Logging issue for function call in powershell-workflow

Question

The issue I'm facing is logging the output of a function being called inside the powershell workflow into a logfile.

Tried using Out-File but it is not supposed to be used for logging a specific function call.

Any help on this would be great. Thanks in advance.

Attached is the sample script regarding the issue:

function test1{
    param (
    [String] $FileName)
    Write-Host "$FileName test1"
}

WorkFlow Sample { 
    $Files = Get-ChildItem 'C:\Users\Downloads\testDir' 
    Foreach -parallel ( $File in $Files ) {
        test1($File) #This function output should be logged
    }  
}

Sample

I also found a blogpost on how to write a logging function: blog.ipswitch.com/how-to-build-a-logging-function-in-powershell — Marthyn Olthof
– Marthyn Olthof, Commented Feb 20, 2019 at 10:12

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-20 09:12:55Z

about_redirection on Microsoft docs has quite a bit of information.

One of the problems you got is that you're trying to redirect Write-Host. Depending on your PowerShell version you might have more or less options available. Prior to version 5 you had to use something like *> or Tee-Object where applicable. With version 5, there are some new options available:

Starting in Windows PowerShell 5.0, Write-Host is a wrapper for Write-Information This allows you to use Write-Host to emit output to the information stream. This enables the capture or suppression of data written using Write-Host while preserving backwards compatibility.

The $InformationPreference preference variable and InformationAction common parameter do not affect Write-Host messages. The exception to this rule is -InformationAction Ignore, which effectively suppresses Write-Host output. (see "Example 5")

An easy option would be to use Write-Output instead of Write-Host. You won't be able to color it (easily) but in your current example you don't need to. In addition, depending on your use case, you could look into using Start-Transcript which might also be available.

mklement0 · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-22 05:08:00Z

0

To create a file you can do this: ($outcome being the variable containing the outcome of that function)

$outcome | Set-Content 'file.txt'`

or

$outcome > 'file.txt'

If there already is a file and you want to append:

$outcome | Add-Content 'file.txt'

edited Feb 22, 2019 at 5:08

mklement0

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answered Feb 20, 2019 at 10:12

Marthyn Olthof

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1 Comment

Spandana Soma Over a year ago

Thanks Marthyn, this works for Write-Output and return statements in the function but in my case I even have Write-Host statements in the function which are not logged.

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