Width | Easy Powershell 2.0 Reference

SYNOPSIS
Sends output to a file.

SYNTAX
Out-File [-FilePath] <string> [[-Encoding] <string>] [-Append] [-Force] [-InputObject <psobject>] [-NoClobber] [-Width <int>] [-Confirm] [-WhatIf] [<CommonParameters>]

DESCRIPTION
The Out-File cmdlet sends output to a file. You can use this cmdlet instead of the redirection operator (>) when you need to use its parameters.

PARAMETERS
-Append [<SwitchParameter>]
Adds the output to the end of an existing file, instead of replacing the file contents.

        Required?                    false
        Position?                    named
        Default value
        Accept pipeline input?     false
        Accept wildcard characters? false

-Encoding <string>
Specifies the type of character encoding used in the file. Valid values are “Unicode”, “UTF7”, “UTF8”, “UTF32”, “ASCII”, “BigEndianUnicode”, “Default”, and “OEM”. “Unicode” is the default.

“Default” uses the encoding of the system’s current ANSI code page.

“OEM” uses the current original equipment manufacturer code page identifier for the operating system.

        Required?                    false
        Position?                    2
        Default value
        Accept pipeline input?     false
        Accept wildcard characters? false

-FilePath <string>
Specifies the path to the output file.

        Required?                    true
        Position?                    1
        Default value
        Accept pipeline input?     false
        Accept wildcard characters? false

-Force [<SwitchParameter>]
Allows the cmdlet to overwrite an existing read-only file. Even using the Force parameter, the cmdlet cannot override security restrictions.

        Required?                    false
        Position?                    named
        Default value
        Accept pipeline input?     false
        Accept wildcard characters? false

-InputObject <psobject>
Specifies the objects to be written to the file. Enter a Variable that contains the objects or type a command or expression that gets the objects.

        Required?                    false
        Position?                    named
        Default value
        Accept pipeline input?     true (ByValue)
        Accept wildcard characters? false

-NoClobber [<SwitchParameter>]
Will not overwrite (replace the contents) of an existing file. By default, if a file exists in the specified path, Out-File overwrites the file without warning. If both Append and NoClobber are used, the output is appended to the existing file.

        Required?                    false
        Position?                    named
        Default value
        Accept pipeline input?     false
        Accept wildcard characters? false

-Width <int>
Specifies the number of characters in each line of output. Any additional characters are truncated, not wrapped. If you omit this parameter, the width is determined by the characteristics of the host. The default for the Windows PowerShell console is 80 (characters).

        Required?                    false
        Position?                    named
        Default value
        Accept pipeline input?     false
        Accept wildcard characters? false

-Confirm [<SwitchParameter>]
Prompts you for confirmation before executing the command.

        Required?                    false
        Position?                    named
        Default value
        Accept pipeline input?     false
        Accept wildcard characters? false

-WhatIf [<SwitchParameter>]
Describes what would happen if you executed the command without actually executing the command.

        Required?                    false
        Position?                    named
        Default value
        Accept pipeline input?     false
        Accept wildcard characters? false

    <CommonParameters>
        This cmdlet supports the common parameters: Verbose, Debug,
        ErrorAction, ErrorVariable, WarningAction, WarningVariable,
        OutBuffer and OutVariable. For more information, type,
        “Get-Help about_CommonParameters“.

INPUTS
System.Management.Automation.PSObject
You can pipe any object to Out-File.

OUTPUTS
None
Out-File does not generate any output.

NOTES

The Out cmdlets do not format objects; they just render them and send them to the specified display destination. If you send an unformatted object to an Out cmdlet, the cmdlet sends it to a formatting cmdlet before rendering it.

The Out cmdlets do not have parameters for names or file paths. To send data to a cmdlet that contains the Out verb (an Out cmdlet), use a pipeline operator (|) to send the output of a Windows PowerShell command to the cmdlet. You can also store data in a Variable and use the InputObject parameter to pass the data to the cmdlet. For help, see the examples.

Out-File sends data, but it does not emit any output objects. If you pipe the output of Out-File to Get-Member, Get-Member reports that no objects have been specified.

————————– EXAMPLE 1 ————————–

C:\PS>Get-Process | Out-File -FilePath C:\Test1\process.txt

    Description
    ———–
    This command sends a list of processes on the computer to the Process.txt file. If the file does not exist, Out-File creates it. Because the name of the FilePath parameter is optional, you can omit it and submit the equivalent command “Get-Process | outfile C:\Test1\process.txt”.

————————– EXAMPLE 2 ————————–

C:\PS>Get-Process | Out-File C:\Test1\process.txt -NoClobber

    Out-File : File C:\Test1\process.txt already exists and NoClobber was specified.
    At line:1 char:23
    + Get-Process | Out-File <<<< process.txt -NoClobber

    Description
    ———–
    This command also sends a list of processes to the Process.txt file, but it uses the NoClobber parameter, which prevents an existing file from being overwritten. The output shows the error message that appears when NoClobber is used with an existing file.

————————– EXAMPLE 3 ————————–

C:\PS>$a = Get-Process

C:\PS> Out-File -FilePath C:\Test1\process.txt -InputObject $a -Encoding ASCII -Width 50

    Description
    ———–
    These commands send a list of processes on the computer to the Process.txt file. The text is encoded in ASCII format so that it can be read by search programs like Findstr and Grep. By default, Out-File uses Unicode format.

The first command gets the list of processes and stores them in the $a Variable. The second command uses the Out-File cmdlet to send the list to the Process.txt file.

The command uses the InputObject parameter to specify that the input is in the $a Variable. It uses the Encoding parameter to convert the output to ASCII format. It uses the Width parameter to limit each line in the file to 50 characters. Because the lines of output are truncated at 50 characters, the rightmost column in the process table is omitted.

————————– EXAMPLE 4 ————————–

C:\PS>Set-Location hklm:\software

c:\PS>Get-Acl mycompany\mykey | Out-File -FilePath c:\ps\acl.txt

c:\PS>Get-Acl mycompany\mykey | Out-File -FilePath FileSystem::acl.txt

    Description
    ———–
    These commands show how to use the Out-File cmdlet when you are not in a FileSystem drive.

The first command sets the current location to the HKLM:\Software Registry key.

The second and third commands have the same effect. They use the Get-Acl cmdlet to get the security descriptor of the MyKey Registry subkey (HKLM\Software\MyCompany\MyKey). A pipeline operator passes the result to the Out-File cmdlet, which sends it to the Acl.txt file.

Because Out-File is not supported by the Windows PowerShell Registry provider, you must specify either the file system drive name, such as “c:”, or the name of the provider followed by two colons, “FileSystem::”, in the value of the FilePath parameter. The second and third commands demonstrate these methods.

RELATED LINKS
    Online version: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=113363
    Out-String
    Out-Null
    Out-Host
    Out-Printer
    Out-Default
    Tee-Object

NAME
Out-String

SYNOPSIS
Sends objects to the host as a series of strings.

SYNTAX
Out-String [-InputObject <psobject>] [-Stream] [-Width <int>] [<CommonParameters>]

DESCRIPTION
The Out-String cmdlet converts the objects that Windows PowerShell manages into an array of strings. By default, Out-String accumulates the strings and returns them as a single string, but you can use the stream parameter to direct Out-String to return one string at a time. This cmdlet lets you search and manipulate string output as you would in traditional shells when object manipulation is less convenient.

PARAMETERS
-InputObject <psobject>
Specifies the objects to be written to a string. Enter a Variable that contains the objects, or type a command or expression that gets the objects.

        Required?                    false
        Position?                    named
        Default value
        Accept pipeline input?     true (ByValue)
        Accept wildcard characters? false

-Stream [<SwitchParameter>]
Sends the strings for each object separately. By default, the strings for each object are accumulated and sent as a single string.

        Required?                    false
        Position?                    named
        Default value
        Accept pipeline input?     false
        Accept wildcard characters? false

INPUTS
System.Management.Automation.PSObject
You can pipe objects to Out-String.

OUTPUTS
System.String
Out-String returns the string that it creates from the input object.

NOTES

The cmdlets that contain the Out verb (the Out cmdlets) do not format objects; they just render them and send them to the specified display destination. If you send an unformatted object to an Out cmdlet, the cmdlet sends it to a formatting cmdlet before rendering it.

The Out cmdlets do not have parameters for names or file paths. To send data to an Out cmdlet, use a pipeline operator (|) to send the output of a Windows PowerShell command to the cmdlet. You can also store data in a Variable and use the InputObject parameter to pass the data to the cmdlet. For more information, see the examples.

————————– EXAMPLE 1 ————————–

C:\PS>Get-Content C:\test1\testfile2.txt | Out-String

    Description
    ———–
    This command sends the content of the Testfile2.txt file to the console as a single string. It uses the Get-Content cmdlet to get the content of the file. The pipeline operator (|) sends the content to Out-String, which sends the content to the console as a string.

————————– EXAMPLE 2 ————————–

C:\PS>$c = Get-Culture | Select-Object *

C:\PS> Out-String -InputObject $c -Width 100

    Description
    ———–
    These commands get the regional settings for the current user and convert the data to strings. The first command uses the Get-Culture cmdlet to get the regional settings. The pipeline operator (|) sends the result to the Select-Object cmdlet, which selects all properties (*) of the culture object that Get-Culture retrieved. The command then stores the results in the $c Variable.

The second command uses Out-String to convert the CultureInfo object to a series of strings (one string for each property). It uses the InputObject parameter to pass the $c Variable to Out-String. The width parameter is set to 100 characters per line to prevent truncation.

————————– EXAMPLE 3 ————————–

C:\PS>Get-Alias | Out-String -Stream | Select-String “Get-Command”

    Description
    ———–
    This command displays Aliases that include the phrase “Get-Command“. It uses the Get-Alias cmdlet to get a set of AliasInfo objects (one for each Alias in the current session). This example demonstrates the difference between working with objects and working with strings.

The pipeline operator (|) sends the output of Get-Alias to Out-String, which converts the objects to a series of strings. It uses the Stream parameter to send each string individually, instead of concatenating them into a single string. Another pipeline operator sends the strings to Select-String, which selects the strings that include “Get-Command” anywhere in the string.

If you omit the Stream parameter, the command displays all of the Aliases, because Select-String finds “Get-Command” in the single string that Out-String returns, and the formatter displays the string as a table.

RELATED LINKS
    Online version: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=113368
    Out-File
    Out-Null
    Out-Host
    Out-Printer
    Out-Default