preview.9
OS                             Microsoft Wind…
Platform                       Win32NT
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0…
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion              3.0

Visuals

[jhoneill]

Programmatically, you can use the following to switch to the root of the current drive, on all platforms (which would obviously be too cumbersome interactively):

• Set-Location ($PWD.Path -replace '(?<=[\\/]).*')

Since some of us already redefine CD to be something other than an alias for set location, that could be incorporated into a CD function.

/ is defined as a PS Drive on linux to ensure that cd / does in PowerShell what it does in other unix/linux shells What happens in all shells on the same OS is consistent rather than making pwsh on linux “windows like” and annoying linux oriented folks.

[mklement0]

While consistency across platforms is generally desirable, I fear that’s not an option here:

On Unix, if you make / refer to the root of a drive (which on Unix is by definition only ever a PS drive), you won’t be able to change to the actual file-system root whenever the current location is drive-based.

Pragmatically speaking:

• Interactively, typing, say, Set-Location Temp:/ isn’t too much of a hardship.
• Programmatically, you can use the following to switch to the root of the current drive, on all platforms (which would obviously be too cumbersome interactively):
  • Set-Location ($PWD.Path -replace '(?<=[\\/]).*')