Vista - Why does get-content on a text file remove crlf when cast to a string?

Given the following:

function doWork($fileContent)
{
write-output $fileContent
}

gci . -i AssemblyInfo.cs -r | % { doWork (gc $_.FullName) }

will result in the contents of all AssemblyInfo.cs files being dumped to the
screen. However, this

function doWork([string]$fileContent)
{
write-output $fileContent
}

gci . -i AssemblyInfo.cs -r | % { doWork (gc $_.FullName) }

results in all crlf'ds being removed.

I am trying to update version information and I have a reg-ex in 'doWork'
that does the updates but the problem is that whenver the results of
get-contents is processed as a string, all the crlf information vanishes
which results in corrupted files?

What am I doing wrong?

thanks
-mark

--
-mark

Get-Content reads a file as a set of lines.

You can use alternative characters as the record delimiter if you want; for
example, you can force it to assume that the delimiter should be the null
character by using this:

gc AssemblyInfo.cs -Delimiter `0

This ensures you get back a complete raw string.



"Mark" <mwatts at hotmail dot com> wrote in message
news:4DBDB20F-A444-47F4-AA33-419B4C2B3C99@microsoft.com...
>
> Given the following:
>
> function doWork($fileContent)
> {
> write-output $fileContent
> }
>
> gci . -i AssemblyInfo.cs -r | % { doWork (gc $_.FullName) }
>
> will result in the contents of all AssemblyInfo.cs files being dumped to
> the screen. However, this
>
> function doWork([string]$fileContent)
> {
> write-output $fileContent
> }
>
> gci . -i AssemblyInfo.cs -r | % { doWork (gc $_.FullName) }
>
> results in all crlf'ds being removed.
>
> I am trying to update version information and I have a reg-ex in 'doWork'
> that does the updates but the problem is that whenver the results of
> get-contents is processed as a string, all the crlf information vanishes
> which results in corrupted files?
>
> What am I doing wrong?
>
> thanks
> -mark
>
> --
> -mark

Get-Content returns the contents of the file as a collection of strings (one
string per line). Since you are casting the collection to a string, the
CRLFs are lost. Instead, join can be used as shown below to obtain a single
string.

gci -i Assemblyinfo.cs -r | %{$contents=gc
$_.FullName;doWork([system.string]::join("`r`n", $contents)) }

The above will display the contents on the screen in the same way like the
first snippet.

--
Narayanan Lakshmanan [MSFT]
Windows PowerShell Development
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.


"Mark" <mwatts at hotmail dot com> wrote in message
news:4DBDB20F-A444-47F4-AA33-419B4C2B3C99@microsoft.com...
>
> Given the following:
>
> function doWork($fileContent)
> {
> write-output $fileContent
> }
>
> gci . -i AssemblyInfo.cs -r | % { doWork (gc $_.FullName) }
>
> will result in the contents of all AssemblyInfo.cs files being dumped to
> the screen. However, this
>
> function doWork([string]$fileContent)
> {
> write-output $fileContent
> }
>
> gci . -i AssemblyInfo.cs -r | % { doWork (gc $_.FullName) }
>
> results in all crlf'ds being removed.
>
> I am trying to update version information and I have a reg-ex in 'doWork'
> that does the updates but the problem is that whenver the results of
> get-contents is processed as a string, all the crlf information vanishes
> which results in corrupted files?
>
> What am I doing wrong?
>
> thanks
> -mark
>
> --
> -mark

"Narayanan Lakshmanan [MSFT]" <narayanl@online.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:eJ%23w5JC3GHA.4924@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
Thank you, that answers my questions


> Get-Content returns the contents of the file as a collection of strings
> (one string per line). Since you are casting the collection to a string,
> the CRLFs are lost. Instead, join can be used as shown below to obtain a
> single string.
>
> gci -i Assemblyinfo.cs -r | %{$contents=gc
> $_.FullName;doWork([system.string]::join("`r`n", $contents)) }
>
> The above will display the contents on the screen in the same way like the
> first snippet.
>
> --
> Narayanan Lakshmanan [MSFT]
> Windows PowerShell Development
> Microsoft Corporation
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
> rights.
>
>
> "Mark" <mwatts at hotmail dot com> wrote in message
> news:4DBDB20F-A444-47F4-AA33-419B4C2B3C99@microsoft.com...
>>
>> Given the following:
>>
>> function doWork($fileContent)
>> {
>> write-output $fileContent
>> }
>>
>> gci . -i AssemblyInfo.cs -r | % { doWork (gc $_.FullName) }
>>
>> will result in the contents of all AssemblyInfo.cs files being dumped to
>> the screen. However, this
>>
>> function doWork([string]$fileContent)
>> {
>> write-output $fileContent
>> }
>>
>> gci . -i AssemblyInfo.cs -r | % { doWork (gc $_.FullName) }
>>
>> results in all crlf'ds being removed.
>>
>> I am trying to update version information and I have a reg-ex in 'doWork'
>> that does the updates but the problem is that whenver the results of
>> get-contents is processed as a string, all the crlf information vanishes
>> which results in corrupted files?
>>
>> What am I doing wrong?
>>
>> thanks
>> -mark
>>
>> --
>> -mark
>

"Alex K. Angelopoulos [MVP]" <aka@online.mvps.org> wrote in message
news:eQPKdDA3GHA.2228@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
Thanks Alex.

> Get-Content reads a file as a set of lines.
>
> You can use alternative characters as the record delimiter if you want;
> for example, you can force it to assume that the delimiter should be the
> null character by using this:
>
> gc AssemblyInfo.cs -Delimiter `0
>
> This ensures you get back a complete raw string.
>
>
>
> "Mark" <mwatts at hotmail dot com> wrote in message
> news:4DBDB20F-A444-47F4-AA33-419B4C2B3C99@microsoft.com...
>>
>> Given the following:
>>
>> function doWork($fileContent)
>> {
>> write-output $fileContent
>> }
>>
>> gci . -i AssemblyInfo.cs -r | % { doWork (gc $_.FullName) }
>>
>> will result in the contents of all AssemblyInfo.cs files being dumped to
>> the screen. However, this
>>
>> function doWork([string]$fileContent)
>> {
>> write-output $fileContent
>> }
>>
>> gci . -i AssemblyInfo.cs -r | % { doWork (gc $_.FullName) }
>>
>> results in all crlf'ds being removed.
>>
>> I am trying to update version information and I have a reg-ex in 'doWork'
>> that does the updates but the problem is that whenver the results of
>> get-contents is processed as a string, all the crlf information vanishes
>> which results in corrupted files?
>>
>> What am I doing wrong?
>>
>> thanks
>> -mark
>>
>> --
>> -mark
>
>

>>
>> gci -i Assemblyinfo.cs -r | %{$contents=gc
>> $_.FullName;doWork([system.string]::join("`r`n", $contents)) }
>>

or you can use .Net

[System.IO.File]::ReadAllText(Assemblyinfo.cs)

"XShell" <xshell@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:ehbHZ3D3GHA.4756@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>>
>>> gci -i Assemblyinfo.cs -r | %{$contents=gc
>>> $_.FullName;doWork([system.string]::join("`r`n", $contents)) }
>>>
>
> or you can use .Net
>
> [System.IO.File]::ReadAllText(Assemblyinfo.cs)

Actually that was what I did while waiting for the answer to my newsgroup
question. But while that it the ".NET way" it is not the "PowerShell
Way".

There is often a distinction, but usually there is not. We designed
PowerShell to allow you to smoothly glide between typical scripting tasks
and more complex programming tasks -- our support for .Net being a key to
this spectacular amount of breadth.

For example, PowerShell will likely not ever support random I/O on a file
stream. That's a task that the .Net framework handles well, using a model
that customers are familiar with. It doesn't make much sense for PowerShell
to re-implement all of that, just as there will always be sections of the
Win32 API that .Net users need to call through P/Invoke techniques.

As you move away from goals obviously covered by language primitives and
stock cmdlets, there comes a point where it just makes sense to get on the
powerful bridge of .Net interop. In this specific case, the ReadAllText()
method on [System.IO.File] really is the best solution for PowerShell V1.

(This is actually an option that we hope to add to Get-Content in the
future, though)

--
Lee Holmes [MSFT]
Windows PowerShell Development
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.


"Mark" <mwatts at hotmail dot com> wrote in message
news:E6BEC1EF-F8CA-45A0-A9B6-4110D28FA7E5@microsoft.com...
> "XShell" <xshell@nospam.com> wrote in message
> news:ehbHZ3D3GHA.4756@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>>>
>>>> gci -i Assemblyinfo.cs -r | %{$contents=gc
>>>> $_.FullName;doWork([system.string]::join("`r`n", $contents)) }
>>>>
>>
>> or you can use .Net
>>
>> [System.IO.File]::ReadAllText(Assemblyinfo.cs)
>
> Actually that was what I did while waiting for the answer to my newsgroup
> question. But while that it the ".NET way" it is not the "PowerShell
> Way".
>
>
>