How to insert additional comments (string?) to Start-Transcript in PowerShell

Question

(PowerShell beginner so bear with me...) I find Start-Transcript command in PowerShell very useful that captures write-host and write-output outputs which get written out to the log as is while they simultaneously get displayed on the console. I'm trying to add contextual comments to the log file (to add some explanation to the log so people reading logs can better understand context) but I'm hoping to find a solution that doesn't involve spitting anything out to the console at all (which write-host/output do).

My objective is to 1) add a more intuitive date/time string in the log than the default log file creates and 2) to add more information to provide context of the log

Adi Inbar Adi Inbar · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-09T00:11:59

You could create the transcript file first, add all the contextual information to it, then invoke Start-Transcript -Append and specify the file that you initialized for the transcript. You could use a function like this (tweak according to your requirements):

function New-Transcript {
  param(
    [parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string]$Path
  )
  Get-Date -Format 'your preferred format' > $Path
  Write-Output 'Contextual message #1' > -Append $Path
  Write-Output "Contextual message #2 with $variable" > -Append $Path
  Start-Transcript $Path -Append
}

Then you'd start your transcripts like this:

New-Transcript <TranscriptFilePath>

Or if you prefer, you could have it assign some default name to the transcript, e.g.

param(
  [string]$Path = "PowerShell_transcript_$(Get-Date -format 'yyyy-MM-dd_HH-mm-ss')"
)

Make sure you use the -Append switch with each > (shorthand for Out-File) after the first, or it will overwrite the file each time.

This is just a framework. You'll probably want to develop your New-Transcript function further, for example have it check if the specified path already exists, give it its own -Append switch to determine whether an existing transcript file will be added to or overwritten, add parameters that control what contextual messages are prepended, etc.

Note that the default PowerShell transcript headers will follow your custom headers. I don't believe there's a way to suppress them.

How to insert additional comments (string?) to Start-Transcript in PowerShell

1 Answers