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Convert-Path should work with non-existent paths #2993
Description
It seem clear to me that a design mistake was made when Resolve-Path and Convert-Path were created, and they both return only resolved paths (i.e. the path must exist).
The right design would be to have Convert-Path not care if the path exists, and if you care, you use both commands.
Since that ship has sailed, I propose adding a -Unresolved switch to Convert-Path to change it to do what it should have done all along, called GetUnresolvedProviderPathFromPSPath instead of calling GetResolvedProviderPathFromPSPath.
If nobody has a problem with that ... I can send a PR
Activity
iSazonov commentedon Jan 13, 2017
Great! Make PR.
I'd only made the switch more descriptive:
-UnresolvePath?megamorf commentedon Jan 21, 2017
I'd suggest something along the lines of -SkipPathCheck similar to the other Skip switches as mentioned in #2006
iSazonov commentedon Jan 21, 2017
Perhaps Keith Hill (@rkeithhill) will again offer a good option.
iSazonov commentedon Oct 31, 2018
Steve Lee (@SteveL-MSFT) Michael Klement (@mklement0) Can we approve the new behavior and parameter?
SteveL-MSFT commentedon Oct 31, 2018
The new behavior behind a switch seems fine. cc Hemant Mahawar (@HemantMahawar) if he has any good suggestions on naming.
mklement0 commentedon Oct 31, 2018
Opting out of behavior is more typically done with
-No*parameters (-NoNewline,-NoProxy,-NoClobber, ... -Get-ModuleandInvoke-WebRequest/RestMethodare, unfortunately, dissenters and use-Skip*)Therefore:
-NoResolve, perhaps?HemantMahawar commentedon Oct 31, 2018
TBH, -Skip
<Something> and -No<Something> are very close, although have very subtle difference.-Skip
<Something> used in cmdlets ((SkipCertificateCheck, SkipEditionCheck, SkipHeaderValidation, SkipNetworkProfileCheck, SkipCACheck, SkipCNCheck, SkipRevocationCheck)) is typically for bypassing some check.-No
<Something> used in cmdlets ((NoClobber, NoNewline, NoServiceRestart, NoTypeInformation, NoProxy, NoRecurse, NoQualifier, NoNewWindow, NoNewScope, NoMachineProfile, NoEnumerate, NoEncryption, NoElement, NoCompression, NoWait)) is typically about not taking specific action.In this case
-SkipPathCheck(or maybe-SkipPathResolutionor-SkipPathValidation) seems more appropriate.mklement0 commentedon Oct 31, 2018
Thanks, Hemant Mahawar (@HemantMahawar), I see the difference, but I personally don't think it's strong enough to warrant reflection in distinct parameter names.
Case in point: You could equally argue that the requested behavior here is not taking the action of resolving the path.
To put it differently: I think the existing
-Skip*parameters should have been named-No*instead to begin with for consistency (though, should we reach a consensus, we could introduce aliases for consistency going forward).mklement0 commentedon Oct 31, 2018
A couple more thoughts:
Nois shorter and less ambiguous thanSkip, which:Import-Cli -Skip <int>,Select-Object -Skip <int> -SkipLast <int> -SkipIndex <int[]>)SteveL-MSFT commentedon Oct 31, 2018
@PowerShell/powershell-committee reviewed this and recommends
-SkipValidation7 remaining items
doctordns commentedon Jun 1, 2022
The Powershell Cmdlet working group reviewed this and agree that adding a switch to skip the path validation is a good idea.
But what should the switch name be? We discussed two alternatives -SkipValidation or -SkipPathValidation.
Comments
SteveL-MSFT commentedon Jun 1, 2022
If there is ever additional validation in the future, we should be more specific, so my preference is
-SkipPathValidationdoctordns commentedon Jun 1, 2022
Having discussed this further, the parameter name should be
-SkipPathValidationJaykul commentedon Jun 3, 2022
I'm concerned about this
-SkipPathValidationparameter name and about what Ilya (@iSazonov) wrote:I thought we were all on the same page that this would actually not resolve paths ...
As I said before:
I mean, if you won't verify the existence of the file, then you cannot resolve the wildcards, right?
danielzgtg commentedon Jun 18, 2023
We could use a more conventional name
-Force, which would make it consistent withSet-ItemArmaanMcleod commentedon Dec 15, 2023
I recently needed path validation to be skipped and also think it would he a great addition to
Convert-Path. I'll be happy to raise a PR once I can get the code change ready.iSazonov commentedon Dec 15, 2023
I don't see conclusion about what new behavior should be. Obviously "glob expansion", "validation" and "existence" are not the same things.
agowa commentedon Mar 26, 2024
Hi, I was pointed here because of a similar design Issue, so what's now the difference between
-No*and-Skip*? When would I use one over the other? Maybe it's because I'm not a native speaker, but all of the examples given back here #2993 (comment) don't really help "solve" that mystery for me. All of these sound just perfectly fine:NoCertificateCheck, NoEditionCheck, NoHeaderValidation, NoNetworkProfileCheck, NoCACheck, NoCNCheck, NoRevocationCheck, ... also they more clearly indicate being the antonyms to a default behavior. Is it now "best practice" to use these switches instead of using either
param([switch]$CertificateCheck=$true)orparam([switch]$SkipCertificateCheck=$false)?The only difference I see is that the
-No*ones aren't auto generated for switches right now and-Skip*is often used instead of a default$true-switch that forces a specific feature to be enabled by default. Where as-Nois currently used either as the antonym to another switch or boolean-filtering (basically to avoid to query data that would be dropped by an where-objects call right after, basically a "query-time where-object") but not features. Like it'd befunction Get-MyAccounts{ param([switch]$NoServiceAccounts) }. Is this the "best practice" now/still?(Similarly
-Notis often used to filter non-boolean data and lists. e.g.Get-WUInstall -NotUpdateID XXXXqueries the complement toGet-WUInstall -UpdateID XXXX[and technically those two also only exist to work around not being able to optimizeGet-WUInstall | Where-Object UpdateID -eq/ne XXXXat query time]).[Edit: With the exception of
-Skip(by itself and not a suffix) also being used for an amount. But as-Skip 5is different than-SkipNr 5it kinda makes sense, at least until we also add-Ignore*into the mix...]Is there a dedicated issue or proposal for this? It is kinda misplaced within an issue about Convert-Path, I think.
Also I'd like keep posted about this topic and I'd argue for have auto generated
Noswitches for every defined one, that'd remove a bunch of validationscript-blocks :D(Also there is a 3rd one
-Ignore*that similarly shares the same meaning and no clearly stated coding-convention either)mklement0 commentedon May 19, 2025
Klaus Frank (@agowa):
Indeed, I agree that there's no meaningful difference between
-No*and-Skip*, and, as I've previously argued, introducing-Skip*parameters was ill-advised to begin with.In general, switch parameters should never default to
$true, as that would contravene user expectations. Thus, opting out of default behaviors should be implemented via-No*switches.As for auto-generated
-Noswitch variants:The above implies that negating switches is best done implicitly, by omitting them in invocations.
However, explicit negation is still situationally called for, and PowerShell provides a syntax for that: follow the switch name by
:(and optional whitespace) and$false; .e.g.,-NoValidation:$false-Confirm:$false[switch]parameters that are used to select a parameter set by making them mandatory is likely to lead to broken implementations, including for several built-in cmdlets, as of this writing:-Switch:$falsethe same as omitting a switch when selecting a parameter set #25027