Vista - how to redirect whatif output to a file?

Redirecting text output to a file works fine by using either > operator or |
out-file, but it does not seem to work if the text output is from commands
with -whatif switch.

eg: the following command will print the output on the screen instead of
writing to the file
move-item c:\temp\* d:\temp -whatif > c:\test.txt

Is there anyway around this or it's just imposible to redirect whatif output
to a file?
Any help would be appriciated!!!

gaindev
ps:i'm using PS rc2

this also doesn't work

write-Host "hello" > c:\mine.txt

the reason i think is that what -whatif and write-host do is not return
anything (which is actually what gets piped or redirected), but
directly tell the console to write to the screen (or whatever host)

i can think of a couple of workarounds, but nothing that isn't a huge
amount of effort, and an ugly hack..


Karl

You're right. The reason could be that only objects can be redirected. But I
think the ability to redirect standard output and standard error would be
very useful.

I love the -whatif switch, and hope that they will add a "standard
simulation" to the final PowerShell

eg: 0: stardard input, 1 standard output, 2 standard error, and 3 for
"standard simulation".

"klumsy@xtra.co.nz" wrote:

> this also doesn't work
>
> write-Host "hello" > c:\mine.txt
>
> the reason i think is that what -whatif and write-host do is not return
> anything (which is actually what gets piped or redirected), but
> directly tell the console to write to the screen (or whatever host)
>
> i can think of a couple of workarounds, but nothing that isn't a huge
> amount of effort, and an ugly hack..
>
>
> Karl
>
>

for powershell analyzer, i'll have some cmdlets that can capture the
standard output and allow you acess to it for this very purpose

this is correct - there are certain write operations that bypass the entire
result pipeline and make direct calls to the powershell.exe host
application.

write-progress
write-warning
write-verbose
write-debug
write-host

All these cmdlets do not output to the results stream and therefore aren't
redirectable. The **only** way to capture this output is with the
transcript command

PS> start-transcript zap
Transcript started, output file is zap
PS> ps|stop-process -whatif
What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "AdtAgent (1720)".
What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "agent (2476)".
....
What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "wmiprvse (2552)".
What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "wmiprvse (3800)".
PS> stop-transcript
Transcript stopped, output file is C:\zap
PS> cat zap
**********************
Windows PowerShell Transcript Start
Start time: 20061009113745
Username : REDMOND\jimtru
Machine : JIMTRUD4 (Microsoft Windows NT 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2)
**********************
Transcript started, output file is zap
PS> ps|stop-process -whatif
What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "AdtAgent (1720)".
What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "agent (2476)".
....
What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "wmiprvse (2552)".
What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "wmiprvse (3800)".
PS> stop-transcript
**********************
Windows PowerShell Transcript End
End time: 20061009113802
**********************

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

"gaindev" <gaindev@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news248FD7A-FFB1-4EB2-ADEE-1CBC101BFE6D@microsoft.com...
> Redirecting text output to a file works fine by using either > operator or
> |
> out-file, but it does not seem to work if the text output is from commands
> with -whatif switch.
>
> eg: the following command will print the output on the screen instead of
> writing to the file
> move-item c:\temp\* d:\temp -whatif > c:\test.txt
>
> Is there anyway around this or it's just imposible to redirect whatif
> output
> to a file?
> Any help would be appriciated!!!
>
> gaindev
> ps:i'm using PS rc2

thanks for clearing this up!
cheers

"James Truher" wrote:

> this is correct - there are certain write operations that bypass the entire
> result pipeline and make direct calls to the powershell.exe host
> application.
>
> write-progress
> write-warning
> write-verbose
> write-debug
> write-host
>
> All these cmdlets do not output to the results stream and therefore aren't
> redirectable. The **only** way to capture this output is with the
> transcript command
>
> PS> start-transcript zap
> Transcript started, output file is zap
> PS> ps|stop-process -whatif
> What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "AdtAgent (1720)".
> What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "agent (2476)".
> ....
> What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "wmiprvse (2552)".
> What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "wmiprvse (3800)".
> PS> stop-transcript
> Transcript stopped, output file is C:\zap
> PS> cat zap
> **********************
> Windows PowerShell Transcript Start
> Start time: 20061009113745
> Username : REDMOND\jimtru
> Machine : JIMTRUD4 (Microsoft Windows NT 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2)
> **********************
> Transcript started, output file is zap
> PS> ps|stop-process -whatif
> What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "AdtAgent (1720)".
> What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "agent (2476)".
> ....
> What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "wmiprvse (2552)".
> What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "wmiprvse (3800)".
> PS> stop-transcript
> **********************
> Windows PowerShell Transcript End
> End time: 20061009113802
> **********************
>
> --
> --
> James Truher [MSFT]
> Windows PowerShell Development
> Microsoft Corporation
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
>
> "gaindev" <gaindev@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news248FD7A-FFB1-4EB2-ADEE-1CBC101BFE6D@microsoft.com...
> > Redirecting text output to a file works fine by using either > operator or
> > |
> > out-file, but it does not seem to work if the text output is from commands
> > with -whatif switch.
> >
> > eg: the following command will print the output on the screen instead of
> > writing to the file
> > move-item c:\temp\* d:\temp -whatif > c:\test.txt
> >
> > Is there anyway around this or it's just imposible to redirect whatif
> > output
> > to a file?
> > Any help would be appriciated!!!
> >
> > gaindev
> > ps:i'm using PS rc2
>
>
>

start-transcript - nice

another workaround would be, start another PowerShell for it ;-)

powershell -NoProfile -command move-item c:\temp\* d:\temp -whatif >
c:\test.txt

Greeting /\/\o\/\/

"klumsy@xtra.co.nz" wrote:

> start-transcript - nice
>
>

Jim,

Wasn't it originally intended that these actually be _streams_ that
terminated in the console - progress, warning, verbose, and debug streams,
which along with output and error would get written to the host if not
otherwise consumed?

"James Truher" <jimtru@news.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:uPIpwJ96GHA.3452@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> this is correct - there are certain write operations that bypass the
> entire result pipeline and make direct calls to the powershell.exe host
> application.
>
> write-progress
> write-warning
> write-verbose
> write-debug
> write-host
>
> All these cmdlets do not output to the results stream and therefore aren't
> redirectable. The **only** way to capture this output is with the
> transcript command
>
> PS> start-transcript zap
> Transcript started, output file is zap
> PS> ps|stop-process -whatif
> What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "AdtAgent (1720)".
> What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "agent (2476)".
> ...
> What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "wmiprvse (2552)".
> What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "wmiprvse (3800)".
> PS> stop-transcript
> Transcript stopped, output file is C:\zap
> PS> cat zap
> **********************
> Windows PowerShell Transcript Start
> Start time: 20061009113745
> Username : REDMOND\jimtru
> Machine : JIMTRUD4 (Microsoft Windows NT 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2)
> **********************
> Transcript started, output file is zap
> PS> ps|stop-process -whatif
> What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "AdtAgent (1720)".
> What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "agent (2476)".
> ...
> What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "wmiprvse (2552)".
> What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "wmiprvse (3800)".
> PS> stop-transcript
> **********************
> Windows PowerShell Transcript End
> End time: 20061009113802
> **********************
>
> --
> --
> James Truher [MSFT]
> Windows PowerShell Development
> Microsoft Corporation
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
> rights.
>
> "gaindev" <gaindev@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news248FD7A-FFB1-4EB2-ADEE-1CBC101BFE6D@microsoft.com...
>> Redirecting text output to a file works fine by using either > operator
>> or |
>> out-file, but it does not seem to work if the text output is from
>> commands
>> with -whatif switch.
>>
>> eg: the following command will print the output on the screen instead of
>> writing to the file
>> move-item c:\temp\* d:\temp -whatif > c:\test.txt
>>
>> Is there anyway around this or it's just imposible to redirect whatif
>> output
>> to a file?
>> Any help would be appriciated!!!
>>
>> gaindev
>> ps:i'm using PS rc2
>
>

that was the *intention*, but as Jeffrey often says:
"To ship is to choose"



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

"Alex K. Angelopoulos [MVP]" <aka@online.mvps.org> wrote in message
news:%23DZr3cV7GHA.3604@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Jim,
>
> Wasn't it originally intended that these actually be _streams_ that
> terminated in the console - progress, warning, verbose, and debug streams,
> which along with output and error would get written to the host if not
> otherwise consumed?
>
> "James Truher" <jimtru@news.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:uPIpwJ96GHA.3452@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> this is correct - there are certain write operations that bypass the
>> entire result pipeline and make direct calls to the powershell.exe host
>> application.
>>
>> write-progress
>> write-warning
>> write-verbose
>> write-debug
>> write-host
>>
>> All these cmdlets do not output to the results stream and therefore
>> aren't redirectable. The **only** way to capture this output is with
>> the transcript command
>>
>> PS> start-transcript zap
>> Transcript started, output file is zap
>> PS> ps|stop-process -whatif
>> What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "AdtAgent (1720)".
>> What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "agent (2476)".
>> ...
>> What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "wmiprvse (2552)".
>> What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "wmiprvse (3800)".
>> PS> stop-transcript
>> Transcript stopped, output file is C:\zap
>> PS> cat zap
>> **********************
>> Windows PowerShell Transcript Start
>> Start time: 20061009113745
>> Username : REDMOND\jimtru
>> Machine : JIMTRUD4 (Microsoft Windows NT 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2)
>> **********************
>> Transcript started, output file is zap
>> PS> ps|stop-process -whatif
>> What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "AdtAgent (1720)".
>> What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "agent (2476)".
>> ...
>> What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "wmiprvse (2552)".
>> What if: Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "wmiprvse (3800)".
>> PS> stop-transcript
>> **********************
>> Windows PowerShell Transcript End
>> End time: 20061009113802
>> **********************
>>
>> --
>> --
>> James Truher [MSFT]
>> Windows PowerShell Development
>> Microsoft Corporation
>> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
>> rights.
>>
>> "gaindev" <gaindev@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news248FD7A-FFB1-4EB2-ADEE-1CBC101BFE6D@microsoft.com...
>>> Redirecting text output to a file works fine by using either > operator
>>> or |
>>> out-file, but it does not seem to work if the text output is from
>>> commands
>>> with -whatif switch.
>>>
>>> eg: the following command will print the output on the screen instead of
>>> writing to the file
>>> move-item c:\temp\* d:\temp -whatif > c:\test.txt
>>>
>>> Is there anyway around this or it's just imposible to redirect whatif
>>> output
>>> to a file?
>>> Any help would be appriciated!!!
>>>
>>> gaindev
>>> ps:i'm using PS rc2
>>
>>
>
>