/reference/ needs to flow into Get-Help

[zjalexander]

Right now, changes to the /reference/ content only show up in online help on MSDN.
Ideally, we should be able to have these changes flow through the updateable help engine so typos and corrections can flow back downlevel to Get-Help reference.

Current Status

• Changes are built in PlatyPS to create the MAML

• The MAML is packaged into CABs

• The CABs are placed into Azure Blob Storage

** Needs work **

• Change URLs to point towards the generated CABs on Azure Blob Storage
  • Get-Help calls into a redirected URL that points to the proper location
  • Today, this goes towards the Microsoft Download Center, which are generated through the old process.

[BernieWhite]

Even better if Get-Help could pull and read markdown instead. Just a hope.

[zjalexander]

While that would be ideal, it wouldn't be feasible to backport changes of that magnitude towards downlevel versions of PowerShell (e.g 3,4,5). Feel free to file an issue on powershell/powershell to see if this would be a good change for version 6 :)

[joeyaiello]

@BernieWhite that's my dream too. Then we could light up in-console syntax highlighting for examples. :)

[zjalexander]

This is currently hooked up for PowerShell 6 only.

We are working to bring the contents of this repo to update-help downlevel. This is a service-side change so no action will be needed from users.

[sdwheeler]

Linking related issues

• - remove extraneous linebreaks #1025
• - Start use "Applicable tag" platyPS feature to combine all versions into a single doc #1797
• - Get-Help about_Using returns about_Remote_Variables help #2027
• - Suggestion: provide online links for all help topics, including the conceptual ones (about_*) #2939
• - Online Fwlink for cmdlets do not resolve correctly #2998
• - Document FUNCTIONALITY, .COMPONENT, & .ROLE sections of comment-based help #3031
• - Need to automate updates to "Help version" metadata in module markdown #3161
• - PowerShell about_ help files do not display synopsis due to incompatible formatting #3268
• - Get-help -online results in error 404 for get-childitem and set-content, probably more #4218
• - Typo in Get-Help Stop-Process -examples #4298

[sdwheeler]

We are now building updateable help for all versions.