How to output PowerShell tree to text or Excel file - powershell

Question

I've the following code:
$readPath = "C:\FirstFolder"
$writePath = "C:\SecondFolder"
Function Recurse($folder, $lvl) {
Get-ChildItem -Path $folder -File | ForEach-Object {
Write-Host "$(" "*$lvl)> $($_.Name) - $((Get-Acl -Path $_.FullName).Owner)"
}
Get-ChildItem -Path $folder -Directory | ForEach-Object {
Write-Host "$(" "*$lvl)> $($_.Name)"
Recurse -folder $_.FullName -lvl $($lvl+1)
}
}
$root = Get-Item -Path $readPath
Recurse -folder $root.FullName -lvl 0
which gives an output like this:
> File0.xlsx - OwnerB
> Directory1
>File1.1.txt - OwnerB
>File1.2.ppt - OwnerA
>Directory2
>File2.1 - OwnerA
>File2.2 - OwnerA
When I add the code $log | Out-File $writePath\OwnerTree.txt -Encoding UTF8, my output file is blank.
Anyone know how to get an output file with the same layout as what appears in PowerShell?

Answer 1

Just a few things:
Make your function output the strings instead of using Write-Host, of which the sole purpuse is to write to the console screen for display
capture the result of your function in a variable and save that to a file
If you want to write both to file AND to the console, use Set-Content instead of Out-File, because that also has a switch -PassThru
function Get-OwnerTree ([string]$folder, [int]$lvl) {
Get-ChildItem -Path $folder -File | ForEach-Object {
"$(" "*$lvl)> $($_.Name) - $((Get-Acl -Path $_.FullName).Owner)"
}
Get-ChildItem -Path $folder -Directory | ForEach-Object {
"$(" "*$lvl)> $($_.Name)"
Get-OwnerTree -folder $_.FullName -lvl (++$lvl)
}
}
$root = Get-Item -Path $readPath
$log = Get-OwnerTree -folder $root.FullName -lvl 0
$log | Set-Content -Path "$writePath\OwnerTree.txt" -Encoding UTF8 -PassThru
I have also changed the function name to comply with PowerShell's Verb-Noun naming convention