PowerShell performance

There are certain scenarios where certain tasks seem to be more sluggish 
in PowerShell.  I'm trying to put together an "unofficial list" of 
things that seem to run slower in PowerShell versus another *scripting* 
language.

If you have any concrete examples, I'd really like to know about them. 
Everyone may not be willing to go through the trouble of trying the CTP 
and beta releases, but I would definitely try your scenarios in any/all 
future versions.

At the very least, perhaps there are some tweaks that can be done to 
your existing script to make it run faster just by using a different 
approach.

Reply here, or feel free to email me directly.  My address on this 
message is valid (just remove the "_NO_SPAM_" part).

Marco

-- 
Microsoft MVP - Windows PowerShell
http://www.microsoft.com/mvp

PowerGadgets MVP
http://www.powergadgets.com/mvp

Blog:

Hello Marco Shaw [MVP],

You've touched on a topic I've been eager to discuss for some time, so let 
me pose a question if I may.

Presumably there are calls to the .NET framework when an instance of Powershell

is instantiated, correct? Would not  this process of starting Powershell 
when launching as a script as a scheduled task or calling from a bat file 
before making WMI, ASDI or other calls result in a longer time to completion?


Regards,

Pete Zerger, MCSE(Messaging) | MCTS(SQL 2005) | MCTS(Opsmgr) | MVP - Opsmgr
URL:http://www.systemcenterforum.org
Training: http://www.systemcenterforum.org/training
User Group: http://www.systemcenterusergroup.com

> There are certain scenarios where certain tasks seem to be more
> sluggish in PowerShell.  I'm trying to put together an "unofficial
> list" of things that seem to run slower in PowerShell versus another
> *scripting* language.
> 
> If you have any concrete examples, I'd really like to know about them.
> Everyone may not be willing to go through the trouble of trying the
> CTP and beta releases, but I would definitely try your scenarios in
> any/all future versions.
> 
> At the very least, perhaps there are some tweaks that can be done to
> your existing script to make it run faster just by using a different
> approach.
> 
> Reply here, or feel free to email me directly.  My address on this
> message is valid (just remove the "_NO_SPAM_" part).
> 
> Marco
> 
> PowerGadgets MVP
> http://www.powergadgets.com/mvp
> Blog:
> http://marcoshaw.blogspot.com

"Pete Zerger" <pete.zerger@deletethis.gmail.com> wrote in
message 
news:42cbe162b098ca6aa381eeb2f6@msnews.microsoft.com...
> Hello Marco Shaw [MVP],
>
> You've touched on a topic I've been eager to discuss for some time, so let

> me pose a question if I may.
>
> Presumably there are calls to the .NET framework when an instance of 
> Powershell is instantiated, correct? Would not  this process of starting 
> Powershell when launching as a script as a scheduled task or calling from 
> a bat file before making WMI, ASDI or other calls result in a longer time 
> to completion?

It's not just making some calls - PowerShell is entirely based on the .NET 
Framework.  It's baked into the core.

--
Keith 

Hello Keith Hill [MVP],

Point taken, but that being said, how does it stack up against traditional 
runtime scripting languages in terms of performance and overhead?

Regards,

Pete Zerger, MCSE(Messaging) | MCTS(SQL 2005) | MCTS(Opsmgr) | MVP - Opsmgr
URL:http://www.systemcenterforum.org
Training: http://www.systemcenterforum.org/training
User Group: http://www.systemcenterusergroup.com

> "Pete Zerger" <pete.zerger@deletethis.gmail.com> wrote in
message
> news:42cbe162b098ca6aa381eeb2f6@msnews.microsoft.com...
> 
>> Hello Marco Shaw [MVP],
>> 
>> You've touched on a topic I've been eager to discuss for some time,
>> so let me pose a question if I may.
>> 
>> Presumably there are calls to the .NET framework when an instance of
>> Powershell is instantiated, correct? Would not  this process of
>> starting Powershell when launching as a script as a scheduled task or
>> calling from a bat file before making WMI, ASDI or other calls result
>> in a longer time to completion?
>> 
> It's not just making some calls - PowerShell is entirely based on the
> .NET Framework.  It's baked into the core.
> 
> --
> Keith

"Pete Zerger" <pete.zerger@deletethis.gmail.com> wrote in
message 
news:42cbe162bbd8ca6c50c06c170e@msnews.microsoft.com...
> Hello Keith Hill [MVP],
>
> Point taken, but that being said, how does it stack up against traditional

> runtime scripting languages in terms of performance and overhead?

I am just guessing, but from my limited experience with Powershell it seemed
unreasonably slow to start a NEW powershell session, while Perl, Ruby,
PHP, even Lisp, seem reasonably quick.

This is purely an anecdotal report and isn't even based on actual timings, 
but
the effect seemed so obvious to me that I never questioned it and just tend
to use other tools rather than Powershell when they will solve the same 
problem.