How to pass result from Select-Object to a command as a parameter

Question

So I have a HyperV machine, and I can get the IP address thus:

Get-VM -VMName localdev | Select -ExpandProperty Networkadapters | Select -ExpandProperty IPAddresses | Select-Object -First 1

What I can't figure is how to 'pipe' this to SSH to connect to the machine in a single line.

Get-VM ....... | Select-Object -First 1 | ssh

^^^ this doesn't work.

I can do this but it's lacking in elegance:

$localdevip = Get-VM -VMName localdev | Select -ExpandProperty Networkadapters | Select -ExpandProperty IPAddresses |Select-Object -First 1
ssh $localdevip

Although this works, I want to understand Powershell better. How can I funnel the result from the Select-Object call into the parameter for the command (in the example it's SSH but could be anything) without assigning a variable?

Is the IP Address just the output? You can use a calculated property to narrow it down to just one Select-Object including the -Fist 1 parameter — Abraham Zinala
– Abraham Zinala, Commented Aug 10, 2021 at 16:13
Yes, it literally outputs only 1.2.3.4 yet if I add | ssh it behaves as though I've passed no parameters and shows the help text. — Antony Hutchison
– Antony Hutchison, Commented Aug 10, 2021 at 16:19
the posted answer is what i was going to suggest, with a few changes. SSH is not a powershell cmdlet, meaning it does not accept pipeline input. — Abraham Zinala
– Abraham Zinala, Commented Aug 10, 2021 at 16:27
Please, do post an answer if there's a better way that makes it more pure Powershell. I just couldn't figure out where the output vanished to, but I'm coming from a Bash/Linux background where things work differently. — Antony Hutchison
– Antony Hutchison, Commented Aug 10, 2021 at 16:58

Alejandro Garcia · Accepted Answer · 2021-08-10 16:19:42Z

1

Try this

ssh (Get-VM -VMName localdev | Select -ExpandProperty Networkadapters | Select -ExpandProperty IPAddresses |Select-Object -First 1)

answered Aug 10, 2021 at 16:19

Alejandro Garcia

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1 Comment

vrdse Over a year ago

Since OP mention "elegeance", this is a bit shorter and might be easer to read and type. ssh (Get-VM -VMName localdev).Networkadapters.IPAddresses[0]

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