powershellnewlineteetrailing-newlinepowershell-7.2

How can I make `Tee-Object` not adding a trailing newline in PowerShell?


Tee-Object does not have a -NoNewline switch like many other output-to-file-cmdlets (e. g. Out-File, Set-Content). Under the hood, Tee-Object uses Out-File to write to a file, which adds a trailing newline by default.

As I (currently) cannot pass through the -NoNewline switch through Tee-Object, is there another way I can enforce that the underlying Out-File won't add a trailing newline? Looking at the implementation of Out-File, there might be now way, but maybe someone is aware of some tricks/hacks to achieve it anyway?

Some constraints:

Code for reproduction:

"Test" | Tee-Object file | Out-Null

On Windows, the generated file file will contain 6 bytes like shown in the following hexdump:

          00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F ASCII
00000000  54 65 73 74 0D 0A                               Test..

Which, unfortunately, contains the additional bytes 0D 0A a. k. a. `r`n or CR&LF in Windows.


Solution

  • You could roll your own and write a prefixed newline:

    function Tee-StackProtectorObject {
        param(
            [Parameter(Mandatory=$true, Position=1, ValueFromPipeline=$true, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true)]
            [AllowNull()]
            [AllowEmptyCollection()]
            [psobject]
            $InputObject,
    
            [Parameter(ParameterSetName='Path', Mandatory=$true, Position=0, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true)]
            [string[]]
            $Path,
    
            [Parameter(ParameterSetName='LiteralPath', Mandatory=$true, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true)]
            [Alias('PSPath')]
            [string[]]
            $LiteralPath
        )
    
        begin {
            # Determine newline character sequence at the start (might differ across platforms)
            $newLine = [Environment]::NewLine
    
            # Prepare parameter arguments for Add-Content
            $addContentParams = @{ NoNewLine = $true }
            if($PSCmdlet.ParameterSetName -eq 'Path'){
                $addContentParams['Path'] = $Path
            }
            else {
                $addContentParams['LiteralPath'] = $LiteralPath
            }
        }
    
        process {
            # Write to file twice - first a newline, then the content without trailling newline
            Add-Content -Value $newLine @addContentParams
            Add-Content -Value $InputObject @addContentParams
    
            # Write back to pipeline
            Write-Output -InputObject $InputObject
        }
    }
    

    Note that, unlike Tee-Object, the function above is in perpetual "append mode". Refactoring it to support both appending and overwriting is left as an exercise for the reader :)