One very cool thing in the last Windows Management Framework V5 Preview release is the new module OneGet which allow us to manage a list of software repositories, search/acquire/install/uninstall package(s).This has been present in the Linux world for a very long time, for example with APT-GET (Debian). This new feature is basically a global silent installer for applications and tools. We should also be able to do configuration tasks and anything that you can do with PowerShell. The power you hold with a module like OneGet is only limited by your imagination! :-)
Note that this is a preview, there is no documentation yet, the features and behavior are likely to change before the final release.
OneGet Module ?
OneGet is a new way to discover and install software packages from around the web. With OneGet, you can:- Manage a list of software repositories in which packages can be searched, acquired, and installed
- Search and filter your repositories to find the packages you need
- Seamlessly install and uninstall packages from one or more repositories with a single PowerShell command
Cmdlets
Get-Command -Module OneGet
CommandType Name Source ----------- ---- ------ Cmdlet Add-PackageSource OneGet Cmdlet Find-Package OneGet Cmdlet Get-Package OneGet Cmdlet Get-PackageSource OneGet Cmdlet Install-Package OneGet Cmdlet Remove-PackageSource OneGet Cmdlet Uninstall-Package OneGet
For now, there is not much information in the help but the naming convention is explicit and we can easily understand the role of each of those:
| Cmdlet | Definition |
|---|---|
| Add-PackageSource | Add a new Software Repository |
| Find-Package | Search a package from one or more repositories |
| Get-Package | Get the package installed locally |
| Get-PackageSource | Get the Software Repositories |
| Install-Package | Install a Package |
| Remove-PackageSource | Remove a Package Source |
| Uninstall-Package | Uninstall a Package |
 |
| No help or examples for now (Find-Package Cmdlet) |
Additional Cmdlet Get-PackageProvider ?
Note that we can also expect a new cmdlet called Get-PackageProvider in the final version from what we see in the manifest.
Workflow
From my understanding this is how the OneGet module interact with the package manager like Chocolatey.- Load OneGet module in PowerShell. OneGet is the common interface for interacting with any Package Manager (Plugins).
- Then use a Provider for each Package Manager that plugs into OneGet. (Providers do all of the actual work, fetching content from the repositories and doing the actual installation.)
- The package manager will then query its software repository to retrieve the package. In this example Chocolatey use it's own set of Cmdlets (see below in this post)
- The package manager then download a configuration file OR get the URI where it will find the instruction to install the package. In the case of Chocolatey, a configuration file is downloaded from the repository and saved locally in C:\Chocolatey\lib\<APPNAME>\Tools,
- The Provider will then execute the configuration file and download the actual software (+ its dependencies) from a repository, and obviously install it.... silently :-)
Chocolatey Cmdlets
If we look at the files in the module directory, Chocolatey comes with its own set of Cmdlets. (Available on the Chocolatey GitHub repo)
C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\OneGet
 |
| Chocolatey Provider Cmdlets Helpers (Helpers.psm1) |
 |
| Chocolatey Cmdlets (Chocolatey.psd1) |
Using the module
Get the packages already installed
Since I've been using chocolatey for a while, Using Get-Package, OneGet is able to retrieve the all the package I installed on this PC.
Find and install a new package
Now if I want to install a package, that's very easy: Install-Package
We first search for the package
# We first query our provider for a package called putty Find-Package -Name putty | fl *
# Then we install the package Find-Package -Name putty | Install-Package -Verbose
 |
| PowerShell is download the configuration file the repository and execute it Then Posh/OneGet is downloading the package (note the package it's not actually located on the chocolatey website) |
The file are download and unzipped in C:\Chocolatey\lib directory by default.
ChocolateyInstall.ps1 content:
Install-ChocolateyZipPackage 'putty' 'http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/latest/x86/putty.zip' "$(Split-Path -parent $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition)"
Also note there is some interesting parameters in the Install-Package cmdlet:
- InstallationOptions [hashtable]
- InstallArguments [String]
Find and install one/multiple package(s) using Out-GridView
+Jeffrey Snover also shared a very smart line on twitter on how to use a small "GUI" to Select one or multiple packages you want to install:
# Using Out-GridView -PassThru to select the Packages
Find-Package | Out-Gridview -PassThru | Install-Package -Verbose
The other cool thing with Out-GridView is that you can also filter on multiple property
Uninstalling a package
# Get the package putty installed locally Get-Package putty
# Get and Uninstall putty Get-Package putty | Uninstall-Package -Verbose
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, leave a comment or send me an email at fxcat@lazywinadmin.com. I invite you to follow me on Twitter @lazywinadm / Google+ / LinkedIn. You can also follow the LazyWinAdmin Blog on Facebook Page and Google+ Page.
