How does threading in powershell work?

Question

I want to parallelize some file-parsing actions with network activity in powershell. Quick google for it, start-thread looked like a solution, but:

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Answer 1

Powershell does not have a built-in command named Start-Thread.

V2.0 does, however, have PowerShell jobs, which can run in the background, and can be considered the equivalent of a thread. You have the following commands at your disposal for working with jobs:

Name                              Category  Synopsis
----                              --------  --------
Start-Job                         Cmdlet    Starts a Windows PowerShell background job.
Get-Job                           Cmdlet    Gets Windows PowerShell background jobs that are running in the current ...
Receive-Job                       Cmdlet    Gets the results of the Windows PowerShell background jobs in the curren...
Stop-Job                          Cmdlet    Stops a Windows PowerShell background job.
Wait-Job                          Cmdlet    Suppresses the command prompt until one or all of the Windows PowerShell...
Remove-Job                        Cmdlet    Deletes a Windows PowerShell background job.

Here is an example on how to work with it. To start a job, use start-job and pass a script block which contains the code you want run asynchronously:

$job  = start-job { get-childitem . -recurse }

This command will start a job, that gets all children under the current directory recursively, and you will be returned to the command line immediately.

You can examine the $job variable to see if the job has finished, etc. If you want to wait for a job to finish, use:

wait-job $job

Finally, to receive the results from a job, use:

receive-job $job