why doesnt tee-object work with NoNewline? - powershell

Question

i have the following function in my script
function Write-Host($object)
{
if($global:LogFile -eq $null)
{
$global:LogFile = $logFile
}
$object | tee $global:LogFile -Append
}
referencing this post: https://stackoverflow.com/a/25847258/8397835
I am trying specifically this part here:
$job = Start-Job -ScriptBlock { Start-Sleep -Seconds 10 }
while (($job.State -eq "Running") -and ($job.State -ne "NotStarted"))
{
Write-Host ([char]9632) -NoNewLine
Start-Sleep -Seconds 1
}
apparently, with tee, nonewline appears to be ignored...and without tee, i am getting the characters to display on one line as i am seeking
with tee:
without tee
I think i know whats happening. since write-host is being converted to tee, any switches are ignored, be it color or in this case, nonewline. How can i make nonewline work with tee?

Answer 1

After our chat I understand what you're trying to do. You want to write yourself a custom progress bar that both writes to a log file as well as to the console without line breaks in either. For that you can write a function that will accomplish it, but I do recommend picking a new name that doesn't conflict with an existing cmdlet. I'll use Write-MyProgress.
Function Write-MyProgress{
[cmdletbinding()]
Param(
[parameter(valuefrompipeline=$true)]$message,
[switch]$NoNewLine
)
if($global:LogFile -eq $null)
{
$global:LogFile = $logFile
}
Add-Content -Value $message -Path $LogFile -NoNewline:$NoNewLine
Write-Host $Message -NoNewLine:$NoNewLine
}
You could then call it explicitly:
Write-MyProgress ([char]9632) -NoNewLine
or pipe things to it:
[char]9632 | Write-MyProgress -NoNewLine
Or, if you don't want to use a function, you could just do it all with native cmdlets like in this example:
1..10 | ForEach-Object -Process {
[char]9632 | Add-Content $LogFile -NoNewLine -PassThru | Write-Host -NoNewLine
start-sleep -Sec 1
} -End {Add-Content -Value '' -Path $LogFile}
(Note that I add '' to the log file at the end, so the log file gets a new line after the progress bar is done)