Get-Content does not support -encoding 'byte'

[mgreenegit]

This can be observed by testing the GPRegistryPolicyParser module using PowerShell 7.1. When Get-Content is called to read files exported from Group Policy using Backup-GPO, a warning is written that 'byte' is not a valid input for -encoding parameter. However, it does not seem that the module is functionally impacted. It still does what it is intended to do, other than returning the error.

Could someone from PowerShell advise the best approach for the issue in the other repo? If 'byte' is no longer available, should we remove the -encoding parameter, or use some other value?

PowerShell/GPRegistryPolicyParser#6

[SeeminglyScience]

Could someone from PowerShell advise the best approach for the issue in the other repo? If 'byte' is no longer available, should we remove the -encoding parameter, or use some other value?

Use the -AsByteStream switch parameter.

[mklement0]

@mgreenegit, here's the story behind this breaking change, which was made in v6: #7986

The conclusion by @SteveL-MSFT was:

At this time, without additional customer feedback, it seems that the number of hits in the corpus based on the size of the corpus doesn't justify spending effort to add this back.

It certainly was an unfortunate change that people keep running into.

If you feel strongly enough about revisiting this, I encourage you to create a new issue of type "Feature Request/Idea" and to make the case that -Encoding Byte should be brought back (alongside -AsByteStream, as an effective alias).

This issue has been marked as answered and has not had any activity for 1 day. It has been closed for housekeeping purposes.

[mgreenegit]

It looks like -asbytestream is going to work for parsing .pol files

[mklement0]

@mgreenegit, yes, -AsByteStream in PowerShell Core is the equivalent of -Encoding Byte in Windows PowerShell.

Leaving aside that this change isn't obvious, the bigger concern is that if you write code that targets both editions, you must explicitly account for this difference, which is a nuisance.

[RandyDotCom]

A parameter cannot be found that matches parameter name 'AsByteStream'.
A parameter cannot be found that matches parameter name 'Encoding'.
Neither Parameter is available in the VS Code Terminal
This is a breaking change for me
Name Value

---

PSVersion 7.3.2
PSEdition Core
GitCommitId 7.3.2
OS Microsoft Windows 10.0.19045
Platform Win32NT
PSCompatibleVersions {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0…}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion 2.3
SerializationVersion 1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion 3.0

[mklement0]

@RandyDotCom: -Encoding is a dynamic parameter of Get-Content, applicable only to the file-system (the FileSystem provider).

If neither -Encoding nor -AsByteStream are recognized (in your case - 7.3.2 - it would be the latter), the implication is that the current location (as reported in $PWD / with Get-Location) is not a file-system location.

If you find this not to be true, create a new issue.