Help formatting log output

[TonyD Participant Topics: 10 Replies: 203 Points: 996Rank: Major Contributor]

I am trying to find the best method to format my PowerShell logging. What I am trying to achieve is the following. I want to precede all lines sent to the log file with the following:

[07-30-2020 17:15:44 -0700 INFO] yada yada yada ….

So, precede log entries with [month-day-year hours:minutes:seconds timezone INFO] similar to Splunk logging.

I have no problems getting this format, but it seems like a performance hit to calculate the date/time information for each line logged (of which there are many). Is there a better way then running Get-Date for each line logged?

I should also point out this is all run through Start-Transcript.

Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions.

[Rob Simmers Participant Topics: 17 Replies: 1951 Points: 3,988Rank: Community Hero]

Have you tried .NET methods? I would imagine that Get-Date is just a wrapper for these. Would have to use ToString() or string format after you have the date.

[TonyD Participant Topics: 10 Replies: 203 Points: 996Rank: Major Contributor]

Thanks a million Rob. You have been as usual very helpful 🙂

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.datetimeoffset?view=net-5.0

 

[Rob Simmers Participant Topics: 17 Replies: 1951 Points: 3,988Rank: Community Hero]

Oops, totally meant to put a link in there:

#PSTip Working with DateTime objects in PowerShell using [System.DateTime]

Also, just a quick test shows that Get-Date is actually faster…

PowerShell

PS C:\Users\rasim> Measure-Command { Get-Date } Days : 0 Hours : 0 Minutes : 0 Seconds : 0 Milliseconds : 7 Ticks : 76788 TotalDays : 8.8875E-08 TotalHours : 2.133E-06 TotalMinutes : 0.00012798 TotalSeconds : 0.0076788 TotalMilliseconds : 7.6788 PS C:\Users\rasim> Measure-Command { [datetime]::Now } Days : 0 Hours : 0 Minutes : 0 Seconds : 0 Milliseconds : 11 Ticks : 114846 TotalDays : 1.32923611111111E-07 TotalHours : 3.19016666666667E-06 TotalMinutes : 0.00019141 TotalSeconds : 0.0114846 TotalMilliseconds : 11.4846

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

PS C:\Users\rasim> Measure-Command {     Get-Date }   Days              : 0 Hours             : 0 Minutes           : 0 Seconds           : 0 Milliseconds      : 7 Ticks             : 76788 TotalDays         : 8.8875E-08 TotalHours        : 2.133E-06 TotalMinutes      : 0.00012798 TotalSeconds      : 0.0076788 TotalMilliseconds : 7.6788     PS C:\Users\rasim> Measure-Command {     [datetime]::Now }   Days              : 0 Hours             : 0 Minutes           : 0 Seconds           : 0 Milliseconds      : 11 Ticks             : 114846 TotalDays         : 1.32923611111111E-07 TotalHours        : 3.19016666666667E-06 TotalMinutes      : 0.00019141 TotalSeconds      : 0.0114846 TotalMilliseconds : 11.4846

[TonyD Participant Topics: 10 Replies: 203 Points: 996Rank: Major Contributor]

Thanks again Rob. I am going with

[DateTimeOffset]::Now

as it gets me both the Date/Time and the TimeZone in one command and I am including both in my log prefix.

My testing was a tad different then yours, just an FYI

PS C:\> Measure-Command {[DateTimeOffset]::Now}

Days : 0
Hours : 0
Minutes : 0
Seconds : 0
Milliseconds : 0
Ticks : 1087
TotalDays : 1.25810185185185E-09
TotalHours : 3.01944444444444E-08
TotalMinutes : 1.81166666666667E-06
TotalSeconds : 0.0001087
TotalMilliseconds : 0.1087

 

PS C:\> Measure-Command {get-date}

Days : 0
Hours : 0
Minutes : 0
Seconds : 0
Milliseconds : 0
Ticks : 2985
TotalDays : 3.45486111111111E-09
TotalHours : 8.29166666666667E-08
TotalMinutes : 4.975E-06
TotalSeconds : 0.0002985
TotalMilliseconds : 0.2985

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