Unable to run rules with settings file that run fine with hashtable

[rjmholt]

I've got a script with some compatibility bugs in it. I can run the compatibility rules on it like this:

$settings = @{
    Rules = @{
        PSUseCompatibleCommands = @{
            Enable = $true
            TargetProfiles = @(
                'win-8_x64_10.0.17763.0_5.1.17763.316_x64_4.0.30319.42000_framework' # Server 2019 - PS 5.1 (the platform it already runs on)
                'win-8_x64_6.2.9200.0_3.0_x64_4.0.30319.42000_framework' # Server 2012 - PS 3
                'ubuntu_x64_18.04_6.1.3_x64_4.0.30319.42000_core' # Ubuntu 18.04 - PS 6.1
            )
        }
        PSUseCompatibleTypes = @{
            Enable = $true
            TargetProfiles = @(
                'win-8_x64_10.0.17763.0_5.1.17763.316_x64_4.0.30319.42000_framework'
                'win-8_x64_6.2.9200.0_3.0_x64_4.0.30319.42000_framework'
                'ubuntu_x64_18.04_6.1.3_x64_4.0.30319.42000_core'
            )
        }
        PSUseCompatibleSyntax = @{
            Enable = $true
            TargetVersions = @('3.0', '5.1', '6.1')
        }
    }
}

Invoke-ScriptAnalyzer -Settings $settings -Path ./script.ps1

And get:

RuleName                            Severity     ScriptName Line  Message                                                     
--------                            --------     ---------- ----  -------                                                     
PSUseCompatibleCommands             Warning      blogBad.ps 9     The parameter 'FullyQualifiedName' is not available for     
                                                 1                command 'Import-Module' by default in PowerShell version    
                                                                  '3.0' on platform 'Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Datacenter'
PSUseCompatibleCommands             Warning      blogBad.ps 13    The parameter 'Depth' is not available for command          
                                                 1                'Get-ChildItem' by default in PowerShell version '3.0' on   
                                                                  platform 'Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Datacenter'         
PSUseCompatibleCommands             Warning      blogBad.ps 22    The command 'Get-AuthenticodeSignature' is not available by 
                                                 1                default in PowerShell version '6.1.3' on platform 'Ubuntu   
                                                                  18.04.2 LTS'                                                
PSUseCompatibleCommands             Warning      blogBad.ps 30    The command 'Compress-Archive' is not available by default  
                                                 1                in PowerShell version '3.0' on platform 'Microsoft Windows  
                                                                  Server 2012 Datacenter'                                     
PSUseCompatibleTypes                Warning      blogBad.ps 12    The method 'Get' is not available on type                   
                                                 1                'System.Management.Automation.WildcardPattern' by default   
                                                                  in PowerShell version '3.0' on platform 'Microsoft Windows  
                                                                  Server 2012 Datacenter'                                     
PSUseCompatibleSyntax               Warning      blogBad.ps 11    The constructor syntax '[System.Collections.Generic.List[Sys
                                                 1                tem.Management.Automation.Signature]]::new()' is not        
                                                                  available by default in PowerShell versions 3,4             
                                                                             

But when I put the settings in a psd1 file and run the same with:

Invoke-ScriptAnalyzer -Settings ./mysettings.psd1 -Path ./script.ps1

I get no output.

Is this expected behaviour -- is there something I need to add to a settings file to make this work? Or is this something I should be fixing in the engine?

[bergmeister]

Hmm, maybe there is a small problem in the psd1 file that makes problems when parsing it. PSSA does not have a good error behaviour in this area (it fails silently and decides to not use the settings file if it cannot parse it without giving parse error details). Run it with -Verbose to see more details of where it goes wrong.

[rjmholt]

I've figured it out!

[rjmholt]

In case people are interested, arrays in PowerShell essentially are anything with , between them.

The @(...) syntax works like a "flatten into an array" expression.

When you don't use commas, the expression is evaluated as a statement, and its output added to the array. So

@(1
2
3)

is actually equivalent to

@(1; 2; 3)

rather than

@(1, 2, 3)

(The first two being an array container with three statements each emitting one output, and the last being an array container with a single statement emitting three outputs).

So technically, allowing newlines means you don't have a statically determinable array:

function Get-Things
{
    for ($i = 0; $i -lt 10; $i++) { $i }
}

# This has 11 elements
@(Get-Things, 11)

But, people are so used to it working that it would cause problems