PowerShell v2 Function Limit TraceSource

In working with the Trace-Command cmdlet one is almost dependent on the Get-TraceSource cmdlet unless you have a great memory or work with it enough to have the list in the back of you mind. In my case, I got sick of running a few lines every time I wanted to research something in a pinch, so, I wrote this function to do an inclusion of all matching TraceSources with the -Name option, or, an exclusion, which returns all TraceSources that do not match the name(s) passed to the function. Here is the function itself.

function Limit-TraceSource

{

     param(

          [Parameter(

              Mandatory = $false

          )]

          [String[]]

          $Name,

         

          [Parameter(

              Mandatory = $false

          )]

          [Switch]

          $Exclude

     )

    

     if($Exclude)

     {

          Get-TraceSource | Where { $_.name -notmatch "($($Name -join |))"}

     }

     else

     {

          Get-TraceSource ($Name | % { "*$_*" } )

     }

}

And here is a quick usage of the inclusive approach. When using this pattern, type in the full or partial name(s) of a TraceSource with which you would like to work.  This one returns all TraceSources whose names match Cmdlet:

[array] $names =Limit-TraceSources -Name Cmdlet | % { $_.name }

This command will output this:

$names

CmdletConfigurationEntry

CmdletProviderAttribute

CmdletProviderClasses

CmdletProviderContext

Cmdlet

GetCommandCmdlet

CmdletProviderIntrinsics

ScriptAsCmdlet

CmdletInfo

You want to use an array, thats fine:

[array] $names =Limit-TraceSource -Name Cmdlet,bind | % { $_.name }

Which outputs

$names

CmdletConfigurationEntry

CmdletProviderAttribute

CmdletProviderClasses

CmdletProviderContext

Cmdlet

GetCommandCmdlet

CmdletProviderIntrinsics

ScriptAsCmdlet

CmdletInfo

ParameterBinderBase

ParameterBinding

ReflectionParameterBinder

ParameterBinderController

ParameterBindingException

ScriptParameterBinder

FormatViewBinding

In usage, it looks like this:

Trace-Command -Name $names -Expression { list } –PSHost 

Or, if you want to be more terse with a one-liner,

 Trace-Command -Name @(Limit-TraceSource -Name Cmdlet | % { $_.name }) -Expression { list } -PSHost

Here is the exclusion patterns:

[array] $names =Limit-TraceSource -Name Console,parameter -Exclude | % { $_.name }

which yields a much longer list...but, one free of any Console or Parameter TraceSources.

$names

SingleShell

MshSnapinLoadUnload

PSSnapInInfo

PSSnapInReader

RunspaceConfigurationEntryCollection

RunspaceConfigurationEntry

CmdletConfigurationEntry

AssemblyConfigurationEntry

RunspaceConfiguration

RunspaceInit

CmdletProviderAttribute

ProviderConfigurationEntry

ResourceManagerCache

LocalRunspace

UniversalResourceName

ExecutionContext

AuthorizationManager

PSAuthorizationManager

InternalHost

InternalHostRawUserInterface

SessionState

SessionStateScope

Runspace

ETS

TypeConversion

Parser

Tokenizer

DetailedCommandDiscovery

CommandDiscovery

TypeTable

DeserializingTypeConverter

TypeInfoDataBaseManager

TypeInfoDataBaseLoader

XmlLoaderBase

FormatFileLoading

State

CoreCommandProvider

PSCredential

PSDriveInfo

CmdletProviderClasses

PSTransaction

CmdletProviderContext

MshLog

EventLogLogProvider

AliasProvider

EnvironmentProvider

FileSystemProvider

VariableProvider

RegistryProvider

CertificateProvider

X509StoreLocation

DriveCommandAPI

LocationGlobber

PathResolution

ProviderCommandAPI

WildcardPattern

PathInfo

CommandFactory

History

InitialSessionState

CommandMetadata

CompiledCommandAttribute

MemberResolution

PSSnapInLoadUnload

HostUtilities

Executor

PipelineStateInfo

Pipeline

PipelineBase

ObjectStream

ObjectWriter

LocalPipeline

InternalCommand

ScriptCommandProcessor

CommandSearch

CommandProcessor

OutDefaultCommand

Cmdlet

PipelineProcessor

CommandProcessorBase

TerminatingErrorContext

WriteLineHelper

format_out_OutputManagerInner

format_out_FrontEndCommandBase

format_out_ImplementationCommandBase

SecuritySupport

ExternalScriptInfo

WriteOutputCommand

format_out_CommandWrapper

OutLineOutputCommand

format_out_OutCommandInner

FormatObjectDeserializer

Deserializer

PSVariableCommandAPI

FormatInfoDataClassFactory

PathCommandAPI

SessionStateException

ProcessCommands

NavigationCommands

GetCommandCmdlet

CmdletProviderIntrinsics

ProviderIntrinsics

WriteVerboseCommand

ScriptAsCmdlet

CmdletInfo

WriteOrThrowErrorCommand

ErrorRecord

StreamingTextWriter

ErrorCategoryInfo

CompareObject

SelectObject

OrderByProperty

ObjectCommandComparer

WriteDebugCommand

FormatViewBinding

DisplayDataQuery

TypeMatch

Write-Debug

NewObjectCommand

FunctionInfo

ScriptBlock

SessionStateProvider

CredentialAttribute

StartTranscriptCommand

AliasCommands

CommandNotFoundException

CommandCompletion

So, next time you want to research something and would rather not watch your console go nuts, use