Move PS content out of OneDrive

[jshigetomi]

This pull request proposes a new RFC (RFC0066) to change the default location of PowerShell user content on Windows machines from OneDrive to the AppData directory. The goal is to align PowerShell with other developer tools and improve usability by preventing unnecessary syncing issues.

Key changes include:

• Introduction of RFC0066 to move PowerShell user content to the AppData directory on Windows.
• Specification of the new directory structure in AppData and the creation of a configuration file to manage the user scoped PSModulePath.
• Allowing users to customize the location of PowerShell user content, with certain directories being non-configurable.
• Providing an example script to relocate existing PowerShell content to the new location.

[sdwheeler]

There are many more comments and questions I want to add. But start with these changes.

[sdwheeler]

More comments

[iSazonov]

The file should have .md extension.

[JustinGrote]

Looks good! Just needs some consistency on the path naming and clarification on cross platform path consistency which is one of the most critical components of this.

[JustinGrote]

Will the Linux existing CurrentUser modulepaths, etc. be updated to also use this? Will there be a migration approach? I don't like the idea of disparate paths per OS, should follow the XDG standard for both.
https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/latest/

[jshigetomi]

For Linux I'm thinking there is no need to change their existing paths at all. But I do think they would want this customizability.

So a way to achieve this is to add the current modulepaths to powershell.config.json and make the API retrieve the value every time.

For the migration approach, I'm thinking Linux users won't need to do anything if they keep their current path.

[JustinGrote]

The issue is that on Linux, for example Modules, it's LOCALAppData\PowerShell by default (which dotnet does environment translation to XDG) and on windows it'll now be PowerShell\PSContent, so it'll be inconsistent, and if someone does this setting in a portable way, they'll have to account for those differences.

Is the PSContent folder really necessary? Why not just put Modules/Scripts/etc. in LocalAppData/PowerShell directly? Then it's the same path on both Windows and Linux (from a dotnet perspective), plus one less level of unnecessary hierarchy. Is there a problem the PSContent folder solves?

[JustinGrote]

To demonstrate:

Should be the same "path" in dotnet on both, but land differently in the OS. That way if I change my preferred path, it'll still work consistently. I feel it should also be lowercase on both but if you want to add the appropriate handling for windows so it is PowerShell, that's fine.

[fflaten]

+1 for dropping PSContent-subfolder as default. Brings consistency with current structure in Documents/PowerShell and other platforms.

[jshigetomi]

We added the PSContent folder idea because we are trying to make the location customizable.

To achieve this we want to look at powershell.config to tell us where to look for the PSContent folder which will have everything PowerShell related.

On a side note, I think this also means the location of powershell.config has to be hardcoded and cannot be customized.
 
Interesting... I didn't know LocalApplicationData dotnet grabbed the linux equivalent like that.
I think Platform.XDG_Type.USER_MODULES already resolves to /home/user/.local/share/powershell

Currently for UNIX we grab the user module path like this:

        internal static string GetPersonalModulePath()
        {
#if UNIX
            return Platform.SelectProductNameForDirectory(Platform.XDG_Type.USER_MODULES);
#else
            string myDocumentsPath = InternalTestHooks.SetMyDocumentsSpecialFolderToBlank ? string.Empty : Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments);
            return string.IsNullOrEmpty(myDocumentsPath) ? null : Path.Combine(myDocumentsPath, Utils.ModuleDirectory);
#endif
        }

[fflaten]

On a side note, I think this also means the location of powershell.config has to be hardcoded and cannot be customized

Yes 👍 I expected the config file itself to be hardcoded.

Combined with no automatic content migration when the setting is changed, I don't see any risk of sharing the same powershell-folder for both content and config by default.

[HeyItsGilbert]

Silent errors often lead to confusion. We should warn somewhere (i.e. Event Log, Write-Warning on launch, etc.).
If a system admin sets this expecting all their users to get migrated by default and nothing happens, it'll lead to confusion and frustration.

As a system administrator I may want to set this on a shared system where we would want to avoid users ever dealing with OneDrive issues. We should just match the existing precedent defined in about_PowerShell_Config.

[jshigetomi]

After Group Policy, settings defined at the AllUsers level take precedence over settings defined for the CurrentUser level.

Are you talking about this precedence? If so you're suggesting we make this be default AllUsers unless specified? I'm not opposed to this but am worried about breaking the current setups since they would be forced to migrate all their UserPSContent to the new location. Any thoughts @sdwheeler ?

[HeyItsGilbert]

worried about breaking the current setups

While I would tend to agree and caution against breaking existing setups, this would only be the case for admins who deploy this setting retroactively. I would prioritize being consistent in how settings are applied and warn admins what the effect of this on the machine level would have.

If we're not consistent then we get into the, "Well in this scenario, the precedent comes from X, and in that scenario it comes from Y."

[fflaten]

+1 for machine-level preference for consistency and supporting managed/strict environments like shared device and even VDI/VDA where you might place it on a attached user drive.

If a system admin sets this expecting all their users to get migrated by default and nothing happens, it'll lead to confusion and frustration.

Not sure if it's done already, but in general there should be an event logged on startup all config-settings with effective value and source (User, Machine, GroupPolicy) as merge/precedence behavior can get complicated.

[jshigetomi]

I'm not sure if the following is relevant but I think it'll help with the discussion.

I took another look at the PSModulePath code and as of now machine scoped stuff is not in OneDrive but in program files and not in the documents.

I think we decided to leave this alone and not move anything out of there.

        internal static string GetSharedModulePath()
        {
#if UNIX
            return Platform.SelectProductNameForDirectory(Platform.XDG_Type.SHARED_MODULES);
#else
            string sharedModulePath = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles);

            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(sharedModulePath))
            {
                sharedModulePath = Path.Combine(sharedModulePath, Utils.ModuleDirectory);
            }

            return sharedModulePath;
#endif
        }

Will need some clarification from @sdwheeler for this

[fflaten]

Not relevant. Our concern is the user-level modules folder, profile location etc.

My understanding is that a UserPSContentPath setting in the machine pwsh config file would be a mandatory location (template string) for user profile, user-installed modules etc.

In Windows it would be equal to a user configuration in Group Policy, which we can't use here due to cross-platform.

[fflaten]

Great work! Added some thoughts and concerns.

[fflaten]

This is required to support the machine-wide config at all without mixing user content, isn't it? env:UserName, $HOME/$env:USERPROFILE, $env:LocalAppData etc.

[jshigetomi]

I think yes the goal is to support environment variables. I think this would be very useful.
But for machine-wide config I think we are not touching those that are in program files at this time. We are only trying to move the user PSContent folder out of myDocuments

[fflaten]

+1 for machine-level preference for consistency and supporting managed/strict environments like shared device and even VDI/VDA where you might place it on a attached user drive.

If a system admin sets this expecting all their users to get migrated by default and nothing happens, it'll lead to confusion and frustration.

Not sure if it's done already, but in general there should be an event logged on startup all config-settings with effective value and source (User, Machine, GroupPolicy) as merge/precedence behavior can get complicated.

[fflaten]

+1 for dropping PSContent-subfolder as default. Brings consistency with current structure in Documents/PowerShell and other platforms.

[fflaten]

Will it be created empty or with UserPSContentPath predefined?

This is essential for the machine config discussed below unless machine-level gets precedence (ideally). User-level precedence and potentially predefined setting in user config would block any machine config.

[jshigetomi]

I'm thinking with the experimental feature turned on UserPSContentPath will be predefined in the config file pointing to the new "recommended" location in LocalAppData. But all of the directories will be empty and the user will have to migrate on their own. As of now for this migration we are thinking about providing an example script.

[fflaten]

Sounds good, as long as the machine config setting with variable support takes precedence. 🙂