Override Powershell > shortcut

Question

In Powershell using > is the same as using | Out-File, so I can write

"something" > file.txt and It will write 'something' into file.txt . This is what I expect of a shell. Unfortunately, Powershell uses Unicode for writing file.txt. The only way to change it into UTF-8 is to write the quite long command:

"something" | Out-File file.txt -Encoding UTF8

I want to override the > shortcut, so that it adds the UTF-8 encoding by default. Is there a way to do that?

NOT A DUPLICATE CLARIFICATION:

This is not a duplicate. As is explained clearly here, Out-File has a hard-coded default. I don't want to change Out-File's behavior, I want to change >'s behavior.

Possible duplicate of [UTF-8 output from PowerShell](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22349139/utf-8-output-from-powershell) — Loïc MICHEL, Nov 30 '15 at 09:17
@zmbq according to the documentation, using `Out-File -Encoding` *is* the way to go, you cannot change the behavior of the redirection operators — Mathias R. Jessen, Nov 30 '15 at 09:59

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

3

No, can't be done

Even the documentation alludes to this. From the last paragraph of Get-Help about_Redirection:

When you are writing to files, the redirection operators use Unicode encoding. If the file has a different encoding, the output might not be formatted correctly. To redirect content to non-Unicode files, use the Out-File cmdlet with its Encoding parameter.

(emphasis added)

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

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answered Nov 30 '15 at 10:21

Mathias R. Jessen

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 30 '15 at 10:05

The output encoding can be overriden by changing the $OutputEncoding variable. However, that only works for piping output into executables. It doesn't work for redirection operators. If you need a specific encoding for file output you must use Out-File or Set-Content with the -Encoding parameter (or a StreamWriter).

Override Powershell > shortcut

2 Answers2

No, can't be done