How it works...

SHiPS allows you to map out a read-only data structure of your choice, limited only by your programming skills. While you can't use cmdlets such as Remove-Item, you can define your own object methods or expose functions that call cmdlets or .NET methods internally. Your own provider might also return .NET objects from existing classes, such as the System.IO.FileInfo object returned from the filesystem provider.

Your data can still be processed with the Object cmdlets, piped and otherwise, worked with in PowerShell. Just be aware that, to retrieve the data, only Get-Item and Get-ChildItem can be used, and that all of the other provider-aware cmdlets simply aren't implemented.