How to keep track of work in Powershell

What to keep as a work record

When you do some work, you may be asked for a work record. Sometimes referred to as evidence or trails, it's important to keep track of what you did and what happened. When working with Powershell, keep the following two records:

• Record command execution results
• Command history

Record command output

A record of what was output when the command was executed. There are several ways to record output with Powerehll.

• Output by redirect
• Record output with command
• Export command output

In addition to this, there is a method of selecting the content output on the screen and saving it by copying, but the explanation is omitted.

Command history

History of executed commands. How to get command execution history in Powershell

-Copy history file ・ Get-History

How to record the output of a command

Save command output to text with redirect

Use> (redirect) to output the executed content as it is to text. Orthodox method.

[command] > [text file].txt

Specify the text file to be output by adding> after the command.

PS > echo "Sea urchin" > test.txt
PS > Get-Content test.txt
Sea urchin

The redirected text file will be overwritten. If you want to add it, redirect with >>.

PS > echo "Sea urchin" >> test.txt

When using a redirect, the command execution result is not displayed on the screen. If you want to display it on the screen, use Tee-Object.

PS > echo "Sea urchin" | Tee-Object test.txt
Sea urchin
PS > Get-Content test.txt
Sea urchin

Record the contents output on the screen to a file

Execute the following command when starting and ending the recording of text.

Start-Transcript → Start recording Stop-Transcript → End of recording

** Start recording **

> Start-Transcript
The transcript has started. Output file: [Current path]\PowerShell_transcript.HORUS.Wm+ZpDyv.[Date and time].txt

Recording starts after the command is executed.

** End of recording **

> Stop-Transcript
The transcript has been stopped. Output file: [Current path]\Documents\PowerShell_transcript.HORUS.Wm+ZpDyv.[Date and time].txt

Recording is stopped after the command is executed. Various information is recorded in the header of the saved text file. The header of the output file is as follows.

** Output content **

**********************
Start Windows PowerShell transcript
Start time: 20200111180312
username: [User]
RunAs user: [User]
Configuration name: 
computer: [hostname](Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.18362.)
Host application: C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
Process ID: 13508
PSVersion: 5.1.18362.145
PSEdition: Desktop
PSCompatibleVersions: 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 5.1.18362.145
BuildVersion: 10.0.18362.145
CLRVersion: 4.0.30319.42000
WSManStackVersion: 3.0
PSRemotingProtocolVersion: 2.3
SerializationVersion: 1.1.0.1
**********************

Information such as the start time, end time, and host name of recording is automatically entered.

Save the command execution result to a CSV file

Pipe the output of the command to Export-Csv. The output is saved in the file attached to the option.

<command> | Export-Csv <file name>.csv

Since the output output to the screen is formatted in CSV, the data that is not displayed is not saved. The output CSV can be read as it is with Excel or the like.

Save the command execution result in an xml file

Pipe the output of the command to Export-Clixml. The output is saved in the file attached to the option.

<command> | Export-Clixml <file name>.xml

Import the xml file output by the following command.

Import-Clixml <file name>.xml

After importing, you will see the exported output. Put the output in a variable or process it through a pipe to utilize it.

Save command execution history

File in which execution history is recorded

When you execute a command with Powershell, the executed command is output to a text file as a history and saved. You can check the location of the saved file by executing the following command.

(Get-PSReadLineOption).HistorySavePath

Also, it seems that you can change the output location with the following command.

 Set-PSReadLineOption -HistorySavePath [File path to change]

However, once you close the prompt, it will revert to the default location.

Display history with command

You can display the command execution history with the ** Get-history ** command. 。

PS C:\Users\Main> Get-History

  Id CommandLine
  -- -----------
   1 Get-History
   2 Get-History

If you have properties, you can also display command execution history, execution time, and end time data.

When all properties are displayed with Select-Object *, this information is displayed.

PS C:\Users\Main> Get-History | Select-Object *


Id                 : 1
CommandLine        : Get-History | Select-Object *
ExecutionStatus    : Completed
StartExecutionTime : 2020/01/16 19:54:41
EndExecutionTime   : 2020/01/16 19:54:41

Id                 : 2
CommandLine        : Get-History | Select-Object *
ExecutionStatus    : Completed
StartExecutionTime : 2020/01/16 19:54:43
EndExecutionTime   : 2020/01/16 19:54:43

With Powershell, you can combine command execution history and output history to reliably record when and what kind of data was acquired.