Export-Clixml

Export-Clixml [-Confirm] [-Depth <Int32>] [-Encoding {Unicode | UTF7 | UTF8 | ASCII | UTF32 | BigEndianUnicode |Default | OEM}] [-Force] -InputObject* <PSObject> -LiteralPath* <String> [-NoClobber] [-WhatIf] [<CommonParameters>]

Export-Clixml [-Path*] <String> [-Confirm] [-Depth <Int32>] [-Encoding {Unicode | UTF7 | UTF8 | ASCII | UTF32 |BigEndianUnicode | Default | OEM}] [-Force] -InputObject* <PSObject> [-NoClobber] [-WhatIf] [<CommonParameters>]

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.

A valuable use of Export-CliXml is to export credentials and secure strings securely as XML. For an example of how to do this, see Example 3.

Parameters

-Confirm [<SwitchParameter>]

Default value is False
Accepts pipeline input False

Prompts you for confirmation before running the cmdlet.

-Depth <Int32>

Default value is None
Accepts pipeline input False

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.

-Encoding <String>

Default value is None
Accepts pipeline input False

Specifies the type of encoding for the target file. The acceptable values for this parameter are:

- ASCII

- UTF8

- UTF7

- UTF32

- Unicode

- BigEndianUnicode

- Default

- OEM

The default value is Unicode.

-Force [<SwitchParameter>]

Default value is False
Accepts pipeline input False

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.

-InputObject <PSObject>

This value is required
Default value is None
Accepts pipeline input ByValue

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 .

-LiteralPath <String>

This value is required
Default value is None
Accepts pipeline input False

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 is typed. No characters are interpreted as wildcards. If the path includes escape characters, enclose it in single quotation marks. Single quotation marks tell Windows PowerShell not to interpret any characters as escape sequences.

-NoClobber [<SwitchParameter>]

Default value is False
Accepts pipeline input False

Indicates that 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.

-Path <String>

This value is required
Default value is None
Accepts pipeline input False

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

-WhatIf [<SwitchParameter>]

Default value is False
Accepts pipeline input False

Shows what would happen if the cmdlet runs. The cmdlet is not run.

<CommonParameters>

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: Verbose, Debug,ErrorAction, ErrorVariable, WarningAction, WarningVariable,OutBuffer, PipelineVariable, and OutVariable.

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.

Examples

Export a string to an XML file:
```
PS C:\> "This is a test" | Export-Clixml sample.xml
```
This command creates an XML file that stores a representation of the string, "This is a test".
Export an object to an XML file:
```
PS C:\> Get-Acl C:\test.txt | Export-Clixml -Path "fileacl.xml"
PS C:\>  $Fileacl = Import-Clixml "fileacl.xml"
```
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.

Encrypt an exported credential object:

PS C:\> $CredXmlPath = Join-Path (Split-Path $Profile) TestScript.ps1.credential
PS C:\> $credential | Export-CliXml $CredPath
PS C:\> $CredXmlPath = Join-Path (Split-Path $Profile) TestScript.ps1.credential
PS C:\> $Credential = Import-CliXml $CredXmlPath

   The Export-CliXml cmdlet encrypts credential objects by using the Windows Data Protection 
   APIhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/apps/xaml/hh464970.aspx. This ensures that only your user account can 
   decrypt the contents of the credential object.
   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.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 are loading the credential.
   In the second command, pipe the credential object 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. This time, you are running 
   Import-Clixml to import the secured credential object into your script. This eliminates the risk of exposing 
   plain-text passwords in your script.

Additional Notes

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. It is attributed to Microsoft Corporation and can be found here.

PowerShell Commands