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How to Read Help Files (Part 2 of 7)

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Yesterday I explained a little bit about why I am taking the time to do such a detailed set of blog posts with regards to utilizing PowerShells help files.  This is probably the most critical skill set of any when it comes to coding PowerShell.  As a Navy Chief, I get to meet all kinds of individuals.  I get to work with some talented and highly motivated men and women. On the other hand, I also have to work with others. The highly talented and motivated ones take to time to invest in learning the details of their jobs.  The others, well they do not invest very much and it shows.

Reading the PowerShell help files is an investment.  Each of us work with specific technologies.  When you start off utilizing PowerShell within your area of expertise, there will be a lot of reading.  Once you have made the initial investment into learning about the cmdlets that you will the use most, you will have to read those same help files less and less. 

Here is how to read the basic help files.  We are going to look at the help file for Stop-Service   I selected this cmdlet because it has a wide variety of different components that I can highlight as part of this series.  Let’s look at the basic help file for Stop-Service.

You access the help file of Stop-Service by utilizing the cmdlet Get-Help.  You can run this command as Get-Help –Name Stop-Service.  This is one of the few cmdlets that I utilize a positional parameter(something that I will explain later).  Execute this command:

Get-Help Stop-Service

PS C:\> Get-Help Stop-Service

NAME
    Stop-Service
   
SYNOPSIS
    Stops one or more running services.
   
   
SYNTAX
    Stop-Service [-InputObject] [-Exclude []]
    [-Force] [-Include []] [-InformationAction {SilentlyContinue |
    Stop | Continue | Inquire | Ignore | Suspend}] [-InformationVariable
    []] [-NoWait] [-PassThru] [-Confirm] [-WhatIf]
    []
   
    Stop-Service [-Exclude []] [-Force] [-Include []]
    [-InformationAction {SilentlyContinue | Stop | Continue | Inquire | Ignore
    | Suspend}] [-InformationVariable []] [-NoWait] [-PassThru]
    -DisplayName [-Confirm] [-WhatIf] []
   
    Stop-Service [-Name] [-Exclude []] [-Force] [-Include
    []] [-InformationAction {SilentlyContinue | Stop | Continue |
    Inquire | Ignore | Suspend}] [-InformationVariable []]
    [-NoWait] [-PassThru] [-Confirm] [-WhatIf] []
   
   
DESCRIPTION
    The Stop-Service cmdlet sends a stop message to the Windows Service
    Controller for each of the specified services. You can specify the
    services by their service names or display names, or you can use the
    InputObject parameter to pass a service object representing the services
    that you want to stop.
   

RELATED LINKS
    Online Version: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=293923
    Get-Service
    New-Service
    Restart-Service
    Resume-Service
    Set-Service
    Start-Service
    Suspend-Service

REMARKS
    To see the examples, type: "get-help Stop-Service -examples".
    For more information, type: "get-help Stop-Service -detailed".
    For technical information, type: "get-help Stop-Service -full".
    For online help, type: "get-help Stop-Service -online"

There are 6 sections to this help file:
·         Name – The name of the help file being viewed.
·         Synopsis – A brief description of what this cmdlet will do.
·         Syntax – How to properly type this cmdlet.  I will cover this section in more detail tomorrow.
·         Description – A very detailed description of what this cmdlet will do.
·         Related Links – If this cmdlet does not look like what you are looking for, try these.
·         Remarks – More information on how to get more detailed help.

The syntax section is a bit trickier.  We will cover the syntax tomorrow.
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