PowerShell: Folder Diff

With a new git repo, I after push the source code and then re-pull to a new local repo. To verify the .gitignore is correct, I diff the original folder containing the source code against the git clone just created. The following PowerShell is what I use to dif the folders:

param(

    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]

    [string] $folderSource,

    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]

    [string] $folderDestination

)

Set-StrictMode -Version 3.0

$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'

Set-PSDebug -Off

# Set-PSDebug -Trace 1

[int] $exitCodeSuccess = 0

[int] $exitCodeError = 1

[int] $exitCode = $exitCodeSuccess

function Get-RelativeFilePaths {

    param(

        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]

        [string] $folderPath

    )

    [string] $resolvedFolderPath = 

        (Resolve-Path -Path $folderPath -ErrorAction Stop).Path + '\'

    return (

        Get-ChildItem `

            -Path $folderPath `

            -Recurse `

            -File `

            -ErrorAction Stop).

            FullName.

                Replace($resolvedFolderPath, '')

}

try {

    [string[]] $sourceFiles = `

                 Get-RelativeFilePaths $folderSource

    [string[]] $destinationFiles = `

                 Get-RelativeFilePaths $folderDestination

    

    Compare-Object `

        -ReferenceObject $sourceFiles `

        -DifferenceObject $destinationFiles `

        -ErrorAction Stop    

}

catch {

    [System.Management.Automation.ErrorRecord] $errorRecord = $PSItem

    $exitCode = $exitCodeError

    Write-Host $errorRecord

    Write-Host `

        "Exception Message: $($errorRecord.Exception.Message), " + `

        "Stacktrace: $($errorRecord.Exception.StackTrace)"

}

return $exitCode

The launch.json is as followings when running from Visual Studio Code:

{

    "version": "0.2.0",

    "configurations": [

        {

            "name": "Compare-Folders",

            "type": "PowerShell",

            "request": "launch",

            "script": "${workspaceRoot}/Compare-Folders.ps1",

            "cwd": "${workspaceRoot}",

            "args": [

                "-FolderSource",

                <source folder>,

                "-FolderDestination",

                <destination folder>

            ]

        }

    ]

}

Visual Studio Code: Error Generation Bicep Template from Existing Azure Resource

The latest version of Microsoft's Bicep Extension (v0.26.54) for Visual Studio Code has a new behavior that causes an error message to be generated under certain circumstances. The Bicep Extension was covered in a blog post eighteen months ago (November 26, 2022: Azure: Generate a Bicep Template from an Existing Azure Resource using Visual Studio Code) and the manifesting of the following error message is a newish behavior in the extension:

Caught exception fetching resource: The ChainedTokenCredential failed to retrieve a token from the included credentials. - Please run 'az login' to set up account - Please run 'Connect-AzAccount' to set up account.

The error message above is generated while attempting to use the command, Bicep: Insert Resource (F1 displays the command palette or CTRL-SHIFT-P on Windows or CMD-SHIFT-P on Mac):

The error message is generated when a valid resource ID is entered for the Bicep: Insert Resource command and OK is clicked on in order to extract the Bicep template for an existing resource. The error message (see below) suggests a solution, logging in using Azure CLI (az login) or PowerShell (Connect-AzAccount):

At the time the error is generated, the Visual Studio Code Azure Extension is logged into a valid Azure Subscription:

Visual Studio Code's accounts show that the correct Microsoft account is logged in:

The solution is to log in to Azure via the Visual Studio Code Terminal window (displayed using CTRL-`):

There Terminal window above is PowerShell, so Azure will be logged into using Connect-AzAccount (note: Azure CLI's az login could also have been used):

Once the Terminal window is used to log in to, Azure the Bicep: Insert Resource command will run successfully meaning a Bicep template will be extracted from an existing Azure resource.

Visual Studio Code: Azure Extension Pack error "Expected value to be neither null nor undefined"

This post presents a solution to the following error displayed in Visual Studio Code when using the Azure Tools Extension Pack:

Internal error: Expected value to be neither null nor undefined: resourceGroup for grouping item

The Azure Tools Extension Pack (Azure Tools) is critical to Azure developers who use Visual Studio Code (see the A below):

When signed in to a subscription, the Azure Tools Extension displays Azure resources by default, grouped by resource group. For some subscriptions (not all) the following error is displayed by Visual Studio Code when group by is set to "Group by Resource Group":

The fix to this issue is to click on the group by icon:

This displays the following context menu:

From the context menu, select the menu item "Group by Resource Type." This has change causes the error to no longer be raised. For subscriptions experiencing this error, there seems to be no way to select the Group By menu item "Group by Resource Group" without generating an error.