Comment-Based Help Keywords

This topic lists and describes the keywords in comment-based help.

Keywords in Comment-Based Help

The following are valid comment-based Help keywords. They're listed in the order in which they typically appear in a Help topic along with their intended use. These keywords can appear in any order in the comment-based Help, and they're not case-sensitive.

Note that the .EXTERNALHELP keyword takes precedence over all other comment-based help keywords. When .EXTERNALHELP is present, the Get-Help cmdlet doesn't display comment-based help, even when it can't find a help file that matches the value of the keyword.

.SYNOPSIS

A brief description of the function or script. This keyword can be used only once in each topic.

.DESCRIPTION

A detailed description of the function or script. This keyword can be used only once in each topic.

.PARAMETER <Parameter-Name>

The description of a parameter. You can include a .PARAMETER keyword for each parameter in the function or script.

The .PARAMETER keywords can appear in any order in the comment block, but the order in which the parameters appear in the param statement or function declaration determines the order in which the parameters appear in Help topic. To change the order of parameters in the Help topic, change the order of the parameters in the param statement or function declaration.

You can also specify a parameter description by placing a comment in the param statement immediately before the parameter variable name. If you use both a param statement comment and a .PARAMETER keyword, the description associated with the .PARAMETER keyword is used, and the param statement comment is ignored.

.EXAMPLE

A sample command that uses the function or script, optionally followed by sample output and a description. Repeat this keyword for each example.

.INPUTS

The .NET types of objects that can be piped to the function or script. You can also include a description of the input objects. Repeat this keyword for each input type.

.OUTPUTS

The .NET type of the objects that the cmdlet returns. You can also include a description of the returned objects. Repeat this keyword for each output type.

.NOTES

Additional information about the function or script.

.LINK

The name of a related topic. Repeat this keyword for each related topic. This content appears in the Related Links section of the Help topic.

The .LINK keyword content can also include a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) to an online version of the same help topic. The online version opens when you use the Online parameter of Get-Help. The URI must begin with http or https.

.COMPONENT

The name of the technology or feature that the function or script uses, or to which it's related. The Component parameter of Get-Help uses this value to filter the search results returned by Get-Help.

.ROLE

The name of the user role for the help topic. The Role parameter of Get-Help uses this value to filter the search results returned by Get-Help.

.FUNCTIONALITY

The keywords that describe the intended use of the function. The Functionality parameter of Get-Help uses this value to filter the search results returned by Get-Help.

.FORWARDHELPTARGETNAME <Command-Name>

Redirects to the help topic for the specified command. You can redirect users to any help topic, including help content for a function, script, cmdlet, or provider.

# .FORWARDHELPTARGETNAME <Command-Name>

.FORWARDHELPCATEGORY

Specifies the help category of the item in .FORWARDHELPTARGETNAME. Valid values are Alias, Cmdlet, HelpFile, Function, Provider, General, FAQ, Glossary, ScriptCommand, ExternalScript, Filter, or All. Use this keyword to avoid conflicts when there are commands with the same name.

# .FORWARDHELPCATEGORY <Category>

.REMOTEHELPRUNSPACE <PSSession-variable>

Specifies a session that contains the help topic. Enter a variable that contains a PSSession object. This keyword is used by the [Export-PSSession][09] cmdlet to find the help content for the exported commands.

# .REMOTEHELPRUNSPACE <PSSession-variable>

.EXTERNALHELP

Specifies an XML-based help file for the script or function.

# .EXTERNALHELP <XML Help File>

The .EXTERNALHELP keyword is required when a function or script is documented in XML files. Without this keyword, Get-Help can't find the XML-based help file for the function or script.

The .EXTERNALHELP keyword takes precedence over other comment-based help keywords. If .EXTERNALHELP is present, Get-Help doesn't display comment-based help, even if it can't find a help topic that matches the value of the .EXTERNALHELP keyword.

If the function is exported by a module, set the value of the .EXTERNALHELP keyword to a filename without a path. Get-Help looks for the specified filename in a language-specific subdirectory of the module directory. There are no requirements for the name of the XML-based help file for a function. Beginning in PowerShell 5.0, functions that are exported by a module can be documented in a help file that's named for the module. You don't need to use .EXTERNALHELP comment keyword. For example, if the Test-Function function is exported by the MyModule module, you can name the help file MyModule-help.xml. The Get-Help cmdlet looks for help for the Test-Function function in the MyModule-help.xml file in the module directory.

If the function isn't included in a module, include a path to the XML-based help file. If the value includes a path and the path contains UI-culture-specific subdirectories, Get-Help searches the subdirectories recursively for an XML file with the name of the script or function in accordance with the language fallback standards established for Windows, just as it does in a module directory.

For more information about the cmdlet help XML-based help file format, see How to Write Cmdlet Help.