Packaging on Linux

Packaging is supported on Linux systems. Packaged executables will contain the entire PowerShell and .NET runtime so destination systems will not need either of these installed.

Prerequisites

You will need to install the following in order to package on Linux

• .NET Core SDK 3.1 or later

• PowerShell 7 or later

Once you have them installed, you can setup your script for packaging.

Configuration

You will need to create a Package.psd1 file in order to package. Here is an example configuration that will package the test.ps1 script and output it to the desktop of the mounted Windows drive in WSL2. You need to ensure that you set the .NET framework version to netcoreapp31 and the platform to linux-x64.

@{
    Root = '/mnt/c/Users/adamr/desktop/test.ps1' # Root script to package. This is the main entry point for the package. 
    OutputPath = '/mnt/c/Users/adamr/desktop/out' # The output directory for the packaging process. 
    Package = @{
        Enabled = $true # Whether to package as an executable. 
        DotNetVersion = 'netcoreapp31'
        PackageType = 'Console' # The type of executable to generate. Valid values are Service or Console. 
        PowerShellArguments = '' # Sets the arguments for the PowerShell process that is hosted within the executable. You can use arguments like -NoExit, -ExecutionPolicy and -NoProfile.
        Platform = 'x64' # Sets the architecture of the executable. Can be either 'x86' or 'x64'
        PowerShellVersion = '7.0.3' # You can specify Windows PowerShell or PowerShell 7 or later versions version (e.g. 7.0.0)
        RuntimeIdentifier = 'linux-x64' # You can specify other runtimes like linux-x64 (See .NET Core runtime identifiers)
    }
    Bundle = @{
        Enabled = $true # Whether to bundle multiple PS1s into a single PS1. Always enabled when Package is enabled. 
        Modules = $true # Whether to bundle modules into the package
    }
}

By default, some core modules are included. Additional modules will also be included when enabling the Modules bundle.

Running the Packager

You can run the packager by using the Merge-Script cmdlet of the PowerShell Pro Tools module. If you include the -Verbose flag, you will see output from the packaging process.

In this example, we have a script named test.ps1 with the following content.

"Hello. I'm running on $($PSVersionTable.Platform)"

You can install the PowerShell Pro Tools module and then run merge script against the package.psd1 file we created earlier.

Install-Module PowerShellProTools
Merge-Script -ConfigFile ./package.psd1 -Verbose
VERBOSE: Checking license
VERBOSE: OutputPath is /mnt/c/Users/adamr/desktop/out
VERBOSE: Bundling /mnt/c/Users/adamr/desktop/test.ps1
VERBOSE: Packaging /tmp/test.ps1
VERBOSE: Creating temp directory: /tmp/259a5b5f8e164250af2fb04c10e1b829
VERBOSE: Packaging modules...
VERBOSE: Checking dotnet version.
VERBOSE: Checking dotnet version.
VERBOSE: 5.0.102

VERBOSE: 5.0.102

VERBOSE: Creating package project.
VERBOSE: Using .NET Framework version: netcoreapp31
VERBOSE:   Determining projects to restore...
  Restored /tmp/259a5b5f8e164250af2fb04c10e1b829/test.csproj (in 1.22 sec).

VERBOSE:   Determining projects to restore...
  Restored /tmp/259a5b5f8e164250af2fb04c10e1b829/test.csproj (in 1.22 sec).

VERBOSE: Packaging /tmp/test.ps1 -> /mnt/c/Users/adamr/desktop/out/test
VERBOSE: Microsoft (R) Build Engine version 16.8.3+39993bd9d for .NET
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

  Determining projects to restore...
  Restored /tmp/259a5b5f8e164250af2fb04c10e1b829/test.csproj (in 566 ms).
  test -> /tmp/259a5b5f8e164250af2fb04c10e1b829/bin/Debug/netcoreapp3.1/linux-x64/test.dll
  test -> /mnt/c/Users/adamr/desktop/out/

VERBOSE: Microsoft (R) Build Engine version 16.8.3+39993bd9d for .NET
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

  Determining projects to restore...
  Restored /tmp/259a5b5f8e164250af2fb04c10e1b829/test.csproj (in 566 ms).
  test -> /tmp/259a5b5f8e164250af2fb04c10e1b829/bin/Debug/netcoreapp3.1/linux-x64/test.dll
  test -> /mnt/c/Users/adamr/desktop/out/

After the packaging process is done, you can run your executable.

PS /mnt/c/Users/adamr> ./Desktop/out/test
Hello. I'm running on Unix