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Description
Update-Module only installs a newer version. It does not remove the previous version. This is no different that using Install-Module except that it checks the current installed version an searches for a newer version. That search functionality would be better implemented as a -Update parameter for Install-Module.
Expected Behavior
Update-Module should replace the current version with a new version. Not install the new version side-by-side with the old version.
Possible Solutions
- Deprecate Update-Module and move the search for update functionality into Install-Module.
- Change Update-Module to remove the old version. This needs to be smart enough to remove all old versions of nested modules without breaking dependencies in other installed modules.
Context
Using the verb Update
is confusing to customers. They expect the cmdlet to update what they have not install side-by-side. Also, the cmdlet reference does not explain this behavior.
We see this a lot with Azure PowerShell. They release a new version every month. After a few months you can have several versions installed taking up a lot of space.
Your Environment
PS C:\Git> $PSVersionTable
Name Value
---- -----
PSVersion 5.1.15063.296
PSEdition Desktop
PSCompatibleVersions {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...}
BuildVersion 10.0.15063.296
CLRVersion 4.0.30319.42000
WSManStackVersion 3.0
PSRemotingProtocolVersion 2.3
SerializationVersion 1.1.0.1
PS C:\Git> Get-Module
ModuleType Version Name ExportedCommands
---------- ------- ---- ----------------
Script 0.0 chocolateyProfile {TabExpansion, Update-SessionEnvironment, refreshenv}
Manifest 3.1.0.0 Microsoft.PowerShell.Management {Add-Computer, Add-Content, Checkpoint-Computer, Clear-Cont...
Manifest 3.1.0.0 Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility {Add-Member, Add-Type, Clear-Variable, Compare-Object...}
Script 0.7.0 posh-git {Add-PoshGitToProfile, Add-SshKey, Enable-GitColors, Get-Al...
Script 1.2 PSReadline {Get-PSReadlineKeyHandler, Get-PSReadlineOption, Remove-PSR...
Script 1.0.0.1 PSYaml {Convert-YAMLtoJSON, ConvertFrom-YAML, ConvertFrom-YAMLDocu...
Script 1.0 sdwheeler.utilities {close-SQLite, ConvertFrom-Base64, convertfrom-htmlencoding...
PS C:\Git> Get-Module -ListAvailable PowerShellGet,PackageManagement
Directory: C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules
ModuleType Version Name ExportedCommands
---------- ------- ---- ----------------
Script 1.1.3.0 PackageManagement {Find-Package, Get-Package, Get-PackageProvider, Get-Packag...
Binary 1.0.0.1 PackageManagement {Find-Package, Get-Package, Get-PackageProvider, Get-Packag...
Script 1.1.2.0 PowerShellGet {Install-Module, Find-Module, Save-Module, Update-Module...}
Script 1.0.0.1 PowerShellGet {Install-Module, Find-Module, Save-Module, Update-Module...}
PS C:\Git> Get-PackageProvider
Name Version DynamicOptions
---- ------- --------------
msi 3.0.0.0 AdditionalArguments
msu 3.0.0.0
NuGet 2.8.5.207 Destination, ExcludeVersion, Scope, SkipDependencies, Headers, FilterOnTag,...
PowerShellGet 1.1.2.0 PackageManagementProvider, Type, Scope, AllowClobber, SkipPublisherCheck, I...
Programs 3.0.0.0 IncludeWindowsInstaller, IncludeSystemComponent
PS C:\Git> Get-PackageProvider -ListAvailable
Name Version DynamicOptions
---- ------- --------------
msi 3.0.0.0 AdditionalArguments
msu 3.0.0.0
NuGet 2.8.5.207 Destination, ExcludeVersion, Scope, SkipDependencies, Headers, FilterOnTag,...
PowerShellGet 1.1.2.0 PackageManagementProvider, Type, Scope, AllowClobber, SkipPublisherCheck, I...
PowerShellGet 1.0.0.1
Programs 3.0.0.0 IncludeWindowsInstaller, IncludeSystemComponent
Activity
barkz commentedon May 25, 2017
I have hit this same issue with two of my modules (PureStoragePowerShellSDK and PureStoragePowerShellToolkit).
Jackbennett commentedon Sep 29, 2017
If users have scripts that require modules at X version, And update module replaces the available version then some script written long ago might break.
Maybe there should be a
Get-OutdatedModule
that could be piped to remove-module. At least the user intended to get rid of versions that way.Similar problem solutions I've seen would be npm prune. Perhaps a
Clear-module
could inspect all available modules RequiredModules Version tree and remove only modules that aren't found/older but semver compatible.But that would only maintain other declared modules, user scripts might break on removal of older modules. And you'd be trusting authors concept of semver.
sdwheeler commentedon Dec 7, 2017
@JKeithB - We need a way to uninstall a module and all its dependencies. Adding that functionality to Uninstall-Module should be very simple. I wrote the following function to uninstall a module and its dependencies.
ThomasNieto commentedon Sep 8, 2020
@SydneyhSmith / @SteveL-MSFT if this issue is not completed before PSGet 3.0 GA will it be a breaking change?
SydneyhSmith commentedon Sep 8, 2020
@ThomasNieto for 3.0 we are maintaining the behavior of Update, to install the latest version, and not delete older versions... since this has always been the behavior of PowerShellGet this will not be a change...in the future we may address this feature request by adding a parameter to the Update cmdlet that specifies older versions of the module should be uninstalled
no-identd commentedon Feb 8, 2022
| Assert-Duplicate -Near -Fuzzy $_ #581
danielniccoli commentedon Oct 26, 2022
Would it be possible to change this so that Update-Module does update by default, and install side-by-side when a parameter is added?
I'd argue that the expected behaviour of any update mechanism is to replace the old version with the new one, so this should also be the default for PSGet 3
no-identd commentedon Nov 3, 2022
@danielniccoli have you read the discussion of that over in #581?