I'm working on a PowerShell function called Show-BackupStatus that shows the backup logs from last night and can optionally display the files in a designated backup directory. When I use the 'ls' command in the terminal, it shows the usual tabular view without issues. However, when I run it inside my function/script, the output looks more like an object dump instead of a clean format, showing details like the LastWriteTime, Length, and Name for each item. How can I achieve the standard command line formatting for 'ls' when it's part of a function? Thanks for the help!
3 Answers
It's hard to tell without seeing your code, but it sounds like you might be accidentally outputting lines of text instead of properly formatted PowerShell objects. Make sure you're working with PS custom objects for better formatting options.
You should avoid formatting inside the function itself, as that can disrupt the pipeline. Instead, try piping the output to a formatting cmdlet like Format-Table. For example, you can do something like `Get-Process | Format-Table -AutoSize`. This should give you the formatted output you're looking for!
It often depends on what other outputs your function is handling. Are you outputting different object types? If you use Select-Object on your outputs, it might override their original format, which can mess things up for formatting. Just a thought!
I am indeed outputting a filtered part of the text logs. The directory display is just an optional feature of the output. For those interested: I’m downloading daily backup zip files from my home docker server onto my machine backed up by Backblaze.
Winner winner chicken dinner! The Format-Table was the missing link. For this use case, I don't care about breaking the pipeline. Thank you!