Commandline syntax to prevent wrapping in PowerShell output file?

Question

The following command wraps the output to the width of the window from which the script was called. That is, the output file is "word"-wrapped. How can I prevent this wrapping in the output file w/o modifying the script?

PS C:\Users\User1> & '\\fileServer\c$\PowerShell Scripts\herScript.ps1' > output.txt

Solution 1

Try this (I can't test it)

& '\\fileServer\c$\PowerShell Scripts\herScript.ps1' | out-string -width 4096 | out-file c:\output.txt

Solution 2

Instead of using >, which is out-file, you can use set-content

Solution 3

Use the Write-Host cmdlet as the last statement of your pipeline. Normal unadorned powershell output appears to look at the dimensions of the parent console window, and trims/wraps output lines to width-1. The Write-Host cmdlet bypasses this step and writes directly to stdout without any further munging.

Here's an example, which reads a JSON file, and writes javascript output which adds the JSON to a big string (preserving comments):

powershell -Command "$input | ForEach-Object { \"manifestBlob += \"\"\" + ($_ -replace \"\"\"\", \"\\\"\"\") + \"\n\"\";\" } | Write-Host" < manifest.json > buildmanifest.js

Here's a sample input file:

//  File: manifest.json
//
//  Description:
//      manifest for chrome plug-in

{
    "manifest_version": 2,

    "version": "0.0.0",

    // the ID is: sdfjkghsdfjkghjksdfghjkfhjkdfjff
    "key": "sdfjkhsdfjkghjksdfghkjsdhgsdjkgfhjklsdfhgjklsdfhgjklsdhfgkljsdfhgkljsdhklgjsdhfjklghsdfjklghsdjklfghjksdfhgjksdhfgjklhsdfjkl",

    "content_scripts": [ { "matches": ["http://*/*", "https://*/*"], "js": ["content.js"], "run_at": "document_start" } ],

    // this is the standard LOCAL install location - but if this extension is published to the app-store, this value gets overridden (that is okay and even good)
    "update_url": "file:///C:/Program%20Files/MyProduct/Update.xml",
}

And the output when using Write-Host:

manifestBlob += "\n";
manifestBlob += "//  File: manifest.json\n";
manifestBlob += "//\n";
manifestBlob += "//  Description:\n";
manifestBlob += "//      manifest for chrome plug-in\n";
manifestBlob += "\n";
manifestBlob += "{\n";
manifestBlob += "    \"manifest_version\": 2,\n";
manifestBlob += "\n";
manifestBlob += "    \"version\": \"0.0.0\",\n";
manifestBlob += "\n";
manifestBlob += "    // the ID is: sdfjkghsdfjkghjksdfghjkfhjkdfjff\n";
manifestBlob += "    \"key\": \"sdfjkhsdfjkghjksdfghkjsdhgsdjkgfhjklsdfhgjklsdfhgjklsdhfgkljsdfhgkljsdhklgjsdhfjklghsdfjklghsdjklfghjksdfhgjksdhfgjklhsdfjkl\",\n";
manifestBlob += "\n";
manifestBlob += "    \"content_scripts\": [ { \"matches\": [\"http://*/*\", \"https://*/*\"], \"js\": [\"content.js\"], \"run_at\": \"document_start\" } ],\n";
manifestBlob += "\n";
manifestBlob += "    // this is the standard LOCAL install location - but if this extension is published to the app-store, this value gets overridden (that is okay and even good)\n";
manifestBlob += "    \"update_url\": \"file:///C:/Program%20Files/MyProduct/Update.xml\",\n";
manifestBlob += "}\n";

And finally, an example of the terrible things which happen if you leave out the Write-Host cmdlet (assuming a console width of 60):

manifestBlob += "\n";
manifestBlob += "//  File: manifest.json\n";
manifestBlob += "//\n";
manifestBlob += "//  Description:\n";
manifestBlob += "//      manifest for chrome plug-in\n";
manifestBlob += "\n";
manifestBlob += "{\n";
manifestBlob += "    \"manifest_version\": 2,\n";
manifestBlob += "\n";
manifestBlob += "    \"version\": \"0.0.0\",\n";
manifestBlob += "\n";
manifestBlob += "    // the ID is: sdfjkghsdfjkghjksdfghjkf
hjkdfjff\n";
manifestBlob += "    \"key\": \"sdfjkhsdfjkghjksdfghkjsdhgs
djkgfhjklsdfhgjklsdfhgjklsdhfgkljsdfhgkljsdhklgjsdhfjklghsd
fjklghsdjklfghjksdfhgjksdhfgjklhsdfjkl\",\n";
manifestBlob += "\n";
manifestBlob += "    \"content_scripts\": [ { \"matches\": 
[\"http://*/*\", \"https://*/*\"], \"js\": [\"content.js\"]
, \"run_at\": \"document_start\" } ],\n";
manifestBlob += "\n";
manifestBlob += "    // this is the standard LOCAL install 
location - but if this extension is published to the app-st
ore, this value gets overridden (that is okay and even good
)\n";
manifestBlob += "    \"update_url\": \"file:///C:/Program%2
0Files/MyProduct/Update.xml\",\n";
manifestBlob += "}\n";

Comments

[Rich]

Out-File has a -Width parameter, too. Its documentation states that everything beyond the width is truncated (not wrapped). So I guess this truncates first at 4096 characters (what an oddly non-round number) and then at the width of the console window. While it won't wrap it does truncate longer lines which may not be intended.

[Colonel Panic]

Caveat lector: the behaviour of Set-Content differs. Significantly (but not documented) it locks the file so it can't be read. Hence Set-Content is a bad choice for logging. See stackoverflow.com/questions/10655788/…

[Bruno Bronosky]

4096 is not odd and not non-round. It's 2^12

[JimNim]

The -Width parameter doesn't seem to prevent line-wrapping. Injecting Out-String -Width xxx in the pipe just before Out-File does do the trick for me though.

[Der_Meister]

Nothing is redirected to the file when I use Write-Host. PowerShell 5.1.