Does PowerShell has something like "echo off" and "echo on" trigger?

Question

cmd/batch file could turn on and turn off "echo". So in PowerShell, I have a bunch of "write-host" output, I want somewhere to turn on / off write-host for debugging convenience.

Does PowerShell has such a function?

Answer 1

The Set-PSDebug cmdlet has -Trace <int> parameter that can be used to same effect as echo on.

Answer 2

You should use Write-Verbose instead of Write-Host, this will make your debugging data controlled by the variable $VerbosePreference. This variable has the same value set as $ErrorActionPreference, and the default is SilentlyContinue, which means that no verbose output is generated. You can set this to Continue and then have your verbose output visible.

Answer 3

I recommend you simply put

| Out-Null

at the end of any line where privacy matters... it's more or less the same as putting...

@

... at the beginning of any 'batch' line where you want output hidden from users.