Don Jones’ Favorite PowerShell Cmdlets, Part 10 of 10: Out-File
Sure, you might think that redirecting output to a file is as simple as using the > operator:
Get-Process > c:\procs.txt
And, er, you’d be right. It is that simple. But under the hood, you’re really using the Out-File cmdlet, and like with most “under the hood” things, using the cmdlet itself gives you way more options for your output: Append to an existing file, force the overwrite of an existing file, and even specify output encoding. This is especially helpful if you’re producing a specialized type of file, such as an XML file that usually requires UTF-8 encoding. Get to know Out-File’s options, and get to know its friends, like Out-Printer, too. Heck, I use Out-File so much I made an alias for it:
Click past the fold for more…
New-Alias of Out-File
And that’s the end of my 10-part series of my favorite cmdlets. I hope you’ve discovered a new one or two, and learned some new capabilities of some common cmdlets that you may already have been familiar with. Catch my regular blog on www.PowerShellCommunity.org for more PowerShell goodness!
Don Jones is the Lead Scripting Guru for SAPIEN Technologies and a Windows PowerShell MVP. He’s the co-author of Windows PowerShell: TFM, 2nd Edition and is the Windows PowerShell columnist for TechNet Magazine. Don is also the Director for the new centralized, independent PowerShell online community: www.PowerShellCommunity.org.
Get your hands on the full Don Jones Favorite Cmdlets Series at this address:
http://www.realtime-windowsserver.com/type/mt-search.cgi?tag=don%20jones%20favorite%20cmdlets&blog_id=1
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