I worked quite a bit with PowerShell runspaces and I know it's possible to invoke commands in another runspace by using a dispatcher from WPF-objects.
I create my runspaces like this:
$global:A = [hashtable]::Synchronized(@{})
$global:initialSessionState = [System.Management.Automation.Runspaces.InitialSessionState]::CreateDefault()
# Add some functions to the ISS
$GuiRunspace =[runspacefactory]::CreateRunspace($initialSessionState)
$GuiRunspace.ApartmentState = "STA"
$GuiRunspace.Open()
$GuiRunspace.SessionStateProxy.SetVariable("A",$A)
$GuiRunspace.SessionStateProxy.SetVariable("B",$B)
$GuiRunspace.Name = "GuiRunspace"
$Gui = [powershell]::Create()
[void]$Gui.addscript($GUILayerScript)
$Gui.Runspace = $GuiRunspace
$GuiThread = $Gui.beginInvoke()
And with the following code, I can manipulate that runspace from other runspaces:
$A.Window.Dispatcher.invoke({ *Do some crazy stuff that has nothing to do with the object from which you called the dispatcher* })
This only works because the window is a WPF-object that has the dispatcher property.
The question is, how do I invoke a command in other runspaces without a WPF-dispatcher?
If you want shared state between your main execution context and a separate runspace or runspace pool, use a SessionStateProxy
variable and assign a synchronized collection or dictionary:
$sharedData = [hashtable]::Synchronized(@{})
$rs = [runspacefactory]::CreateRunspace()
$rs.Open()
$rs.SessionStateProxy.SetVariable('sharedData',$sharedData)
The $sharedData
variable now refers to the same synchronized hashtable in both the calling runspace and inside $rs
Below follow a basic description of how to use runspaces
You can attach a runspace to the Runspace
property of a PowerShell
object and it'll execute in that runspace:
$rs = [runspacefactory]::CreateNewRunspace()
$rs.Open()
$ps = { Get-Random }.GetPowerShell()
$ps.Runspace = $rs
$result = $ps.Invoke()
You can also assign a RunspacePool
to multiple PowerShell
instances and have them execute concurrently:
# Create a runspace pool
$rsPool = [runspacefactory]::CreateRunspacePool()
$rsPool.Open()
# Create and invoke bunch of "jobs"
$psInstances = 1..10 |ForEach-Object {
$ps = {Get-Random}.GetPowerShell()
$ps.RunspacePool = $rsPool
[pscustomobject]@{
ResultHandle = $ps.BeginInvoke()
Instance = $ps
}
}
# Do other stuff here
# Wait for the "jobs" to finish
do{
Start-Sleep -MilliSeconds 100
} while(@($psInstances.ResultHandle.IsCompleted -eq $false).Count -gt 0)
# Time to collect our results
$results = $psInstances |ForEach-Object {
if($_.Instance.HadErrors){
# Inspect $_.Instance.Streams.Error in here
}
else {
# Retrieve results
$_.Instance.EndInvoke($_.ResultHandle)
}
}