PowerShell Functions aka Helpers Reference

Summary

In your Chocolatey packaging, you have the ability to use these functions (and others with Chocolatey’s PowerShell Extensions) to work with all aspects of software management. Keep in mind Chocolatey’s automation scripts are just PowerShell, so you can do manage anything you want.

:choco-info: NOTE

These scripts are for package scripts, not for use directly in PowerShell. This is in the create packages section, not the using Chocolatey section.

Main Functions

These functions call other functions and many times may be the only thing you need in your chocolateyInstall.ps1 file.

• Install-ChocolateyPackage
• Install-ChocolateyZipPackage
• Install-ChocolateyPowershellCommand
• Install-ChocolateyVsixPackage

More Functions

Administrative Access Functions

When creating packages that need to run one of the following commands below, one should add the tag admin to the nuspec.

• Install-ChocolateyPackage
• Start-ChocolateyProcessAsAdmin
• Install-ChocolateyInstallPackage
• Install-ChocolateyPath - when specifying machine path
• Install-ChocolateyEnvironmentVariable - when specifying machine path
• Install-ChocolateyExplorerMenuItem
• Install-ChocolateyFileAssociation
• Uninstall-ChocolateyPath - when specifying machine path

Non-Administrator Safe Functions

When you have a need to run Chocolatey without Administrative access required (non-default install location), you can run the following functions without administrative access.

These are the functions from above as one list.

• Install-ChocolateyZipPackage
• Install-ChocolateyPowershellCommand
• Get-ChocolateyPath
• Get-ChocolateyWebFile
• Get-ChocolateyUnzip
• Install-ChocolateyPath - when specifying user path
• Install-ChocolateyEnvironmentVariable - when specifying user path
• Install-ChocolateyPinnedTaskBarItem
• Install-ChocolateyShortcut
• Uninstall-ChocolateyPath - when specifying user path
• Update-SessionEnvironment
• Get-PackageParameters

Complete List (alphabetical order)

• Format-FileSize
• Get-ChecksumValid
• Get-ChocolateyConfigValue
• Get-ChocolateyPath
• Get-ChocolateyUnzip
• Get-ChocolateyWebFile
• Get-FtpFile
• Get-OSArchitectureWidth
• Get-PackageParameters
• Get-ToolsLocation
• Get-UACEnabled
• Get-UninstallRegistryKey
• Get-VirusCheckValid
• Get-WebFile
• Get-WebFileName
• Get-WebHeaders
• Install-BinFile
• Install-ChocolateyEnvironmentVariable
• Install-ChocolateyExplorerMenuItem
• Install-ChocolateyFileAssociation
• Install-ChocolateyInstallPackage
• Install-ChocolateyPackage
• Install-ChocolateyPinnedTaskBarItem
• Install-ChocolateyPowershellCommand
• Install-ChocolateyShortcut
• Install-ChocolateyVsixPackage
• Install-ChocolateyZipPackage
• Install-Vsix
• Set-PowerShellExitCode
• Start-ChocolateyProcessAsAdmin
• Uninstall-BinFile
• Uninstall-ChocolateyEnvironmentVariable
• Uninstall-ChocolateyPackage
• Uninstall-ChocolateyPath
• Uninstall-ChocolateyZipPackage
• Write-FunctionCallLogMessage

Chocolatey for Business Functions

• Install-ChocolateyWindowsService
• Start-ChocolateyWindowsService
• Stop-ChocolateyWindowsService
• Uninstall-ChocolateyWindowsService

Variables

There are also a number of environment variables providing access to some values from the nuspec and other information that may be useful. They are accessed via $env:variableName.

Environment Variables

Chocolatey makes a number of environment variables available (You can access any of these with $env:TheVariableNameBelow):

• TEMP/TMP - Overridden to the CacheLocation, but may be the same as the original TEMP folder
• ChocolateyInstall - Top level folder where Chocolatey is installed
• ChocolateyPackageName - The name of the package, equivalent to the <id /> field in the nuspec
• ChocolateyPackageTitle - The title of the package, equivalent to the <title /> field in the nuspec
• ChocolateyPackageVersion - The version of the package, equivalent to the <version /> field in the nuspec

Advanced Environment Variables

The following are more advanced settings:

• ChocolateyPackageParameters - Parameters to use with packaging, not the same as install arguments (which are passed directly to the native installer). Based on --package-parameters.
• CHOCOLATEY_VERSION - The version of Choco you normally see. Use if you are ‘lighting’ things up based on choco version, otherwise take a dependency on the specific version you need.
• ChocolateyForceX86 = If available and set to ‘true’, then user has requested 32bit version. Automatically handled in built in Choco functions.
• OS_PLATFORM - Like Windows, macOS, Linux.
• OS_VERSION - The version of OS, like 6.1 something something for Windows.
• OS_NAME - The reported name of the OS.
• IS_PROCESSELEVATED = Is the process elevated?
• ChocolateyPackageInstallLocation - Install location of the software that the package installs. Displayed at the end of the package install.

Set By Options and Configuration

Some environment variables are set based on options that are passed, configuration and/or features that are turned on:

• ChocolateyEnvironmentDebug - Was --debug passed? If using the built-in PowerShell host, this is always true (but only logs debug messages to console if --debug was passed)
• ChocolateyEnvironmentVerbose - Was --verbose passed? If using the built-in PowerShell host, this is always true (but only logs verbose messages to console if --verbose was passed).
• ChocolateyForce - Was --force passed?
• ChocolateyForceX86 - Was -x86 passed?
• ChocolateyRequestTimeout - How long before a web request will time out. Set by config webRequestTimeoutSeconds
• ChocolateyResponseTimeout - How long to wait for a download to complete? Set by config commandExecutionTimeoutSeconds
• ChocolateyPowerShellHost - Are we using the built-in PowerShell host? Set by --use-system-powershell or the feature powershellHost

Business Edition Variables

• ChocolateyInstallArgumentsSensitive - Encrypted arguments passed from command line --install-arguments-sensitive that are not logged anywhere.
• ChocolateyPackageParametersSensitive - Package parameters passed from command line --package-parameters-sensitive that are not logged anywhere.
• ChocolateyLicensedVersion - What version is the licensed edition on?
• ChocolateyLicenseType - What edition / type of the licensed edition is installed?

Experimental Environment Variables

The following are experimental or use not recommended:

• OS_IS64BIT = This may not return correctly - it may depend on the process the app is running under
• CHOCOLATEY_VERSION_PRODUCT = the version of Choco that may match CHOCOLATEY_VERSION but may be different - based on git describe
• IS_ADMIN = Is the user an administrator? But doesn’t tell you if the process is elevated.

Not Useful Or Anti-Pattern If Used

• ChocolateyInstallOverride - Not for use in package automation scripts. Based on --override-arguments being passed.
• ChocolateyInstallArguments - The installer arguments meant for the native installer. You should use chocolateyPackageParameters instead. Based on --install-arguments being passed.
• ChocolateyIgnoreChecksums - Was --ignore-checksums passed or the feature checksumFiles turned off?
• ChocolateyAllowEmptyChecksums - Was --allow-empty-checksums passed or the feature allowEmptyChecksums turned on?
• ChocolateyAllowEmptyChecksumsSecure - Was --allow-empty-checksums-secure passed or the feature allowEmptyChecksumsSecure turned on?
• ChocolateyChecksum32 - Was --download-checksum passed?
• ChocolateyChecksumType32 - Was --download-checksum-type passed?
• ChocolateyChecksum64 - Was --download-checksum-x64 passed?
• ChocolateyChecksumType64 - Was --download-checksum-type-x64 passed?
• ChocolateyPackageExitCode - The exit code of the script that just ran - usually set by Set-PowerShellExitCode
• ChocolateyLastPathUpdate - Set by Chocolatey as part of install, but not used for anything in particular in packaging.
• ChocolateyProxyLocation - The explicit proxy location as set in the configuration proxy
• ChocolateyDownloadCache - Use available download cache? Set by --skip-download-cache, --use-download-cache, or feature downloadCache
• ChocolateyProxyBypassList - Explicitly set locations to ignore in configuration proxyBypassList
• ChocolateyProxyBypassOnLocal - Should the proxy bypass on local connections? Set based on configuration proxyBypassOnLocal
• http_proxy - Set by original http_proxy passthrough, or same as ChocolateyProxyLocation if explicitly set.
• https_proxy - Set by original https_proxy passthrough, or same as ChocolateyProxyLocation if explicitly set.
• no_proxy- Set by original no_proxy passthrough, or same as ChocolateyProxyBypassList if explicitly set.
• ChocolateyPackageFolder - Not for use in package automation scripts. Recommend using $toolsDir = "$(Split-Path -parent $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition)" as per template generated by choco new
• ChocolateyToolsLocation - Not for use in package automation scripts. Recommend using Get-ToolsLocation instead