PowerShell lets you redirect the output of a cmdlet, script or function to another file. This is useful in many scenarios but can also be used for debugging purposes.
The “how to write powershell script output to a text file” is a useful PowerShell feature that allows for the redirecting of output to a file.
You’re in luck if you’re looking for a PowerShell cmdlet that can save the output to a text file. You’re going to discover how to utilize the PowerShell Out-File cmdlet, as well as the Out-File -Append argument!
What Is Out-File and How Does It Work?
The PowerShell Out-File cmdlet is straightforward in nature; its primary function is to save output in a text file.
Out-File was designed to replace the standard output redirection operator (>). Even from the DOS days, we could redirect output to a file. This cmdlet is the PowerShell way to do it.
The Out-File cmdlet is usually called at the Conclusion of a PowerShell script. Its primary aim is to write the raw output to a text file without any consideration. There are just a few minor changes that may be made to the output.
Using a File to Save Output
Let’s imagine you have a script that returns a list of all of your computer’s Windows services. When you run Get-Service on the console, you’ll get all of the items you’d expect.
However, you may want to save the results to a text file. The Out-File cmdlet is an excellent method to do this. Out-File may be used to stream almost anything to it through the pipeline.
The result of Get-Service was given to the cmdlet, which produced a text file named Services.txt that has the identical display that you see on the console, as you can see below.
PS> Get-Service | Out-File -FilePath C:Services.txt PS> Get-Content C:Services.txt Status Name DisplayName Stopped AJRouter AllJoyn Router Service Stopped ALG Application Layer Gateway Service Stopped AppIDSvc Application Identity Stopped Appinfo Application Information Stopped AppMgmt Application Management <SNIP>
Adding a Document to a File
Out-File overwrites anything in the text file specified by the FilePath option by default. The Append argument, on the other hand, may be used to overrule this behavior.
Perhaps you’re storing console output in a file and instead of overwriting it, you’d prefer to add text to it. Your best buddy is the Append parameter.
You can see how to utilize the Out-File -Append argument in the example below; note that if you don’t use it, C:File.txt will be overwritten. When you add the Append argument, however, the output is appended to the end.
PS> ‘foo’ | Out-File -FilePath C:File.txt PS> Get-Content -Path C:File.txt foo PS> ‘foo’ | Out-File -FilePath C:File.txt PS> Get-Content C:File.txt foo PS> ‘foo’ | Out-File -FilePath C:File.txt -Append PS> Get-Content C:File.txt foo foo
Adapting the Output
This cmdlet will try to reproduce what is shown on the console by default, but there are various methods to change that. The NoNewLine argument of the cmdlet, for example, simply eliminates all newline characters.
PS> Get-Service | Out-File -FilePath C:Services.txt -NoNewline PS> Get-Content C:Services.txt Status Name DisplayName —— —- ———– Stopped AJRouter AllJoyn Router Service Stopped ALG Application La
With the Width option, you may also cut off the text on each row at a certain character count.
PS> Get-Service | Out-File -FilePath C:Services.txt -Width 30 PS> Get-Content C:Services.txt Status Name DisplayName —— —– ———– Stopped AJRouter Al
Conclusion
The Out-File cmdlet works in practice, but there are better methods to save output to a file.
There are no actual options for manipulating the output using the Out-File cmdlet. It just stores the output in the same format as it appears in the console. This cmdlet works in the same way as a PowerShell transcript, only it just writes everything to a text file.
The Add-Content and Set-Content cmdlets will always provide greater versatility, but Out-File is the way to go if you need to send the PowerShell output to a file quickly.
Set-Content: The PowerShell Way to Write to a File is related.
The “powershell write to file line by line” is a PowerShell command that allows users to redirect the output of a script or program to a file. The command will take the input and output it as text, one line at a time.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I redirect output to a file?
A: There are a few different ways of doing this. The simplest way is to use the output redirection operator & in conjunction with redirecting stdout, such as echo Howdy! >&2
How do I save PowerShell output?
A: As a general rule, PowerShell will automatically save any output to the current drive and folder. However, you can also specify that an item be saved elsewhere by including a suffix on the object name with @filename or %variable%. For instance saving it as c:\myscript\output.txt would use c:\ as the destination path.
How do I redirect a host to a file in PowerShell?
A: If you are trying to redirect from a file in PowerShell, you must first use the Set-Location cmdlet. This will tell PowerShell that the command is meant to be read from this location and not run. Next, add your path after Set-Location with an > operator on both sides of it so that it looks like this:
C:\test>Set-location C:\Test\file
C:\test>(Get-Content C:\Test\file)
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