Capture program stdout and stderr to separate variables

Question

Is it possible to redirect stdout from an external program to a variable and stderr from external programs to another variable in one run?

For example:

Answer 1

The easiest way to do this is to use a file for the stderr output, e.g.:

$output = & myprogram.exe 'argv[0]', 'argv[1]' 2>stderr.txt
$err = get-content stderr.txt
if ($LastExitCode -ne 0) { ... handle error ... }

I would also use $LastExitCode to check for errors from native console EXE files.

Answer 2

This is also an alternative that I have used to redirect stdout and stderr of a command line while still showing the output during PowerShell execution:

$command = "myexecutable.exe my command line params"

Invoke-Expression $command -OutVariable output -ErrorVariable errors
Write-Host "STDOUT"
Write-Host $output
Write-Host "STDERR"
Write-Host $errors

It is just another possibility to supplement what was already given.

Keep in mind this may not always work depending upon how the script is invoked. I have had problems with -OutVariable and -ErrorVariable when invoked from a standard command line rather than a PowerShell command line like this:

PowerShell -File ".\FileName.ps1"

An alternative that seems to work under most circumstances is this:

$stdOutAndError = Invoke-Expression "$command 2>&1"

Unfortunately, you will lose output to the command line during execution of the script and would have to Write-Host $stdOutAndError after the command returns to make it "a part of the record" (like a part of a Jenkins batch file run). And unfortunately it doesn't separate stdout and stderr.

Answer 3

One option is to combine the output of stdout and stderr into a single stream, then filter.

Data from stdout will be strings, while stderr produces System.Management.Automation.ErrorRecord objects.

$allOutput = & myprogram.exe 2>&1
$stderr = $allOutput | ?{ $_ -is [System.Management.Automation.ErrorRecord] }
$stdout = $allOutput | ?{ $_ -isnot [System.Management.Automation.ErrorRecord] }

Answer 4

You should be using Start-Process with -RedirectStandardError -RedirectStandardOutput options. This other post has a great example of how to do this (sampled from that post below):

$pinfo = New-Object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo
$pinfo.FileName = "ping.exe"
$pinfo.RedirectStandardError = $true
$pinfo.RedirectStandardOutput = $true
$pinfo.UseShellExecute = $false
$pinfo.Arguments = "localhost"
$p = New-Object System.Diagnostics.Process
$p.StartInfo = $pinfo
$p.Start() | Out-Null
$p.WaitForExit()
$stdout = $p.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd()
$stderr = $p.StandardError.ReadToEnd()
Write-Host "stdout: $stdout"
Write-Host "stderr: $stderr"
Write-Host "exit code: " + $p.ExitCode

Answer 5

Separately, preserving formatting

cls
function GetAnsVal {
    param([Parameter(Mandatory=$true, ValueFromPipeline=$true)][System.Object[]][AllowEmptyString()]$Output,
          [Parameter(Mandatory=$false, ValueFromPipeline=$true)][System.String]$firstEncNew="UTF-8",
          [Parameter(Mandatory=$false, ValueFromPipeline=$true)][System.String]$secondEncNew="CP866"
    )
    function ConvertTo-Encoding ([string]$From, [string]$To){#"UTF-8" "CP866" "ASCII" "windows-1251"
        Begin{
            $encFrom = [System.Text.Encoding]::GetEncoding($from)
            $encTo = [System.Text.Encoding]::GetEncoding($to)
        }
        Process{
            $Text=($_).ToString()
            $bytes = $encTo.GetBytes($Text)
            $bytes = [System.Text.Encoding]::Convert($encFrom, $encTo, $bytes)
            $encTo.GetString($bytes)
        }
    }
    $all = New-Object System.Collections.Generic.List[System.Object];
    $exception = New-Object System.Collections.Generic.List[System.Object];
    $stderr = New-Object System.Collections.Generic.List[System.Object];
    $stdout = New-Object System.Collections.Generic.List[System.Object]
    $i = 0;$Output | % {
        if ($_ -ne $null){
            if ($_.GetType().FullName -ne 'System.Management.Automation.ErrorRecord'){
                if ($_.Exception.message -ne $null){$Temp=$_.Exception.message | ConvertTo-Encoding $firstEncNew $secondEncNew;$all.Add($Temp);$exception.Add($Temp)}
                elseif ($_ -ne $null){$Temp=$_ | ConvertTo-Encoding $firstEncNew $secondEncNew;$all.Add($Temp);$stdout.Add($Temp)}
            } else {
                #if (MyNonTerminatingError.Exception is AccessDeniedException)
                $Temp=$_.Exception.message | ConvertTo-Encoding $firstEncNew $secondEncNew;
                $all.Add($Temp);$stderr.Add($Temp)
            }   
         }
    $i++
    }
    [hashtable]$return = @{}
    $return.Meta0=$all;$return.Meta1=$exception;$return.Meta2=$stderr;$return.Meta3=$stdout;
    return $return
}
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms;
& C:\Windows\System32\curl.exe 'api.ipify.org/?format=plain' 2>&1 | set-variable Output;
$r = & GetAnsVal $Output
$Meta2=""
foreach ($el in $r.Meta2){
    $Meta2+=$el
}
$Meta2=($Meta2 -split "[`r`n]") -join "`n"
$Meta2=($Meta2 -split "[`n]{2,}") -join "`n"
[Console]::Write("stderr:`n");
[Console]::Write($Meta2);
[Console]::Write("`n");
$Meta3=""
foreach ($el in $r.Meta3){
    $Meta3+=$el
}
$Meta3=($Meta3 -split "[`r`n]") -join "`n"
$Meta3=($Meta3 -split "[`n]{2,}") -join "`n"
[Console]::Write("stdout:`n");
[Console]::Write($Meta3);
[Console]::Write("`n");