Ever wanted to build native .NET objects to use while in a PowerShell script? Well I certainly have, and finally took the time to figure out how easy it is to actually do! Enjoy!
function Compile-Code {
param (
[string[]] $code = $(throw "The parameter -code is required.")
, [string[]] $references = @()
, [switch] $asString = $false
, [switch] $showOutput = $false
, [switch] $csharp = $true
, [switch] $vb = $false
)
$options = New-Object "System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary``2[System.String,System.String]";
$options.Add( "CompilerVersion", "v3.5")
if ( $vb ) {
$provider = New-Object Microsoft.VisualBasic.VBCodeProvider $options
} else {
$provider = New-Object Microsoft.CSharp.CSharpCodeProvider $options
}
$parameters = New-Object System.CodeDom.Compiler.CompilerParameters
@( "mscorlib.dll", "System.dll", "System.Core.dll", "System.Xml.dll", ([System.Reflection.Assembly]::GetAssembly( [PSObject] ).Location) ) + $references | Sort -unique |% { $parameters.ReferencedAssemblies.Add( $_ ) } | Out-Null
$parameters.GenerateExecutable = $false
$parameters.GenerateInMemory = !$asString
$parameters.CompilerOptions = "/optimize"
if ( $asString ) {
$parameters.OutputAssembly = [System.IO.Path]::GetTempFileName()
}
$results = $provider.CompileAssemblyFromSource( $parameters, $code )
if ( $results.Errors.Count -gt 0 ) {
if ( $output ) {
$results.Output |% { Write-Output $_ }
} else {
$results.Errors |% { Write-Error $_.ToString() }
}
} else {
if ( $asString ) {
$content = [System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes( $parameters.OutputAssembly )
$content = [Convert]::ToBase64String( $content )
[System.IO.File]::Delete( $parameters.OutputAssembly );
return $content
} else {
return $results.CompiledAssembly
}
}
}
Example usage:
Compile-Code -csharp -code @"
using System;
public class Foo {
public Foo ( string message ) {
Message = message;
}
public string Message { get; private set; }
public void Bar() {
Console.WriteLine( "Foo.Bar: {0}", Message );
}
}
"@
$foo = New-Object Foo "hello world"
$foo.Bar()
Update: Added ability to compile C# or VB.NEt code and also to return the bytes for the compiled assembly for loading at a later time.