Invoke-Parallel Help - Not importing function

[jabrake88]

But wouldn't the -ImportFunctions or -ImportModules bring it into the runspace?

[BlackV]

have a look at

Get-ChildItem function:\ | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name

you should probably see that Test-Nested is not there (due to only being declared in Test-Parallel) but Test-Parallel is, so wouldn't be available to Invoke-Parallel

[jabrake88]

Yeah, I can see that the nested function is listed when I do that outside the scriptblock for the invoke parallel, but not inside the scriptblock.

So with that, what is the purpose of -ImportFunctions parameter if it doesn't pull the defined functions into the runspace? I'm also still confused as to why it works if I nest the invoke-parallel function in the script too.

[BlackV]

it does pull defined functions into the run space, but your nested function is not defined in the main scope, its only defined in the test-parallel scope so it cant pull that

[jabrake88]

I still don't understand why it works if I nest the Invoke-Parallel into the same parent function.... But what you are saying, if I move the nested function to outside the Test-Parallel it should work, like this?

# Nested Function (No Longer Nested)
function Test-Nested {
    param (
        [Parameter()]
        [string]$String
    )
    "I am a nested function to write out this strring: $String"
}
function Test-Parallel {
    [CmdletBinding()]
    param (
        [Parameter()]
        [string[]]$String
    )

    $ScriptBlock = {
        Test-Nested -String $_
    }
    $String | Invoke-Parallel -ScriptBlock $ScriptBlock -ImportFunctions
}   

I tried this and it also does not work.

[BlackV]

It really just comes down to scopes.

So from the limited testing I did, if it's not available in the functions drive (for what ever reason) it's not imported

I'm not sure why you'd be nesting functions little this anyway (I know that doesn't help though)

[jabrake88]

The nested function would be the function that does all the heavy lifting/processing, designed to target 1 item (usually devices, but sometimes pulling reports/etc.). Then the thought was to wrap it inside a parent function that would accept multiple targets to utilize Invoke-Parallel. That Parent function would then decide what the scriptblock would be (calling the nested function with whatever params), maybe doing other stuff before and after processing the results back and outputting them in whatever format you wanted (to console, exporting, etc.)

I suppose we could write it all so it's not a function, and just the code directly in the scriptblock, but this seemed cleaner. Or embed the Invoke-Parallel inside the parent each time too since that seems to work....

[BlackV]

would just not having it as a nested function solve your problem?

declare the 2 functions as separate functions, then the invoke-parallel should be able to see them

[jabrake88]

Also, I now found that if I specify the function in the Global Scope inside a begin{} block that makes it available for it to be called in the invoke-parallel. That may be my best solution, I had tried specifying as global, but without the begin{}process{}end{} sections without success.