PowerShell/DSC v3.4.0-preview.2 on GitHub

What's Changed

These release notes describe updates to DSC since the 3.4.0-preview.1 release.

This document includes the following sections:

Added for changes that improve or add functionality without breaking existing usage.
Fixed for changes that resolve a bug in existing behavior.
Documentation for changes that only affect documentation.
Maintenance for changes that affect the project or internals without changing the user experience.

Each section has one or more subsections describing the area that the change affects:

CLI for changes that affect the user eperience when invoking dsc itself.
Engine for changes that affect the DSC engine, configuration documents, and manifests.
Resources for changes that affect specific DSC resources.
Server for changes that affect DSC when running as a JSON-RPC/MCP server.
Bicep extension for changes that affect the Bicep extension.

For the full changelog, see v3.3.0-rc.2...v3.3.0

(GH-1735) Fix directives version against running dsc version by @Gijsreyn in #1744
Fix how secureString and secureObject is accessed in an expression by @SteveL-MSFT in #1756
Fix secret() function and secret extension to support returning secureObject by @SteveL-MSFT in #1757
fix: return validation exit code for schema failures by @sean0407 in #1754
(GH-1729) Make nonfunctional secret extension manifests invalid by @Gijsreyn in #1745

docs: Update shared definitions and Microsoft.DSC metadata reference by @Gijsreyn in #1704
docs: Refresh configuration function reference by @Gijsreyn in #1705
docs: Update extension schema reference by @Gijsreyn in #1706
docs: Add Windows Update resource documentation by @mimachniak in #1733
docs: Update resource schema reference by @Gijsreyn in #1708
docs: Update output schemas, schema URIs, and dsc function CLI reference by @Gijsreyn in #1709
Add contribution workflow and synopsis by @Gijsreyn in #1057
docs: Update configuration document schema reference by @Gijsreyn in #1707

Update build.ps1 -test -project to be scoped to the project for running tests by @SteveL-MSFT in #1742
Bump the github-actions group with 2 updates by @dependabot[bot] in #1753
Fix debug trace test by @SteveL-MSFT in #1762
Split Windows Pester CI jobs to reduce CI time by @SteveL-MSFT in #1773
Fix packages.microsoft.com publishing to have different packagename for previews by @SteveL-MSFT in #1747
Change from calling exit() to returning ExitCode from Rust executables by @SteveL-MSFT in #1743
Add structured handling for settings by @michaeltlombardi in #1690
(MAINT) Update PowerShell adapter code for PSSA by @michaeltlombardi in #1770
Add Python adapter RFC by @ThomasNieto in #1643