open log file at end of Powershell script - powershell

I have a Powershell script that writes to a log file (log.txt). What command(s) will work at the end of the script to open this log file automatically on the computer?


This would work:
Invoke-item log.txt


Here are a few options
You can just call the file using relative path
.\log.txt
using notepad.exe to open the file
notepad.exe .\log.txt
use Invoke-Item
ii .\log.txt
Invoke-Item .\log.txt
or if you want the content to write to the host you're running the script in
# You may also use 'Clear-Host'
Clear
Get-Content ".\log.txt"
shorthand:
cls
gc .\log.txt

Related

Powershell robocopy logging

How can you log to a text file only new files that have been robocopied from source to destination. I've tried the robocopy /LOG:file command however that logs everything

You can use the Out-File function in powershell in order to output logs to text file instead of outputting them in the shell.
$execution = #some robocopy function to run
$execution| Out-File -LiteralPath "your_path"

Start-Transcript and Logging Batch File Output

I have a function in a PowerShell module which creates a log file and starts a transcript using that file (see below). When running a PowerShell script, this works great and captures all output.
When running a PowerShell script which calls a batch file (which we do quite often while migrating from CMD > PowerShell), the batch file output shows on the console in the same window as the PowerShell script, but the transcript log file shows only 1 blank line where the call to the batch file is.
09:53:25 AM [Success] Zip file already up to date, no need to download!
09:53:25 AM [Note ] Calling 1.bat
10:07:55 AM [Note ] Calling 2.bat
I'm calling the batch files from .ps1 scripts with only the ampersand '&'.
What's strange is that sometimes the batch file output is captured in the log (usually the first batch file called). However I can't find anything special about these files.
What's also strange is that sometimes we call external programs (WinSCP) and the output from those commands only sometimes show in the transcript. Possibly relevant.
For reference, here is the function I use to create a transcript of our processes.
Function Log_Begin()
{
<#
.SYNOPSIS
Starts the process for logging a PowerShell script.
.DESCRIPTION
Starts the process for logging a PowerShell script. This means that whenever
this function is called from a PowerShell script, a folder called 'Logs' will
be created in the same folder, containing a full transcript of the script's output.
.EXAMPLE
C:\PS> Log_Begin
#>
Process
{
$ScriptLoc = $MyInvocation.PSCommandPath
$WorkDir = Split-Path $ScriptLoc
If (!(Test-Path "$WorkDir\Logs")) {mkdir "$WorkDir\Logs" | Out-Null}
$LogPath = "$WorkDir\Logs"
$ScriptName = [io.path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension($ScriptLoc)
$LogDate = Get-Date -format "yyyy-MM-dd"
$LogName = "$ScriptName $LogDate.log"
$global:Log = $LogPath + "\" + $LogName
$ErrorActionPreference="SilentlyContinue"
Stop-Transcript | out-null
$ErrorActionPreference = "Continue"
# Create file and start logging
If (!(Test-Path $Log)) {
New-Item -Path $Log -ItemType File | Out-Null
}
Start-Transcript -Path $Log -Append
}
}
Does anyone have any ideas on how I can capture the batch file output? Preferably I wouldn't have to change every call to a batch file from the script, and make something in the module.

I need a powershell script to automate the task of saving data into a text file with out replacing old files in a iterative process

I have a .ps1 file that is executed whenever TFS calls it and it's output will be saved to particular file (D:/Deploytest/output/output.txt). If the script is triggered for the second time then the output.txt file is getting replaced with the new content. How can I keep the old file in the folder and add output to a new file?
I was using following command in .ps1 file. How to modify to achieve my task.
Invokesqlcmd -Inputfile "path" | out-file "D:/Deploytest/output/output.txt"
Thanks.

#create path output file horodated
$Outfilename="D:/Deploytest/output/output_{0:yyyyMMddhhmmssffff}.txt" -f (get-date)
#out you command into this file
invoke-sqlcmd -Inputfile "path" | out-file $Outfilename

Write commands (i.e. input not output) to a file

The Out-File lets us write output to a file. What if we want to write input to a file?
I want a list of all the commands that I wrote during a PowerShell session. The file should look something like this:
dir
cd
ni myFile.txt -t file
cd..
We want to keep track of what commands we use in PowerShell.

Try this:
Get-History |
select -ExpandProperty commandline |
Add-Content commandhistory.txt

You could make use of Start-Transcript and Stop-Transcript
Technet links about each command: start-transcript and stop-transcript
Usage example: Start-Transcript -Path C:\Folder\Transcript.txt

How to redirect the output of a PowerShell to a file during its execution

I have a PowerShell script for which I would like to redirect the output to a file. The problem is that I cannot change the way this script is called. So I cannot do:
.\MyScript.ps1 > output.txt
How do I redirect the output of a PowerShell script during its execution?

Maybe Start-Transcript would work for you. First stop it if it's already running, then start it, and stop it when done.
$ErrorActionPreference="SilentlyContinue"
Stop-Transcript | out-null
$ErrorActionPreference = "Continue"
Start-Transcript -path C:\output.txt -append
# Do some stuff
Stop-Transcript
You can also have this running while working on stuff and have it saving your command line sessions for later reference.
If you want to completely suppress the error when attempting to stop a transcript that is not transcribing, you could do this:
$ErrorActionPreference="SilentlyContinue"
Stop-Transcript | out-null
$ErrorActionPreference = "Continue" # or "Stop"

Microsoft has announced on Powershell's Connections web site (2012-02-15 at 4:40 PM) that in version 3.0 they have extended the redirection as a solution to this problem.
In PowerShell 3.0, we've extended output redirection to include the following streams:
Pipeline (1)
Error (2)
Warning (3)
Verbose (4)
Debug (5)
All (*)
We still use the same operators
> Redirect to a file and replace contents
>> Redirect to a file and append to existing content
>&1 Merge with pipeline output
See the "about_Redirection" help article for details and examples.
help about_Redirection

Use:
Write "Stuff to write" | Out-File Outputfile.txt -Append

I take it you can modify MyScript.ps1. Then try to change it like so:
$(
Here is your current script
) *>&1 > output.txt
I just tried this with PowerShell 3. You can use all the redirect options as in Nathan Hartley's answer.

powershell ".\MyScript.ps1" > test.log

If you want a straight redirect of all output to a file, try using *>>:
# You'll receive standard output for the first command, and an error from the second command.
mkdir c:\temp -force *>> c:\my.log ;
mkdir c:\temp *>> c:\my.log ;
Since this is a straight redirect to file, it won't output to the console (often helpful). If you desire the console output, combined all output with *&>1, and then pipe with Tee-Object:
mkdir c:\temp -force *>&1 | Tee-Object -Append -FilePath c:\my.log ;
mkdir c:\temp *>&1 | Tee-Object -Append -FilePath c:\my.log ;
# Shorter aliased version
mkdir c:\temp *>&1 | tee -Append c:\my.log ;
I believe these techniques are supported in PowerShell 3.0 or later; I'm testing on PowerShell 5.0.

One possible solution, if your situation allows it:
Rename MyScript.ps1 to TheRealMyScript.ps1
Create a new MyScript.ps1 that looks like:
.\TheRealMyScript.ps1 > output.txt

You might want to take a look at the cmdlet Tee-Object. You can pipe output to Tee and it will write to the pipeline and also to a file

If you want to do it from the command line and not built into the script itself, use:
.\myscript.ps1 | Out-File c:\output.csv

To embed this in your script, you can do it like this:
Write-Output $server.name | Out-File '(Your Path)\Servers.txt' -Append
That should do the trick.