'using:' and other methods not working with start-threadJob to load objects into job session

running the following returns an error:

$job=Start-ThreadJob -name maya6 -InitializationScript {. $using:profile} -ScriptBlock {ichild}   #this is an alias defined in the profile

error:

InvalidOperation: A Using variable cannot be retrieved. A Using variable can be used only with Invoke-Command, Start-Job, or InlineScript in the script workflow. When it is used with Invoke-Command, the Using variable is valid only if the script block is invoked on a remote computer.
ichild: The term 'ichild' is not recognized as a name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or executable program.
Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.

I also tried:

$job=start-threadJob {. $args ; ichild} -ArgumentList $profile      #ichild is an alias defined in my profile

and when I use receive-job $job it freezes my prompt and I keep getting the following error:

Oops, something went wrong.  
Please report this bug with ALL the details below, including both the 'Environment' and 'Exception' sections.  
Please report on GitHub: https://github.com/PowerShell/PSReadLine/issues/new?template=Bug_Report.yaml  
Thank you!  
  
### Environment  
PSReadLine: 2.3.4  
PowerShell: 7.4.6  
OS: Microsoft Windows 10.0.26100  
BufferWidth: 170  
BufferHeight: 21  
  
Last 49 Keys:

I thought using was for specifically this commandlet...

am on pwsh7.4

Answer

• You're seeing a long-standing bug - see Read more - that was initially reported in 2017, which affects both Windows PowerShell (the legacy, ships-with-Windows, Windows-only edition of PowerShell whose latest and last version is 5.1) and PowerShell (Core) 7 as of v7.5.0; it has received no attention since then, unfortunately:

• In short: Start-Job as well as well as Start-ThreadJob unexpectedly do not support $using: references in script blocks passed to the -InitializationScript parameter.

---

Workarounds:

• Either: Add the code you meant to pass to -InitializationScript to the main script block passed to the -ScriptBlock parameter, where $using: references are supported; applied to your case:

  Start-ThreadJob -ScriptBlock { . $using:profile; ichild } -name maya6 
  

• Or: If feasible, use string interpolation to "bake" the values from the caller's scope into a string from which you can create a script block; applied to your case:

  Start-ThreadJob -InitializationScript ([scriptblock]::Create(". `"$profile`"")) -ScriptBlock { ichild } -name maya6