IntelliSense in the editor causes modules to be loaded

[pcgeek86]

While I'm writing PowerShell code in Visual Studio Code on Mac, I notice that messages are randomly printed to the Integrated Terminal. Those messages typically indicate that a module is being imported, and sometimes my environment will change as a result (eg. posh-git changes my prompt) against my will.

While the rich Intellisense metadata is useful for development, we should investigate a method of providing this metadata while simultaneously preventing unwanted changes to the development environment. Ideas proposed by @daviwil and myself include:

• Add a setting that prevents automatic import of modules (or perhaps opts into it)
• Parse tooltips from CompletionResult objects, instead of importing module
• Run metadata gathering in separate PowerShell Runspace or process

Cheers,
Trevor Sullivan

[rkeithhill]

posh-git should not change the prompt function if it detects the prompt function is not the PowerShell default prompt i.e. the use has customized it. You could workaround the prompt changing issue by creating a custom prompt function in the Microsoft.VSCode_profile.ps1 file. Although, it would be better if posh-git were never imported as this module is meant for interactive use and isn't something you'd ever script against.

BTW you should be able to turn off module autoloading with:

$PSModuleAutoloadingPreference = 'None'

You could try putting that in the profile until a setting is added for it.

[pcgeek86]

Not a bad idea for a workaround, but I don't want to disable module auto-loading, as that would break virtually all of my code.

[daviwil]

@lzybkr recommended using CommandInvocationIntrinsics.GetCommand instead of calling Get-Command directly, this approach won't cause the module to be loaded. I think I'll give that a shot first then try some other approaches if it doesn't work for our scenarios.

[pcgeek86]

Is that more or less the equivalent of using Reflection-only loading of .NET assemblies?

[lzybkr]

I suppose, but we don't use reflection only loads of binary modules, so in that sense, definitely not.

[daviwil]

Did some work on this but I think I want to polish it a bit more before I ship it.