6/17/2023 0 Comments Out file cards![]() The > operator is equivalent to Out-File while > is equivalent to Out-File -Append. There are two PowerShell operators you can use to redirect output: > and >. Although the documentation does not specify any maximum upper value, formatting is erratic if you specify a width greater than 1025 characters. In PowerShell 7, you can specify a value of up to 1024, enabling very wide tables. If you output very wide tables, you can use the -Width parameter to adjust the output’s width. By default, PowerShell 7 uses the UTF-8 encoding, but you can choose others should you need to. You can use the -Encoding parameter to tell PowerShell how to encode the output. The Out-File cmdlet gives you control over the output that PowerShell composes and sends to the file. PS> Get-Process -Name pwsh | Out-File -Path C:\Foo\pwsh.txt Using Out-File looks like this: PS> # Get Powershell processes and output to a file Using this cmdlet means Powershell sends the file the same display representation that you see from the console. The cmdlet, however, uses PowerShell’s formatting system to write to the file rather than using ToString(). The Out-File cmdlet sends output to a file. Now that is looking a lot more like what I suspect you wanted! But there is an easier way. NPM(K) PM(M) WS(M) CPU(s) Id SI ProcessName You can improve the output from Set-Content by using Out-String, like this: PS> # Get Powershell processes, convert to string, then output to a file You can see the basic approach to building up a report in this script that creates a Hyper-V VM summary report. For example, you could create a string, then add to it repeatedly in a script, finally outputting the report string to a file. The *-Content cmdlets are useful when you are building up a report programmatically. But it is far short of the richer output you see when you use Get-Process from the console. The ToString() method for this class outputs the object’s type name and includes the process name as you see above. The class’s implementation of the ToString() method is only marginally richer. Net’s default implementation prints out the object’s type name, like this: PS> $Foo = ::new() In this example, PowerShell found the 5 pwsh.exe processes, converted each to a string using ToString(), and outputs those strings to the file. In many cases, this conversion does not produce what you expect (or want). ![]() For example: PS> Get-Process -Name pwsh | Set-Content -Path C:\Foo\AAA.txt A very important point here – if you pass either cmdlet a non-string object, these cmdlets use each object’s ToString() method to convert the object to a string before outputting it to the file. Both cmdlets convert the objects you pass in the pipeline to strings, and then output these strings to the specified file. ![]() The two cmdlets you use to send command or script output to a file are Set-Content and Add-Content. Set-Content – writes new content which replaces the content in a file.Get-Content – retrieves the content of a file.Clear-Content – removes all content of a file.Add-Content – appends content to a file.If there are more techniques for file output, I expect to see them in the comments to this article. Then they whisper: plus the way my mother taught me. Writing this reminds me of my friends in Portugal who tell me there are 1000 ways to cook bacalao (cod). There are (at least) four ways to get output to a file. Once you have created the code (script, fragment, or a single command) that creates the output you need, you can use several techniques to send that output to a file. ![]() Or, you might want to view it in a text editor or print it out later. You might want to run a command or script that outputs information to a file and sends this file via email or possibly FTP. But sometimes, what you want is getting output to a file, not to the console. If the default output is not what you need, use the formatting cmdlets like Format-Table and Format-List to get what you want. You type a command – PowerShell gives you the output it thinks you want. One of PowerShell’s great features is the way it automatically formats output. Q: Is there an easy way to save my script output to a text file rather than displaying it on screen?Ī: Of course – there are multiple ways to do just that! PowerShell and Output
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