PowerShell script to automate the search of DLL files

Question

I often write different applications in C++ using different libraries, and sometimes it takes a lot of time to find where are the *.dll files to distribute. I use Dependency Walker but it still takes a lot of time to look in the GUI. I wrote a PowerShell script that will find all used libraries and do something with them. Please review my code.

Param
(
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true, Position=0)]
    [ValidateScript({Test-Path $_ -PathType Leaf})]
    [String]$Path,

    [Parameter()]
    [ValidateScript({Test-Path $_ -PathType Container})]
    [String[]]$Exclude
)

function likeAnyOf($obj,$array)
{
    foreach($item in $array) 
    { 
        if($obj -like $item) 
        {
            return $item
        } 
    }
    return $null
}

Set-StrictMode -Version Latest
$systemPath = [System.Environment]::SystemDirectory
$tempName = [System.IO.Path]::GetTempFileName() # generate a temporary filename

Start-Process depends.exe -ArgumentList '/c','/f:1',"/oc:$tempName",$Path -Wait -NoNewWindow # wait until it writes all the data
$modules = Import-Csv $tempName -Encoding Default | Select-Object -Property Module -Unique # read the output of depends.exe and select all unique DLL paths
Remove-Item -Path $tempName -Force # delete the temporary file

$dllsToCopy = @{}

foreach($module in $modules)
{
    $modulePath = $module.Module
    $moduleParent = Split-Path $modulePath -Parent
    $moduleName = Split-Path $modulePath -Leaf

    if( $moduleParent -like $systemPath )
    {
        Write-Verbose "Skipped $moduleName as a system module ($moduleParent)"
        continue
    }
    $excluded = likeAnyOf $moduleParent (Resolve-Path $Exclude)
    if($excluded -ne $null)
    {
        Write-Host "Skipped $moduleName as explicitly excluded ($excluded)"
        continue
    }

    $exists = Test-Path $modulePath -PathType Leaf
    if($exists)
    {
        $dllsToCopy.Add($moduleName, $modulePath)
        Write-Host "Added $moduleName found at $moduleParent"
    }
    else
    {
        Write-Error "Couldn't find $moduleName"
    }
}

Answer 1

You can replace all this:

function likeAnyOf($obj,$array)
{
    foreach($item in $array) 
    { 
        if($obj -like $item) 
        {
            return $item
        } 
    }
    return $null
}

# ...

$excluded = likeAnyOf $moduleParent (Resolve-Path $Exclude)

With this:

$excluded = Resolve-Path $Exclude | ? { $moduleParent -like $_ }

The question mark (?) is an alias for Where-Object, so read up on that for an explanation.

Instead of this:

if ($excluded -ne $null)
{
    # ...
}

you can do this:

if ($excluded)
{
    # ...
}

It's just a little bit easier to read.