PowerShell 3.0 New Redirection Commands
From the beginning PowerShell has had the ability to redirect output with | (pipeline), Out-File and the old (>). Now in PowerShell 3.0 we have the ability to tweak (>) so that we can save warnings and debug information to a text file.
Windows PowerShell 3.0 Redirection Examples
- The Redirection Situation in PowerShell 2.0
- PowerShell Error Redirection with ‘2>’
- PowerShell 3.0 Redirection Improvements
- PowerShell 3.0 About_Redirection
- The Mystery of PowerShell >2&1
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The Redirection Situation in PowerShell 2.0
In addition to my favourite | Out-File, PowerShell supports redirection with the ubiquitous > (greater than symbol). Let us see an example:
# PowerShell Redirection with >
Get-Process > D:\PShell\Proc0.txt
Note 1: I prefer Get-Process | Out-File D:\PShell\Proc1.txt
Note 2: The double chevron >> means append, whereas the single > means over-write.
Left to its own defaults, PowerShell directs its results to the console. There are many occasions where you would prefer to save the output as text to be stored in a file. This page concentrates on the latest redirection techniques.
PowerShell 2.0’s Error Redirection with ‘2>’
Let us be clear, this is a technique for saving errors generated by PowerShell scripts to a file.
There are two keys to getting action:
a) Introduce a non-existent process called xyz, or some such gibberish.
b) The carefully insert 2> and not 2 >. A space here kills the command. Also beware of the wrong sequence, this won’t work >2.
# PowerShell’s way of redirecting errors
Get-Process xyz 2> D:\PShell\Proc2.txt
Note 3: A double chevron >> would means append, whereas the single > means over-write.
PowerShell 3.0 Redirection Improvements
PowerShell 3.0 offers the ability to fine-tune redirection by using not only 2>, but also 3> and 4>. Incidentally, there is also a 1> but I cannot see how it improves on plain >.
Pipeline 1> (Same as plain >)
Error 2> (Same as PowerShell 2.0)
Warning 3>
Debug 4>
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More About PowerShell 3.0 Redirection
This is one of those topics where PowerShell provides an ‘About’ help file. To see more try this:
Get-Help About_Redirection
The Mystery of PowerShell >2&1
Help tells us that we can add errors to the success stream with >2&1. This is also called merging streams. However, help appears to leave out a crucial element, you need an initial > to redirect, then PowerShell’s >2&1 at the end thus:
# PowerShell’s way of merging errors
Get-Process svchost > D:\PShell\Proc2.txt >2&1
Note 4: My mistake was trying Get-Process svchost >2&1 D:\PShell\Proc2.txt
To be fair, I have seen other example:
get-process svchost, powershell 2>&1 | Out-File Svchost.txt
Conclusion: Merging streams with & is not as intuitive as I first thought.
An Alternative to Redirection Commands | Out-File
It could be that I am ‘hard-cooked’, I cannot seem to abandon the habit of using PowerShell’s Out-File; I am finding it hard switching to using these > and >> redirection commands. Perhaps I don’t generate enough errors to warrant the use of the 2> redirector.
That said, I have filed away in my memory bank the idea of redirection warning messages with 3>.
PowerShell Out-File Example
Get-Service | Out-File D:\Pshell\Services.txt -force
Note 5: Out-File supports switches such as -force that you don’t get with redirection.
See more of what’s new in PowerShell v 3.0 »
Summary of PowerShell 3.0 Redirection
Here is a case where a new PowerShell 3.0 command showed me a technique that I had overlooked in PowerShell 2.0, namely saving errors to a text file. Another way of looking at PowerShell 3.0’s redirection is that it has now come of age with the introduction of 3> warning and 4> debugging commands.
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See more Microsoft PowerShell output tutorials:
• PShell Home • Out-File • Out-GridView • ConvertTo-Csv • ConvertTo-Html • ConvertFrom-Csv
• Tee-Object • Import-CSV • Format-Table • PowerShell Here-String • ConvertFrom-JSON
• Export-CliXml • Format-List • Read-Host • PowerShell Get-History • -f format • Pipe to file
Please email me if you have a better example script. Also please report any factual mistakes, grammatical errors or broken links, I will be happy to correct the fault.
