Set-StrictMode behavior breaks valid Configurations from (x)PSDesiredStateConfiguration about psdscresources HOT 3 OPEN

Hi @begna112 - thanks for raising this and apologies for the very long delay in getting back to you. The Set-StrictMode setting was added to the PSDscResource and xPSDesiredStateConfiguration to ensure the PS code within the resource was of high quality and reduce bugs. However, as you point out this does result in any code executed by the Script resource to also adhere to this convention - specifically in your examples that variables are declared before use.

Because the PSDscResource module must remain feature compatible with the in-box PSDesiredStateConfiguration module, it won't likely have any new parameters added to it. This is not the case for the community maintained xPSDesiredStateConfiguration module.

One of the goals moving from PSDesiredStateConfiguration to PSDscResources was to minimize impact, but due to the nature of the move (lots of code was improved and bugs fixed) some DSC config changes was going to be possible. However, it was understood that some configs would require minor changes.

The move away from Set-StrictMode for this module and the xPSDesiredStateConfiguration isn't likely to be done due to the increased difficulty in maintaining a high quality.

However, installing PSDscResources onto a machine should not cause it to be replaced throughout as long as you've specified the resource module to import in your DSC config unless you installed the module to $PSHome (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/dsc/configurations/import-dscresource?view=powershell-5.1). Can you check you're installing these modules into a location where they won't be automatically imported by PS DSC?

from psdscresources.

Because the PSDscResource module must remain feature compatible with the in-box PSDesiredStateConfiguration module, it won't likely have any new parameters added to it.

If that is the case, why would you change the Strict Mode setting? These changes are specifically breaking compatibility with PSDesiredStateConfiguration in Script resources, and possibly in others, like the Registry resource example above. (It's been so long since I tested that, but I'm fairly certain that it worked as expected without Force, evaluating as True when the value was already correctly set. Whereas with Strict Mode, it gave the error.)

Can you check you're installing these modules into a location where they won't be automatically imported by PS DSC?

Modules/DscResources are installed in C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\.

from psdscresources.

This will most likely not change in this module, but for the xPSDesiredStateConfiguration we could move the strict check to the unit tests so strict mode is checked during the test phase, and so it is not used during runtime. Suggest opening an issue in the repo for xPSDesiredStateConfiguration so it can b tracked, and then please send in a PR to xPSDesiredStateConfiguration that make the correct changes to the unit tests and code.

from psdscresources.