Installing PowerShell Core on Ubuntu Linux

If you’re looking to get started with PowerShell on Linux, specifically Ubuntu, this guide has you covered. We’ll walk through installing the necessary dependencies, setting up PowerShell Core, and configuring Visual Studio Code (VSCode) for editing PowerShell scripts.

Install Useful Tools

Before we install PowerShell Core, let’s make sure we have some helpful tools in place. We’ll start by updating the package manager:

sudo apt-get -y update

Next, let’s install a few key tools:

VIM: a powerful text editor
net-tools: provides useful networking utilities like ifconfig
git-all: ensures we have the full suite of Git tools installed
snapd: the tool that allows us to install ‘snap’ packages, which we’ll use for PowerShell and VSCode

sudo apt -y install VIM
sudo apt -y install net-tools
sudo apt -y install git-all
sudo apt -y install snapd

Install PowerShell Core

Now that we have the dependencies in place, let’s install PowerShell Core. There are a couple of ways to do this:

Method 1: Using the GUI

Open the Ubuntu Software store from the toolbar (the orange ‘A’ icon).
Click the Search icon.
Enter ‘PowerShell’ - you’ll see both the regular PowerShell icon and potentially a preview version.
If you want to install through the GUI, just double-click the PowerShell item.

Method 2: Using the Command Line

PowerShell can be installed as a ‘snap’ package. Make sure you’ve installed snapd as mentioned earlier.
Open a terminal window and run the following command to install PowerShell Core:
```
snap install powershell --classic
```
The --classic flag is required so the PowerShell snap can interact with the rest of your system.
Launch PowerShell Core by running pwsh in your terminal.
Test it out by running a few commands:
```
Get-Help
Get-ChildItem
$PSVersionTable
```
The $PSVersionTable command will show you the version of PowerShell you have installed.

Install VSCode

To edit PowerShell scripts, we’ll want to install Visual Studio Code (VSCode) as well. Similar to PowerShell, we can install VSCode as a snap package:

   snap install --classic code

Once installed, be sure to install the PowerShell extension for VSCode. You can do this by:

Clicking the Extensions icon on the left sidebar (the square puzzle piece).
Searching for ‘PowerShell’ and clicking the ‘Install’ button.

You may also want to consider installing a few other useful extensions:

Markdown All in One
Markdown Preview Enhanced
SQL Server (mssql)
Bash Debug

Additional Configuration

If you need to install VSCode without using snaps, you can follow the Microsoft’s VSCode Linux installation documentation.

For PowerShell remoting and working with Docker, you’ll find additional setup instructions in the following documents:

Happy PowerShelling on Ubuntu!

This guide is based on content from Install PowerShell Core on Linux Ubuntu by Robert C. Cain.