Suppress console output in PowerShell

Question

I have a call to GPG in the following way in a PowerShell script:

$key = & 'gpg' --decrypt "secret.gpg" --quiet --no-verbose > $null

I don't want any output from GPG to be seen on the main console when I'm running the script.

Due to my noobness in PowerShell, I don't know how to do this. I searched Stack Overflow and googled for a way to do it, found a lot of ways to do it, but non of it worked.

The "> $null" for example has no effect. I found the --quiet --no-verbose options for GPG to put less output in the console, still it's not completely quiet, and I'm sure there is a way in PowerShell too.

Sierrasiesser

See also ... #16744951 – Thousandth

possible duplicate of How to suppress stderr output in Powershell? – Ashanti

Possible duplicate of What's the better (cleaner) way to ignore output in PowerShell?. – Gospel

Answer 1

Try redirecting the output like this:

$key = & 'gpg' --decrypt "secret.gpg" --quiet --no-verbose >$null 2>&1

Colo

In PowerShell v3 he could redirect all output streams like this: *>$null. – Swainson

@AnsgarWiechers Perhaps add that as an answer, so it can receive upvotes. – Neckwear

@DanSolovay Nah. It's just a minor variation of Dave's answer. – Swainson

This is definitely the right answer. | out-null was just not enough. – Cutout

this - same as the above answer - does not assign the value to the variable - it just sinks everything into $null – Newsman

Answer 2

Try redirecting the output to Out-Null. Like so:

$key = & 'gpg' --decrypt "secret.gpg" --quiet --no-verbose | out-null

Fossa

>$null does the same as | Out-Null. – Swainson

Maybe so..but it would make more sense to use this cmdlet, instead of remembering an arbitrary "hack" to cancel out the output. – Shippy

@Shippy why is >$null a hack? Serious question. – Papeterie

@Papeterie Matter of opinion, I suppose. Using PowerShell's built-in Out-Null, I think, would read better when debugging someone else's code or even your own if it's been a while. It's an intentional function that's provided for the aforementioned problem, too. – Shippy

Definitely a matter of opinion, >$null is easily guessable for me as linux user – Modest

See this post: #5260625 – Bashaw

I hadn't thought about it much but I had assumed that " > $null" was an alias of " | Out-Null" to allow us CMD and Bash users a quick 'hack' to use it. However on thinking about it " | Out-Null" does use a pipe, and therefore will need at least one extra execution step over >..... Might be that " | Out-Null" is to make a standardized usage within powershell,a nd ultimately over-rides " > $null" which would make " > $null" a preferable usage. Looks like I may have to change my scripts currently using " | Out-Null" to use " > $null" instead. – Lower

Hmm, just did a little googling, and this Stack Exchange Item, seems to show that " > $null" is quite a bit faster at allowing command execution. #5260625 – Lower

I'd be careful with this option, if you are trying to suppress console output but also trying to return results, this will actually return null and not your results. – Lynellelynett

Answer 3

It is a duplicate of this question, with an answer that contains a time measurement of the different methods.

Conclusion: Use [void] or > $null.

Heathenism

Why don't you flag as duplicate then? – Tricornered

Because I've never done it and was uncertain about it. Now it is flagged. – Heathenism