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Write-Information

  • Reference
Module:
Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility

Specifies how PowerShell handles information stream data for a command.

Syntax

Write-Information
     [-MessageData] <Object>
     [[-Tags] <String[]>]
     [<CommonParameters>]

Description

The Write-Information cmdlet specifies how PowerShell handles information stream data for a command.

Windows PowerShell 5.0 introduces a new, structured information stream. You can use this stream to transmit structured data between a script and its callers or the host application. Write-Information lets you add an informational message to the stream, and specify how PowerShell handles information stream data for a command. Information streams also work for PowerShell.Streams, jobs, and scheduled tasks.

Note

The information stream does not follow the standard convention of prefixing its messages with "[Stream Name]:". This was intended for brevity and visual cleanliness.

The $InformationPreference preference variable value determines whether the message you provide to Write-Information is displayed at the expected point in a script's operation. Because the default value of this variable is SilentlyContinue, by default, informational messages are not shown. If you don't want to change the value of $InformationPreference, you can override its value by adding the InformationAction common parameter to your command. For more information, see about_Preference_Variables and about_CommonParameters.

Note

Starting in Windows PowerShell 5.0, Write-Host is a wrapper for Write-Information This allows you to use Write-Host to emit output to the information stream. This enables the capture or suppression of data written using Write-Host while preserving backwards compatibility. For more information see Write-Host

Examples

Example 1: Write information for Get- results

In this example, you show an informational message, "Processes starting with 'P'", before running the Get-Process command to find all processes that have a Name value that starts with 'p'. Because the $InformationPreference variable is still set to its default, SilentlyContinue, you add the InformationAction parameter to override the $InformationPreference value, and show the message. The InformationAction value is Continue, which means that your message is shown, but the script or command continues, if it is not yet finished.

Write-Information -MessageData "Processes starting with 'P'" -InformationAction Continue
Get-Process -Name p*

Processes starting with 'P'

     18    19.76      15.16       0.00    6232   0 PFERemediation
     20     8.92      25.15       0.00   24944   0 policyHost
      9     1.77       7.64       0.00    1780   0 powercfg
     10    26.67      32.18       0.00    7028   0 powercfg
      8    26.55      31.59       0.00   13600   0 powercfg
      9     1.66       7.55       0.00   22620   0 powercfg
     21     6.17       4.54     202.20   12536   1 PowerMgr
     42    84.26      12.71   2,488.84   20588   1 powershell
     27    47.07      45.38       2.05   25988   1 powershell
     27    24.45       5.31       0.00   12364   0 PresentationFontCache
     92   112.04      13.36      82.30   13176   1 pwsh
    106   163.73      93.21     302.25   14620   1 pwsh
    227   764.01      92.16   1,757.22   25328   1 pwsh

Example 2: Write information and tag it

In this example, you use Write-Information to let users know they'll need to run another command after they're done running the current command. The example adds the tag "Instructions" to the informational message. After running this command, when you search the information stream for messages tagged "Instructions", the message is in the results.

$message = "To filter your results for PowerShell, pipe your results to the Where-Object cmdlet."
Get-Process -Name p*
Write-Information -MessageData $message -Tags "Instructions" -InformationAction Continue

NPM(K)    PM(M)      WS(M)     CPU(s)      Id  SI ProcessName
 ------    -----      -----     ------      --  -- -----------
     18    19.76      15.16       0.00    6232   0 PFERemediation
     20     8.92      25.15       0.00   24944   0 policyHost
      9     1.77       7.64       0.00    1780   0 powercfg
     10    26.67      32.18       0.00    7028   0 powercfg
      8    26.55      31.59       0.00   13600   0 powercfg
      9     1.66       7.55       0.00   22620   0 powercfg
     21     6.17       4.54     202.20   12536   1 PowerMgr
     42    84.26      12.71   2,488.84   20588   1 powershell
     27    47.07      45.38       2.05   25988   1 powershell
     27    24.45       5.31       0.00   12364   0 PresentationFontCache
     92   112.04      13.36      82.30   13176   1 pwsh
    106   163.73      93.21     302.25   14620   1 pwsh
    227   764.01      92.16   1,757.22   25328   1 pwsh

To filter your results for PowerShell, pipe your results to the Where-Object cmdlet.

Example 3: Write information to a file

In this example, you redirect the information stream in the function to Info.txt using the code 6>. When you open the Info.txt file, you see the text "Here you go."

function Test-Info
{
    Get-Process P*
    Write-Information "Here you go"
}
Test-Info 6> Info.txt

Example 4: Pass object to write information

In this example, you can use Write-Information to write the top 10 highest CPU utilization processes from the Get-Process object output that has passes through multiple pipelines.

Get-Process | Sort-Object CPU -Descending |
    Select-Object Id, ProcessName, CPU -First 10 |
    Write-Information -InformationAction Continue

@{Id=12692; ProcessName=chrome; CPU=39431.296875}
@{Id=21292; ProcessName=OUTLOOK; CPU=23991.875}
@{Id=10548; ProcessName=CefSharp.BrowserSubprocess; CPU=20546.203125}
@{Id=312848; ProcessName=Taskmgr; CPU=13173.1875}
@{Id=10848; ProcessName=SnapClient; CPU=7014.265625}
@{Id=9760; ProcessName=Receiver; CPU=6792.359375}
@{Id=12040; ProcessName=Teams; CPU=5605.578125}
@{Id=498388; ProcessName=chrome; CPU=3062.453125}
@{Id=6900; ProcessName=chrome; CPU=2546.9375}
@{Id=9044; ProcessName=explorer; CPU=2358.765625}

Example 5: Saving information records to a variable

Using the InformationVariable parameter, you can save information records to a variable. This allows you to inspect the information stream messages later in the script.

Get-Process -Id $PID |
    Select-Object ProcessName, CPU, Path |
    Write-Information -Tags 'PowerShell' -InformationVariable 'InfoMsg'
$InfoMsg | Select-Object *

MessageData     : @{ProcessName=pwsh; CPU=12.36; Path=/opt/microsoft/powershell/7/pwsh}
Source          : Write-Information
TimeGenerated   : 10/19/2023 11:28:15
Tags            : {PowerShell}
User            : sdwheeler
Computer        : circumflex
ProcessId       : 237
NativeThreadId  : 261
ManagedThreadId : 10

Parameters

-MessageData

Specifies an informational message that you want to display to users as they run a script or command. For best results, enclose the informational message in quotation marks.

Type:Object
Aliases:Msg, Message
Position:0
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Tags

One or more strings that you can use to sort and filter messages that you have added to the information stream with Write-Information. This parameter works similarly to the Tags parameter in New-ModuleManifest.

Type:String[]
Position:1
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

Inputs

Object

You can pipe objects to pass to the information stream to this cmdlet.

Outputs

None

This cmdlet returns no output. It only writes to the information message stream.