{"id":4581,"date":"2015-10-30T11:22:43","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T15:22:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jdhitsolutions.com\/blog\/?p=4581"},"modified":"2015-10-30T11:26:07","modified_gmt":"2015-10-30T15:26:07","slug":"powershell-friday-fun-capture-the-command","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jdhitsolutions.com\/blog\/powershell\/4581\/powershell-friday-fun-capture-the-command\/","title":{"rendered":"PowerShell Friday Fun: Capture the Command"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week's Friday Fun actually has a purpose, at least for me. But I always hope you'll pick up a tip or two that you can use in your own PowerShell work.<\/p>\n

Because I write a lot about PowerShell, I am constantly copying pasting between my PowerShell session and usually Microsoft Word. Although the same is true when I am writing help examples for my functions. I can save command output to the clipboard with this trick:<\/p>\n

\r\nGet-service | Group Status | clip\r\n<\/pre>\n
But I never know if the command was successful until I paste and then I need to copy the command again. Over the years I've come up with a number of tools to make this process easier but now I think I finally have it.<\/p>\n
My new command is called Out-Copy. It is designed to accept any PowerShell command. The function will essentially pass the results back to the pipeline, so it is like Tee-Object<\/a> in that respect. It also sends a copy of the output to the clipboard. But wait there's more! The clipboard output will include the prompt and the command you ran.<\/p>\n
At a PowerShell prompt I can run something like this:<\/p>\n
Using Out-CopyUsing Out-Copy (Image Credit: Jeff Hicks)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
And I can then paste into another application<\/p>\n
Pasted resultsPasted results (Image Credit: Jeff Hicks)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
I also included a parameter to only copy the command to the clipboard. This command runs as expected:<\/p>\n
Copying command onlyCopying command only (Image Credit: Jeff Hicks)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
With this result:<\/p>\n
Command only resultCommand only result (Image Credit: Jeff Hicks)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
This version of my function will only copy what is sent to the success pipeline. It will not capture anything from the other streams such as Verbose, Warning or Error. Normally I do screen shots of that anyway. But this might be something I'll look into later.<\/p>\n
Here's the complete function which includes an alias.<\/p>\n
\r\n#requires -version 4.0\r\n\r\nFunction Out-Copy {\r\n\r\n<#\r\n.Synopsis\r\nSend command output to the pipeline and Windows clipboard.\r\n.Description\r\nThis command is intended for writers and those who need to document with PowerShell. You can pipe any command to this function and you will get the regular output in your PowerShell session. But a copy of the output will be copied to the Windows clipboard. Additionally, the copy will include your prompt and the command that you executed, without the Out-Copy portion.\r\n\r\nNOTE: You can only capture what is written to the Success pipeline. This command will not copy any other streams such as Verbose or Error.\r\n.Parameter CommandOnly\r\nOnly copy the executed command, without references to Out-Copy, to the Windows clipboard.\r\n.Parameter Width\r\nSpecifies the number of characters in each line of output. Any additional characters are truncated, not wrapped.\r\n.Example\r\nPS C:\\> Get-Process | Sort WS -Descending | Select -first 5 | out-copy\r\n\r\nThis will execute your expression and write the output to the pipeline. In addition this text will be copied to the Windows clipboard:\r\n\r\nPS C:\\> Get-Process | Sort WS -Descending | Select -first 5\r\n\r\nHandles NPM(K) PM(K) WS(K) VM(M) CPU(s) Id ProcessName\r\n------- ------ ----- ----- ----- ------ -- -----------\r\n1242 133 1047776 1002596 1987 4,499.78 1416 waterfox\r\n1182 101 438800 409020 1285 854.53 6528 powershell_ise\r\n321 22 245568 202236 362 730.05 2484 ZeroConfigService\r\n1314 177 229772 187324 792 ...70.95 6500 SugarSync\r\n651 37 199160 162216 343 597.16 1052 svchost\r\n\r\n.Example\r\nPS C:\\scripts> dir *.ps1 | out-file c:\\work\\ps.txt\r\n\r\nEven if your command doesn't write anything to the pipeline, Out-Copy will still capture your prompt and PowerShell expression.\r\n.Example\r\nPS C:\\> gcim win32_logicaldisk -filter \"drivetype = 3\" | out-copy -commandonly\r\n\r\nThis will run the Get-CimInstance command and write results to the pipeline. But the only text that will be copied to the clipboard is:\r\n\r\ngcim win32_logicaldisk -filter \"drivetype = 3\"\r\n\r\n.Notes\r\nLast Updated: 30 October 2015\r\nVersion : 1.0\r\n\r\nLearn more about PowerShell:\r\n
Essential PowerShell Learning Resources<\/a><\/blockquote>