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Export-Clixml

  • Reference
Module:
Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility

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

Syntax

Export-Clixml
      [-Depth <Int32>]
      [-Path] <String>
      -InputObject <PSObject>
      [-Force]
      [-NoClobber]
      [-Encoding <Encoding>]
      [-WhatIf]
      [-Confirm]
      [<CommonParameters>]
Export-Clixml
      [-Depth <Int32>]
      -LiteralPath <String>
      -InputObject <PSObject>
      [-Force]
      [-NoClobber]
      [-Encoding <Encoding>]
      [-WhatIf]
      [-Confirm]
      [<CommonParameters>]

Description

The Export-Clixml cmdlet serialized an object into a Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) XML-based representation stores it in a file. You can then use the Import-Clixml cmdlet to recreate the saved object based on the contents of that file. For more information about CLI, see Language independence.

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 PowerShell.

A valuable use of Export-Clixml on Windows computers is to export credentials and secure strings securely as XML. For an example, see Example 3.

Examples

Example 1: Export a string to an XML file

This example creates an XML file that stores in the current directory, a representation of the string This is a test.

"This is a test" | Export-Clixml -Path .\sample.xml

The string This is a test is sent down the pipeline. Export-Clixml uses the Path parameter to create an XML file named sample.xml in the current directory.

Example 2: Export an object to an XML file

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

Get-Acl C:\test.txt | Export-Clixml -Path .\FileACL.xml
$fileacl = Import-Clixml -Path .\FileACL.xml

The Get-Acl cmdlet gets the security descriptor of the Test.txt file. It sends the object down the pipeline to pass the security descriptor to Export-Clixml. The XML-based representation of the object is stored in a file named FileACL.xml.

The Import-Clixml cmdlet creates an object from the XML in the FileACL.xml file. Then, it saves the object in the $fileacl variable.

Example 3: Encrypt an exported credential object on Windows

In this example, given a credential that you've stored in the $Credential variable by running the Get-Credential cmdlet, you can run the Export-Clixml cmdlet to save the credential to disk.

Important

Export-Clixml only exports encrypted credentials on Windows. On non-Windows operating systems such as macOS and Linux, credentials are exported as a plain text stored as a Unicode character array. This provides some obfuscation but does not provide encryption.

$Credxmlpath = Join-Path (Split-Path $Profile) TestScript.ps1.credential
$Credential | Export-Clixml $Credxmlpath
$Credxmlpath = Join-Path (Split-Path $Profile) TestScript.ps1.credential
$Credential = Import-Clixml $Credxmlpath

The Export-Clixml cmdlet encrypts credential objects by using the Windows Data Protection API. The encryption ensures that only your user account on only that computer can decrypt the contents of the credential object. The exported CLIXML file can't be used on a different computer or by a different user.

In the example, the file in which the credential is stored is represented by TestScript.ps1.credential. Replace TestScript with the name of the script with which you're loading the credential.

You send the credential object down the pipeline to Export-Clixml, and save it to the path, $Credxmlpath, that you specified in the first command.

To import the credential automatically into your script, run the final two commands. Run Import-Clixml to import the secured credential object into your script. This import eliminates the risk of exposing plain-text passwords in your script.

Example 4: Exporting a credential object on Linux or macOS

In this example, we create a PSCredential in the $Credential variable using the Get-Credential cmdlet. Then we use Export-Clixml to save the credential to disk.

Important

Export-Clixml only exports encrypted credentials on Windows. On non-Windows operating systems such as macOS and Linux, credentials are exported as a plain text stored as a Unicode character array. This provides some obfuscation but does not provide encryption.

PS> $Credential = Get-Credential

PowerShell credential request
Enter your credentials.
User: User1
Password for user User1: ********

PS> $Credential | Export-Clixml ./cred2.xml
PS> Get-Content ./cred2.xml

...
    <Props>
      <S N="UserName">User1</S>
      <SS N="Password">700061007300730077006f0072006400</SS>
    </Props>
...

PS> 'password' | Format-Hex -Encoding unicode

   Label: String (System.String) <52D60C91>

          Offset Bytes                                           Ascii
                 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
          ------ ----------------------------------------------- -----
0000000000000000 70 00 61 00 73 00 73 00 77 00 6F 00 72 00 64 00 p a s s w o r d

The output of Get-Content in this example has been truncate to focus on the credential information in the XML file. Note that the plain text value of the password is stored in the XML file as a Unicode character array as proven by Format-Hex. So the value is encoded but not encrypted.

Parameters

-Confirm

Prompts you for confirmation before running the cmdlet.

Type:SwitchParameter
Aliases:cf
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Depth

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.

Type:Int32
Position:Named
Default value:2
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Encoding

Specifies the type of encoding for the target file. The default value is utf8NoBOM.

The acceptable values for this parameter are as follows:

  • ascii: Uses the encoding for the ASCII (7-bit) character set.
  • ansi: Uses the encoding for the for the current culture's ANSI code page. This option was added in 7.4.
  • bigendianunicode: Encodes in UTF-16 format using the big-endian byte order.
  • bigendianutf32: Encodes in UTF-32 format using the big-endian byte order.
  • oem: Uses the default encoding for MS-DOS and console programs.
  • unicode: Encodes in UTF-16 format using the little-endian byte order.
  • utf7: Encodes in UTF-7 format.
  • utf8: Encodes in UTF-8 format.
  • utf8BOM: Encodes in UTF-8 format with Byte Order Mark (BOM)
  • utf8NoBOM: Encodes in UTF-8 format without Byte Order Mark (BOM)
  • utf32: Encodes in UTF-32 format.

Beginning with PowerShell 6.2, the Encoding parameter also allows numeric IDs of registered code pages (like -Encoding 1251) or string names of registered code pages (like -Encoding "windows-1251"). For more information, see the .NET documentation for Encoding.CodePage.

Starting with PowerShell 7.4, you can use the Ansi value for the Encoding parameter to pass the numeric ID for the current culture's ANSI code page without having to specify it manually.

Note

UTF-7* is no longer recommended to use. As of PowerShell 7.1, a warning is written if you specify utf7 for the Encoding parameter.

Type:Encoding
Accepted values:ASCII, BigEndianUnicode, BigEndianUTF32, OEM, Unicode, UTF7, UTF8, UTF8BOM, UTF8NoBOM, UTF32
Position:Named
Default value:UTF8NoBOM
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Force

Forces the command to run without asking for user confirmation.

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.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-InputObject

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.

Type:PSObject
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-LiteralPath

Specifies the path to the file where the XML representation of the object will be stored. Unlike Path, the value of the LiteralPath parameter is used exactly as it's typed. No characters are interpreted as wildcards. If the path includes escape characters, enclose it in single quotation marks. Single quotation marks tell PowerShell not to interpret any characters as escape sequences.

Type:String
Aliases:PSPath, LP
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-NoClobber

Indicates that the cmdlet doesn't overwrite the contents of an existing file. By default, if a file exists in the specified path, Export-Clixml overwrites the file without warning.

Type:SwitchParameter
Aliases:NoOverwrite
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Path

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

Type:String
Position:0
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-WhatIf

Shows what would happen if the cmdlet runs. The cmdlet isn't run.

Type:SwitchParameter
Aliases:wi
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

Inputs

PSObject

You can pipeline any object to this cmdlet.

Outputs

FileInfo

This cmdlet returns a FileInfo object representing the created file with the stored data.