How do I call a Win32 Function in PowerShell 1.0 using P/Invoke?

Question

There are many scenarios where it would be useful to call a Win32 function or some other DLL from a PowerShell script. to Given the following function signature:

bool MyFunction( char* buffer, int* bufferSize )

I hear there is something that makes this easier in PowerShell CTP 2, but I'm curious how this is best done in PowerShell 1.0 . The fact that the function needing to be called is using pointers could affect the solution (yet I don't really know).

So the question is what's the best way to write a PowerShell script that can call an exported Win32 function like the one above?

Remember for PowerShell 1.0.

Answer 1

To call unmanaged code from Powershell, use the Invoke-Win32 function created by Lee Holmes. You can find the source here . There you can see an example of how to call a function that has pointers, but a more trivial usage would be:

PS C:\> Invoke-Win32 "msvcrt.dll" ([Int32]) "puts" ([String])  "Test"
Test
0

Answer 2

There isn't any mechanism in PowerShell 1.0 to directly call Win32 API's. You could of course write a C# or VB.NET helper class to do this for you and call that from PowerShell.

Update: Take a look at -

http://blogs.msdn.com/powershell/archive/2006/04/25/583236.aspx http://www.leeholmes.com/blog/ManagingINIFilesWithPowerShell.aspx

Answer 3

For CTP2, check these links:

http://blogs.msdn.com/powershell/archive/2008/06/03/show-powershell-hide-powershell.aspx http://thepowershellguy.com/blogs/posh/archive/2008/08/04/powershell.aspx