Professional Windows® PowerShell

7.6. Using the update-formatdata and update-typedata Cmdlets

PowerShell version 1.0 format files have the file extension .ps1xml. I described earlier in this chapter a little of the structure of a format file and mentioned that the formatting information used by the default formatter is contained in the powershellcore.format.ps1xml file. The file contains many XML elements but also contains a digital signature. You may want to have other format files available for use. The update-formatdata cmdlet is intended to allow you to load other ps1xml files into the Windows PowerShell shell.

The update-formatdata cmdlet supports the following parameters, in addition to the common parameters:

• appendPath — Specifies a path to optional format files that are processed after the built-in format files are loaded

• prependPath — Specifies a path to optional format files that are processed before the built-in format files are loaded

The update-typedata cmdlet is similar in concept to the update-formatdata cmdlet. Formatting data for types is held in the types.ps1xml file. The update-typedata cmdlet allows you to load additional files containing format data for the display of types.

The update-typedata cmdlet supports the following parameters, in addition to the common parameters:

• appendPath — Specifies a path to optional type.ps1xml files that are processed after the built-in files are loaded

• prependPath — Specifies a path to optional type.ps1xml files that are processed before the built-in files ...