powershell and pwsh command discrepancy

[rachmari]

What feature or product is affected?

Actions!

What is the new or expected behavior?

Corrected shell command details (I think)!

How is the old or inaccurate behavior currently documented?

We received a report from a user

the docs state the shell commands that they run https://docs.github.com/en/actions/reference/workflow-syntax-for-github-actions#using-a-specific-shell

for pwsh - pwsh -command "& '{0}'"
for powershell - powershell -command "& '{0}'".

however in runs it seems that the commands are not that example

/usr/bin/pwsh -command ". '{0}'"

So the difference seems to be . vs &? If you run this workflow:

name: check shell output
on:
  push:
jobs:
  pwsh:
    runs-on: windows-latest
    steps:
    - name: windows pwsh command
      shell: pwsh
      run: Write-Host 'Hello, World pwsh!'

  powershell:
    runs-on: windows-latest
    steps:
    - name: windows powershell command
      shell: powershell
      run: Write-Host 'Hello, World powershell!'

I think this is what you see in the log output for pwsh:

Run Write-Host 'Hello, World pwsh!'
  Write-Host 'Hello, World pwsh!'
  shell: C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7\pwsh.EXE -command ". '{0}'"

And for powershell:

Run Write-Host 'Hello, World powershell!'
  Write-Host 'Hello, World powershell!'
  shell: C:\windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.EXE -command ". '{0}'"

So -command ". '{0}'" in both cases but the docs shows -command "& '{0}'" in both cases?

Audience

Users who are building GitHub Actions workflows and using pwsh or powershell.