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Update-Help doesn't install core About topics

See original GitHub issue

When you run Update-Help in PowerShell Core 6.0.0.9 on Windows 10.0.14905, you get the XML help, and About help for CimCmdlets and Pester modules, but no core About help.

Steps to reproduce

In PowerShell 5.1: Start-Process ‘C:\Program Files\PowerShell\6.0.0.9\powershell.exe’ -Verb RunAs In PowerShell 6.0.0.9 (elevated): Update-Help -Verbose

Expected behavior

Installs About topics in ‘C:\Program Files\PowerShell\6.0.0.9\en-US’ or somewhere else in 6.0.0.9.

Actual behavior

PS C:\Program Files\PowerShell\6.0.0.9> dir $pshome\* -Recurse -Include About*help.txt


    Directory: C:\Program Files\PowerShell\6.0.0.9\Modules\CimCmdlets\en-US


Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                -------------         ------ ----
-a----        8/12/2015   2:56 PM           2601 about_CimSession.help.txt


    Directory: C:\Program Files\PowerShell\6.0.0.9\Modules\Pester\en-US


Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                -------------         ------ ----
-a----        8/15/2016   1:49 PM           3110 about_BeforeEach_AfterEach.help.txt
-a----        8/15/2016   1:49 PM           6394 about_Mocking.help.txt
-a----        8/15/2016   1:49 PM           5052 about_Pester.help.txt
-a----        8/15/2016   1:49 PM           5215 about_should.help.txt
-a----        8/15/2016   1:49 PM           1156 about_TestDrive.help.txt

PS C:\Program Files\PowerShell\6.0.0.9> dir $pshome\* -Recurse -Include About_Aliases.help.txt
PS C:\Program Files\PowerShell\6.0.0.9>

Environment data

Name                           Value
----                           -----
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
PSEdition                      Core
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1
PSVersion                      6.0.0-alpha
WSManStackVersion              3.0
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...}
CLRVersion
BuildVersion                   3.0.0.0
GitCommitId                    v6.0.0-alpha.9

Issue Analytics

State:
Created 7 years ago
Reactions:2
Comments:10 (2 by maintainers)

Top GitHub Comments

5reactions

kilasuitcommented, Sep 10, 2016

After looking at this earlier and looking between what the differences are between PowerShell v4 & v5+ (on 2012R2) it seems that the issue is that the help cab file for Microsoft.PowerShell.Core doesnt include the about_* topic files for WMF 5 has been installed

This means that machines that have had WMF4 & have had Update-Help run on them which were then upgraded to WMF5 (WinX -> Win10) will have the core about_* topics where as machines that started on WMF5+ are missing them (confirmed on 3 different Win10 builds, a 2012R2 machine updated to WMF5 & a 2012R2 machine updated to WMF5.1 Preview)

I have a fix for this which essentially has zipped up the about_* topics from a new 2012R2 build on Wmf4 that has then had Update-help run and made this zip file available at https://github.com/kilasuit/Install-AboutHelp & the Install-AboutHelp.ps1 is available on the PSGallery as well via Find-Script Install-AboutHelp

Ideally the cab file should be updated from the 5.0.7.0 version to 5.0.8.0 and re-include the about_* topic files This also brings another point up about open sourcing these files as well cc @joeyaiello

0reactions

zjalexandercommented, Dec 8, 2016

@Liturgist the fix should be live right now - the underlying issue was with the help content, and totally independent of the PowerShell code. I just haven’t gotten around to confirming it on PS Core yet 😃