Export-Clixml

Article
04/20/2010

Applies To: Windows PowerShell 2.0

Creates an XML-based representation of an object or objects and stores it in a file.

Syntax

Export-Clixml [-Path] <string> -InputObject <psobject> [-Depth <int>] [-Encoding <string>] [-Force] [-NoClobber] [-Confirm] [-WhatIf] [<CommonParameters>]

Description

The Export-Clixml cmdlet creates an XML-based representation of an object or objects and stores it in a file. You can then use the Import-CLIXML cmdlet to re-create the saved object based on the contents of that file.

This cmdlet is similar to ConvertTo-XML, except that Export-Clixml stores the resulting XML in a file. ConvertTo-XML returns the XML, so you can continue to process it in Windows PowerShell.

Parameters

-Depth <int>

Specifies how many levels of contained objects are included in the XML representation. The default value is 2.

The default value can be overridden for the object type in the Types.ps1xml files. For more information, see about_Types.ps1xml.

Required?	false
Position?	named
Default Value	2
Accept Pipeline Input?	false
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

-Encoding <string>

Specifies the type of encoding for the target file. Valid values are ASCII, UTF8, UTF7, UTF32, Unicode, BigEndianUnicode, Default, and OEM. Unicode is the default.

Required?	false
Position?	named
Default Value	Unicode
Accept Pipeline Input?	false
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

-Force

Causes the cmdlet to clear the read-only attribute of the output file if necessary. The cmdlet will attempt to reset the read-only attribute when the command completes.

Required?	false
Position?	named
Default Value
Accept Pipeline Input?	false
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

-InputObject <psobject>

Specifies the object to be converted. Enter a variable that contains the objects, or type a command or expression that gets the objects. You can also pipe objects to Export-Clixml.

Required?	true
Position?	named
Default Value
Accept Pipeline Input?	true (ByValue)
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

-NoClobber

Ensures that the cmdlet does not overwrite the contents of an existing file. By default, if a file exists in the specified path, Export-Clixml overwrites the file without warning.

Required?	false
Position?	named
Default Value
Accept Pipeline Input?	false
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

-Path <string>

Specifies the path to the file where the XML representation of the object will be stored.

Required?	true
Position?	1
Default Value
Accept Pipeline Input?	false
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

-Confirm

Prompts you for confirmation before executing the command.

Required?	false
Position?	named
Default Value
Accept Pipeline Input?	false
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

-WhatIf

Describes what would happen if you executed the command without actually executing the command.

Required?	false
Position?	named
Default Value
Accept Pipeline Input?	false
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

<CommonParameters>

This command supports the common parameters: Verbose, Debug, ErrorAction, ErrorVariable, OutBuffer, OutVariable, WarningAction, and WarningVariable. For more information, see about_CommonParameters.

Inputs and Outputs

The input type is the type of the objects that you can pipe to the cmdlet. The return type is the type of the objects that the cmdlet returns.

Inputs

System.Management.Automation.PSObject

You can pipe any object to Export-Clixml.

Outputs

System.IO.FileInfo

Export-Clixml creates a file that contains the XML.

Example 1

C:\PS>"This is a test" | export-clixml sample.xml

Description
-----------
This command creates an XML file that stores a representation of the string, "This is a test".

Example 2

C:\PS>get-acl C:\test.txt | export-clixml -Path fileacl.xml

C:\PS> $fileacl = import-clixml fileacl.xml

Description
-----------
This example shows how to export an object to an XML file and then create an object by importing the XML from the file. 

The first command uses the Get-ACL cmdlet to get the security descriptor of the Test.txt file. It uses a pipeline operator to pass the security descriptor to Export-Clixml, which stores an XML-based representation of the object in a file named FileACL.xml. 

The second command uses the Import-Clixml cmdlet to create an object from the XML in the FileACL.xml file. Then, it saves the object in the $FileAcl variable.

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