Redirection

 

SHORT DESCRIPTION

Redirecting output from the Windows PowerShell to text files

 

LONG DESCRIPTION

By default, PowerShell directs command output to the screen in the PowerShell. However, you can override this behavior by directing the output to a text file, which allows you to capture the results for later use.

 

To write the results of a command to a text file, you must add the greater than (>) symbol and the file name to the end of your command. For example, the following command writes the results from a Get-ChildItem command to a text file:

 

Get-ChildItem c:\windows\system > c:\techdocs\results.txt

 

When you run this command, the output is sent to the results.txt file in the c:\techdocs directory, and no output is displayed on the screen. If the specified file does not exist, the file is created and the output is written to that file. If the file already exists, the output replaces any existing content in the file with new content.

 

If you do not want to replace the content of an existing output file, you can append the output to the existing content by using two greater than (>>) symbols, as shown in the following example:

 

Get-ChildItem c:\windows\system >> c:\techdocs\results.txt

 

The command appends the new output after any existing content, and none of the existing content is deleted.

 

SEE ALSO

For information about command syntax, enter the following command at the PowerShell command prompt:

 

help about_command_syntax

 

For information about path syntax, enter the following command at the PowerShell command prompt:

 

help about_path_syntax