Inconsistent display of data

[zammitt]

I want to capture all data emmitted from a command to display to the user at a later time.

Using the common -*Varaible parameters captures everything in the correct order, however when I display them later the formatting compared to what the console originally printed is lost.

Steps to reproduce

function Get-DataTest {
    [CmdletBinding()]
    param()
    Write-Host "Hello from Write-Host" -ForegroundColor Green
    Write-Warning "Hello from Write-Warning"
    Write-Output "Hello from Write-Output"
    Write-Error "Hello from Write-Error"
}

$buffer = $null

Write-Host "`nInvoking Get-DataTest"

Get-DataTest -InformationVariable +buffer -WarningVariable +buffer -OutVariable +buffer -ErrorVariable +buffer -PipelineVariable +buffer

Write-Host "`nPrinting buffer"

$buffer

Expected behavior

Printing $buffer should match the output from Get-DataTest.

Actual behavior

Color from Write-Host and Write-Warning is lost. Warning: label for Write-Warning is lost. Surprisingly, the data captured from Write-Error is displaying with color and in the exact same format.

Environment data

Name                           Value
----                           -----
PSVersion                      7.0.0
PSEdition                      Core
GitCommitId                    7.0.0
OS                             Microsoft Windows 10.0.18363
Platform                       Win32NT
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0…}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion              3.0

[SteveL-MSFT]

This is because that coloring is actually applied by the host (consolehost in this case) whereas the error formatting is VT100 escape sequences embedded in the text. You can use $host.PrivateData to get the colors that would have been used.

[SeeminglyScience]

@SteveL-MSFT Warning is still kind of inconsistent though. I'd expect that a WarningRecord would be formatted similar to how it's stream appears. I know that's host specific, but I don't think it would necessarily be a bad idea to give it formatting similar to how ConsoleHost emits it.

(To clarify, objects saved to WarningVariable are actually typed as WarningRecord instead of just a plain string)

[ghost]

This issue has been marked as answered and has not had any activity for 1 day. It has been closed for housekeeping purposes.