Often in Windows PowerShell module development, you’ll need to remove and import a module again, and again, to get the newest changes to your functions. It wasn’t long after some recent coding, that I tired from entering rmo mymodule and ipmo mymodule (the rmo alias is for Remove-Module and ipmo is used for Import-Module). Even when I added both commands to the same line, with a semi-colon in between: rmo mymodule; ipmo mymodule, and used wildcards: rmo mym*;ipmo mym*, I was still annoyed it was taking too much time.

Enter this quick function and alias:

Set-Alias -Name dump -Value Reset-Module
Function Reset-Module {
    [CmdletBinding()]
    Param ()

    Begin {
    } # End Begin.

    Process {
        Write-Verbose -Message 'Removing module.'
        Remove-Module -Name mymodule -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -Verbose:$false
        Write-Verbose -Message 'Adding module.'
        Import-Module -Name mymodule -Verbose:$false
    } # End Process.

    End {
    } # End End.
} # End Function.

Now, I simply enter dump and it will remove and import the module again, with the newest changes. It’s PowerShell: You can use it to develop, and use it to speed up development.

Note: In case you’re thinking it, yes, there are many things that can be improved in this function: checking for the module before trying to remove it (and eliminating the -ErrorAction parameter in Remove-Module), not hard-coding the module’s name and using a parameter instead, and adding help. Even so, I wanted to throw something together quickly that probably wouldn’t live long after the end of the module’s development. Providing it does, I can add some refinements later.