when using `-p` to pass a file `~` cannot be used in PowerShell

[joshcorr]

Prerequisites

• Write a descriptive title.
• Make sure you are able to repro it on the latest version
• Search the existing issues.

Steps to reproduce

When testing out the new parameter -p and -path inside PowerShell I was unable to use the ~ for referencing the $HOME location, while $env:USERPROFILE worked as seen below. The tilde can be used with other commands like Get-Command, so I was expecting this to work as an alias for the user profile.

Expected behavior

dsc config get --path ~\gotstoy.dsc.config.yaml
results:
- name: All Users Configuration
  type: TSToy.Example/gotstoy
  result:
    actualState:
      ensure: present
      scope: machine
      updateAutomatically: true
      updateFrequency: 23
- name: Current User Configuration
  type: TSToy.Example/gotstoy
  result:
    actualState:
      ensure: present
      scope: user
      updateAutomatically: true
messages: []
hadErrors: false

Actual behavior

dsc config get --path ~\gotstoy.dsc.config.yaml
2024-03-16T23:59:13.854146Z ERROR dsc::util: 385: Error: Failed to read input file: The system cannot find the path specified. (os error 3)

Error details

No response

Environment data

Name                           Value
----                           -----
PSVersion                      7.4.1
PSEdition                      Core
GitCommitId                    7.4.1
OS                             Microsoft Windows 10.0.22621
Platform                       Win32NT
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0…}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion              3.0

Version

dsc 3.0.0-alpha.5

Visuals

[joshcorr]

I see there is already a known issue with relative path, which may be a similar issue.

[SteveL-MSFT]

~ expansion is the job of the shell, not the exe so dsc.exe has no idea what ~ means. However, PS7.5 has a new experimental feature to make this work. For older PS, you can use (resolve-path ~\gotstoy.dsc.config.yaml) to force resolving the ~.