Pipeline Cookbook

Real-world pipeline recipes organized by use case. Every recipe shows the one-liner command, what it does, expected output, and the typed object properties available after the pipeline completes.

Tip

Every pipeline preserves typed objects. Assign the result to a variable and access properties directly — no string parsing required.

DevOps Recipes

Find Large Files

find . -size +10M -type f | sort -k5 -rn

Recursively finds files larger than 10 MB and sorts them by size (column 5) in descending numeric order. Useful for identifying bloat in a repository or deployment directory.

./logs/app-2026-03.log          52428800    2026-03-30 14:22
./dist/bundle.js                15728640    2026-03-28 09:15
./data/export.csv               11534336    2026-03-25 16:45

Object properties available:

Property	Type	Example
Name	string	app-2026-03.log
FullPath	string	./logs/app-2026-03.log
SizeBytes	long	52428800
IsDirectory	bool	False

# Programmatic access after pipeline
$big = find . -size +10M -type f | sort -k5 -rn
$big.SizeBytes | Measure-Object -Sum    # total bytes in large files
$big | Where-Object { $_.Name -like '*.log' }  # filter to logs only

---

Disk Usage Hogs

du -sh * | sort -rh | head 10

Shows disk usage of each item in the current directory with human-readable sizes, sorted largest first, limited to the top 10 entries.

1.2G    node_modules
256M    dist
48M     logs
12M     src
4.0K    README.md

Object properties available:

Property	Type	Example
SizeBytes	long	1288490188
Path	string	node_modules
BashText	string	1.2G node_modules

$usage = du -sh * | sort -rh | head 10
$usage.SizeBytes | Measure-Object -Sum   # total disk usage

---

Log Error Analysis

cat app.log | grep 'ERROR' | cut -d' ' -f1-3 | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn

Reads a log file, filters to error lines, extracts the first three fields (typically timestamp components), then counts and ranks by frequency. Shows which time periods have the most errors.

      47 2026-03-30 14:22:01
      23 2026-03-30 14:22:02
      12 2026-03-30 09:15:33
       3 2026-03-29 23:01:17

Object properties available:

Property	Type	Example
BashText	string	47 2026-03-30 14:22:01

Note

The cut, uniq -c, and final sort stages produce TextOutput objects. For richer analysis, capture the grep output before the text transforms: $errors = cat app.log | grep 'ERROR' gives you GrepMatch objects with .LineNumber and .Line.

---

Top CPU Processes

ps aux | sort -k3 -rn | head 10

Lists all processes, sorts by CPU percentage (column 3) in descending order, and shows the top 10 consumers.

USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
you       1234  8.2  1.4  45600 14200 pts/0    S    10:00   0:12 pwsh
root         1  0.3  0.1   2400  1200 ?        Ss   09:00   0:01 init
you       5678  0.1  0.5  12300  5100 pts/1    S    10:15   0:00 node server.js

Object properties available:

Property	Type	Example
PID	int	1234
CPU	double	8.2
Memory	double	1.4
Command	string	pwsh
User	string	you

$procs = ps aux | sort -k3 -rn | head 10
$procs.CPU | Measure-Object -Sum -Average   # CPU stats for top consumers
$procs | Where-Object { $_.CPU -gt 1.0 }    # only high-CPU processes

---

Find Recent Changes

find . -mtime -7 -type f | sort

Finds all files modified in the last 7 days and sorts them alphabetically. Useful for reviewing what changed during a sprint or after a deployment.

./src/Commands.ps1
./src/PsBash.psd1
./tests/Commands.Tests.ps1

Object properties available:

Property	Type	Example
Name	string	Commands.ps1
FullPath	string	./src/Commands.ps1
SizeBytes	long	14200
IsDirectory	bool	False

$recent = find . -mtime -7 -type f | sort
$recent | Where-Object { $_.Name -like '*.Tests.*' }   # only test files

---

Data Pipeline Recipes

JSON Field Extraction

cat api-response.json | jq '.data[] | .name'

Reads a JSON file and extracts the name field from every element in the data array. Works on Windows without installing a separate jq binary.

"Alice"
"Bob"
"Charlie"

Object properties available:

Property	Type	Example
BashText	string	"Alice"

# Parse the full objects for richer access
$names = cat api-response.json | jq '.data[] | .name'
$names.Count   # number of entries

---

CSV Filtering

xan select name,email users.csv | xan search 'admin'

Selects only the name and email columns from a CSV file, then filters to rows containing “admin”. Combines column projection with row filtering in a single pipeline.

name,email
Alice Admin,alice@example.com
Bob Administrator,bob@example.com

Object properties available:

Property	Type	Example
BashText	string	Alice Admin,alice@example.com

---

YAML Config Lookup

cat config.yml | yq '.database.host'

Extracts a nested value from a YAML configuration file. Reads the host field under the database key.

db.example.com

Object properties available:

Property	Type	Example
BashText	string	db.example.com

# Chain multiple lookups
$host = cat config.yml | yq '.database.host'
$port = cat config.yml | yq '.database.port'
echo "$host`:$port"   # db.example.com:5432

---

File Management Recipes

Find and Delete Stale Files

find . -name '*.tmp' -mtime +7 | xargs rm -f

Finds .tmp files older than 7 days and passes them to rm -f for removal. The xargs bridge converts the FindEntry stream into arguments for rm.

(no output -- files are deleted silently with -f)

Object properties available (before xargs):

Property	Type	Example
Name	string	build-cache.tmp
FullPath	string	./tmp/build-cache.tmp
SizeBytes	long	8192

# Preview before deleting
find . -name '*.tmp' -mtime +7
# Then delete
find . -name '*.tmp' -mtime +7 | xargs rm -f

---

Archive Source Files

find src/ -name '*.ps1' | tar -czf scripts.tar.gz -T -

Finds all PowerShell scripts under src/ and pipes the file list into tar to create a compressed archive. The -T - flag tells tar to read file names from standard input.

(no output -- archive created at scripts.tar.gz)

Object properties available (from find, before tar):

Property	Type	Example
Name	string	PsBash.psm1
FullPath	string	src/PsBash.psm1
SizeBytes	long	245760

# Verify the archive contents
tar -tzf scripts.tar.gz

---

Count Files by Extension

find . -type f | sed 's/.*\.//' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn

Lists all files, strips everything before the last dot to isolate the extension, then counts and ranks by frequency. Quick way to understand a project’s file composition.

     142 ps1
      38 txt
      25 json
      12 md
       7 yml

Object properties available:

Property	Type	Example
BashText	string	142 ps1

Tip

For a richer alternative, capture the find output first: $files = find . -type f gives you FindEntry objects. Then use PowerShell grouping: $files | Group-Object { $_.Name -replace '.*\.' } | Sort-Object Count -Descending.

---

Text Processing Recipes

Word Frequency Analysis

cat text.txt | tr ' ' '\n' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head 20

Splits text into one word per line, sorts alphabetically (so identical words are adjacent), counts consecutive duplicates, and ranks by frequency. The top 20 most common words appear first.

      87 the
      54 and
      41 of
      38 to
      29 a

Object properties available:

Property	Type	Example
BashText	string	87 the

# Alternative: capture and use PowerShell grouping
$words = cat text.txt | tr ' ' '\n'
$words | Group-Object { $_.BashText.Trim() } | Sort-Object Count -Descending | Select-Object -First 20

---

Column Extraction from Processes

ps aux | awk '{print $1, $3, $11}' | sort -k2 -rn

Extracts the user, CPU percentage, and command name columns from the process list, then sorts by CPU descending. A concise summary of who is consuming resources.

you 8.2 pwsh
root 0.3 init
you 0.1 node

Object properties available:

Property	Type	Example
BashText	string	you 8.2 pwsh

Tip

For typed access, skip awk and use the PsEntry properties directly: ps aux | sort -k3 -rn | ForEach-Object { "$($_.User) $($_.CPU) $($_.Command)" }.

---

Checksum Verification

find . -name '*.ps1' | xargs sha256sum | tee checksums.txt

Finds all PowerShell scripts, computes their SHA-256 checksums, writes the results to checksums.txt, and passes them through to the terminal. Useful for verifying file integrity before or after a transfer.

a1b2c3d4e5f6...  ./src/PsBash.psm1
f6e5d4c3b2a1...  ./src/Helpers.ps1
1234567890ab...  ./tests/PsBash.Tests.ps1

Object properties available:

Property	Type	Example
BashText	string	a1b2c3d4e5f6... ./src/PsBash.psm1

---

The Power Move: Object Access After Pipeline

The real advantage of ps-bash is that typed objects survive the entire pipeline. Assign any pipeline result to a variable and you get full property access, PowerShell filtering, and aggregation.

$files = ls -la | grep '.ps1' | sort -k5 -h

This pipeline lists files, filters to .ps1 matches, and sorts by size. Every stage preserves the original LsEntry objects.

-rw-r--r--  1 you you    1084 Apr  2 10:30 Helpers.ps1
-rw-r--r--  1 you you   14200 Apr  2 10:28 Commands.ps1
-rw-r--r--  1 you you  245760 Apr  2 10:29 PsBash.psm1

Now use those objects programmatically:

# Array of file names
$files.Name

Helpers.ps1
Commands.ps1
PsBash.psm1

# Total size across all matched files
$files.SizeBytes | Measure-Object -Sum

Count    : 3
Average  :
Sum      : 261044
Maximum  :
Minimum  :
Property :

# PowerShell filtering on typed properties
$files | Where-Object { $_.SizeBytes -gt 10000 }

-rw-r--r--  1 you you   14200 Apr  2 10:28 Commands.ps1
-rw-r--r--  1 you you  245760 Apr  2 10:29 PsBash.psm1

# Group processes by user, count per user
$procs = ps aux
$procs | Group-Object User | Sort-Object Count -Descending

Count Name     Group
----- ----     -----
   42 you      {PsBash.PsEntry, PsBash.PsEntry, ...}
   15 root     {PsBash.PsEntry, PsBash.PsEntry, ...}

Pipeline objects are typed

Every command returns objects with named properties. grep, sort, head, and tail pass through the original objects unchanged.

Text in the terminal, objects in code

The terminal renders BashText so output looks like real bash. Variables hold the full typed object for programmatic use.

PowerShell cmdlets just work

Measure-Object, Where-Object, Group-Object, Select-Object, and ForEach-Object all work because the pipeline carries structured data.

No string parsing required

Replace awk '{print $5}' with .SizeBytes. Replace cut -d: -f2 with .Value. Named properties replace field extraction.

Properties available on common pipeline types:

Pipeline Source	Type	Key Properties
ls -la	LsEntry	Name, SizeBytes, Permissions, Owner, LastModified
find	FindEntry	Name, FullPath, SizeBytes, IsDirectory
ps aux	PsEntry	PID, CPU, Memory, Command, User
grep	GrepMatch	FileName, LineNumber, Line
du	DuEntry	SizeBytes, Path
cat	CatLine	LineNumber, Content, FileName
wc	WcResult	Lines, Words, Bytes, FileName

For the full property reference, see the Object Types page.