Not able to capture output by runas command - windows

Question

I have to automate test cases.
Tasks:-
Step:-Open administrative command prompt from powershell.
Step:-Execute a batch file on the administrative command prompt.
Step:-Batch file includes some set of commands, including a execution of an exe.
For Example:- runas /user:administrator /savecred someCmd.exe >>D:\output.txt
Step:-Capture output of the exe in a variable for verification of the output.
i have used "
start-process -verb runas cmd.exe $param" cmdlet for opening administrative command prompt(Step 1).
Where $param contains the batch file to be executed.
Problem Statement:- When batch file executes the runas command mentioned above, it opens a new command prompt and the output is displayed in the prompt and it closes itself.
i am not able to capture the output(not getting written in the output.txt) based on which i have to do some verification.

Answer 1

you can use the the output redirection from the batch :
$params="/C ipconfig /all 2>&1 >>c:\temp\test.txt"
start-process -verb runas cmd.exe $params
gc c:\temp\test.txt

Answer 2

I ended up creating a wrapper batch file OutputWrapper.bat that takes at least two arguments:
1) output file
2) command
3) [optional] arguments
#ECHO OFF
IF "%2" == "" GOTO usage
SET OUTPUTFILE=%1
SET COMMAND=%2
SET ARGS=
SHIFT /2
:loop1
IF "%2"=="" GOTO exec
SET ARGS=%ARGS% %2
SHIFT
GOTO loop1
:exec
ECHO Command [%COMMAND%]
ECHO Arguments [%ARGS%]
ECHO Output file [%OUTPUTFILE%]
%COMMAND%%ARGS% > %OUTPUTFILE% 2>&1
GOTO end
:usage
ECHO Usage: %~nx0 outputfile command [arguments]
:end
and calling it from PowerShell like this:
$outFile = "C:\Temp\Deploy.out";
Start-Process -FilePath .\OutputWrapper.bat -ArgumentList "$outfile","whoami.exe","/priv" -Verb RunAs -Wait
Get-Content $outFile;

Answer 3

Solution
Open administrative command prompt from powershell.
executed a batch file in the runas command. For example: runas /user:administrator /savecred mybatch.bat
Batch file includes some set of commands, including a execution of an exe. For example someCmd.exe >>D:\output.txt
Capture output of the exe in a variable for verification of the output.
Now the output was captured and was written into a file. My target was to capture the output of the command and this was the solution through which I solved it.

Answer 4

I had the same problem and solved it by the use of gsudo. It let me run the elevated command and tunneled the output back from it.
gsudo {command-to-execute}

Answer 5

Improvement on Loïc MICHEL's answer, as without -Wait, it's likely that Get-Content will run before the process has finished. As the output isn't written until the process ends, Get-Content fails as the file does not exist.
$param = "ipconfig /all"
$args = "/C $param 2>&1 > C:\temp\test.txt"
Start-Process -FilePath cmd.exe -ArgumentList $args -Verb RunAs -Wait
Get-Content -Path C:\temp\test.txt
Alternatively, using powershell.exe instead and a random file in the temporary directory for the OS:
$CommandWithParameters = "gpresult /scope computer /z"
$OutputFile = Join-Path -Path ([System.IO.Path]::GetTempPath()) -ChildPath ([System.IO.Path]::GetRandomFileName())
$Arguments = ("{0} 2>&1 > {1}" -f $CommandWithParameters, $OutputFile)
Start-Process -FilePath powershell.exe -ArgumentList $Arguments -Verb RunAs -Wait
Get-Content -Path $OutputFile
Using powershell.exe will save the output file using UCS-2 LE BOM encoding. If you use cmd.exe, the encoding will be ANSI.