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Modules vs. Scripts: It’s Not Just the Letter ‘M’

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Here’s an interesting gotcha if you are spawning a new window for asynchronous execution via the "cmd.exe /c start" hack. This works as expected in a script, but doesn’t work in a module.

 $start = get-date

cmd /c start powershell -command "start-sleep 20"

write-host "$([int]((get-date) - $start).TotalSeconds) seconds";

Even odder, you can Import-Module Example.ps1 and have it come back immediately after powershell initialization. However, if you Import-Module Example.ps***M***1, it will block until the cmd.exe process finishes.

I tried to come up with a rationale for why this works in a .ps1 but not in a .psm1, but...I got nuthin'