Powershell Megathread: Verb-Noun Scripting is the future

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Cavern of COBOL > Powershell Megathread: Verb-Noun Scripting is the future

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Hughmoris: Apr 21, 2007; Let's go to the abyss!

Thanks for the ideas. I'm phone posting so forgive me.

What I need is an "on the fly" ad-hoc way of saying "I want to log to a custom CSV the command/script I'm about to execute". I don't have a need to log other stuff I run.

Maybe I can figure out a way to retroactively parse history for the info?

# ? Apr 15, 2024 17:53

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# ? Apr 25, 2024 11:59

Happiness Commando: Feb 1, 2002; $$ joy at gunpoint $$

Are you capturing the output of that script, or just that you ran the script?

If the script outputs something, just set a variable to be the called script like so (the script just does get-date)

code:

PS C:\Users\HC> $foo = .\getdate.ps1
PS C:\Users\HC> $foo

Monday, April 15, 2024 1:57:37 PM


PS C:\Users\HC>

Or to log that you run the script, use the transcript (this script just does get-date but dumps it to a file):

code:

PS C:\Users\HC> Start-Transcript -Path .\log.txt
Transcript started, output file is .\log.txt
PS C:\Users\HC> .\getdate.ps1
PS C:\Users\HC> Stop-Transcript
Transcript stopped, output file is C:\Users\HC\log.txt
PS C:\Users\HC> cat .\date.txt

Monday, April 15, 2024 2:03:58 PM


PS C:\Users\HC> cat .\log.txt
**********************
Windows PowerShell transcript start
Start time: 20240415140352
Username: BEEFY\HC
RunAs User: BEEFY\HC
Configuration Name:
Machine: BEEFY (Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.22631.0)
Host Application: C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
Process ID: 36432
PSVersion: 5.1.22621.2506
PSEdition: Desktop
PSCompatibleVersions: 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 5.1.22621.2506
BuildVersion: 10.0.22621.2506
CLRVersion: 4.0.30319.42000
WSManStackVersion: 3.0
PSRemotingProtocolVersion: 2.3
SerializationVersion: 1.1.0.1
**********************
Transcript started, output file is .\log.txt
PS C:\Users\HC> .\getdate.ps1
PS C:\Users\HC> Stop-Transcript
**********************
Windows PowerShell transcript end
End time: 20240415140401
**********************
PS C:\Users\HC>

I guess if you're really into the CSV, you could do some string manipulation on the transcript and wrap that all up in a custom function that you load as part of your profile

Happiness Commando fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Apr 15, 2024

# ? Apr 15, 2024 20:58

Hughmoris: Apr 21, 2007; Let's go to the abyss!

Thanks for the idea! I learned something new with that Start-Transcript.

It's a weird short-term thing that isn't totally necessary, just something that can save me a bit of manual data entry. I'm mainly poking at it to see if I can automate it.

At this point I'm thinking I can add a comment (e.g. ##LogThis!) at the end of each relevant command execution, then write a simple script that parses History and finds those comments, writing those commands to a CSV along with their execution time.

# ? Apr 15, 2024 23:54

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

I'm still not seeing what exactly you're trying to accomplish. Do you need to submit some kind of report of when you do a specific task? In that case, I'd honestly just auto-start a transcript as part of your profile.ps1, then grab the relevant data whenever you need to submit the report. Combine that with a Posh theme that auto-timestamps your prompt and you're probably golden.

If you're trying to capture specific output from a command/script, adding | export-csv -NoClobber (or -Append) -NoTypeInformation -Path '$path\command-{$get-date}.csv' or similar code directly into your script is probably the right way to go.

Wizard of the Deep fucked around with this message at 09:24 on Apr 16, 2024

# ? Apr 16, 2024 00:20

Pile Of Garbage: May 28, 2007

Hughmoris posted:

Thanks for the idea! I learned something new with that Start-Transcript.

It's a weird short-term thing that isn't totally necessary, just something that can save me a bit of manual data entry. I'm mainly poking at it to see if I can automate it.

At this point I'm thinking I can add a comment (e.g. ##LogThis!) at the end of each relevant command execution, then write a simple script that parses History and finds those comments, writing those commands to a CSV along with their execution time.

Is this potentially related to fulfilling some security thing (e.g. ACSC Essential Eight)? If so look at transcription/script block logging/module logging settings in Group Policy (Note you can enable these on a single machine via local Group Policy, aka gpedit.msc): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_group_policy_settings?view=powershell-5.1

If you're looking to have a kind of running-log of your PowerShell session's execution history you could add a PSConsoleHostReadLine function to your Profile.ps1. There are various automatic variables that should allow you to pull out the relevant parts of what's about to be executed and write it to a file. Note that you can break your console with this if you do something like:

code:

function PSConsoleHostReadLine { $_ }

You could also maybe do the same thing by defining a custom prompt: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_prompts?view=powershell-5.1

# ? Apr 23, 2024 14:27

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# ? Apr 25, 2024 11:59

Hughmoris: Apr 21, 2007; Let's go to the abyss!

Wizard of the Deep posted:

I'm still not seeing what exactly you're trying to accomplish. Do you need to submit some kind of report of when you do a specific task? In that case, I'd honestly just auto-start a transcript as part of your profile.ps1, then grab the relevant data whenever you need to submit the report. Combine that with a Posh theme that auto-timestamps your prompt and you're probably golden.

If you're trying to capture specific output from a command/script, adding | export-csv -NoClobber (or -Append) -NoTypeInformation -Path '$path\command-{$get-date}.csv' or similar code directly into your script is probably the right way to go.

Pile Of Garbage posted:

Is this potentially related to fulfilling some security thing (e.g. ACSC Essential Eight)? If so look at transcription/script block logging/module logging settings in Group Policy (Note you can enable these on a single machine via local Group Policy, aka gpedit.msc): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_group_policy_settings?view=powershell-5.1

If you're looking to have a kind of running-log of your PowerShell session's execution history you could add a PSConsoleHostReadLine function to your Profile.ps1. There are various automatic variables that should allow you to pull out the relevant parts of what's about to be executed and write it to a file. Note that you can break your console with this if you do something like:
code:
function PSConsoleHostReadLine { $_ }
You could also maybe do the same thing by defining a custom prompt: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_prompts?view=powershell-5.1

Thanks for the ideas. I was attending an informal training session where certain actions needed to be logged for review. I ended up just keying in ,or copy/pasting, what was needed. I have learned more about the transcripts and profiles after reading up on your suggestions.

# ? Apr 23, 2024 17:57

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Cavern of COBOL > Powershell Megathread: Verb-Noun Scripting is the future

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