Read a properties file in powershell

Question

Let's suppose that I have a file.properties and its content is:

app.name=Test App
app.version=1.2
...

how can I get the value of app.name?

Answer 1

You can use ConvertFrom-StringData to convert Key=Value pairs to a hash table:

$filedata = @'
app.name=Test App
app.version=1.2
'@

$filedata | set-content appdata.txt

$AppProps = convertfrom-stringdata (get-content ./appdata.txt -raw)
$AppProps

Name                           Value                                                                 
----                           -----                                                                 
app.version                    1.2                                                                   
app.name                       Test App                                                              

$AppProps.'app.version'

 1.2

Answer 2

If you are running with powershell v2.0 you might be missing the "-Raw" argument for Get-Content. In this case you can use the following.

Content of C:\temp\Data.txt:

environment=Q GRZ

target_site=FSHHPU

Code:

$file_content = Get-Content "C:\temp\Data.txt"
$file_content = $file_content -join [Environment]::NewLine

$configuration = ConvertFrom-StringData($file_content)
$environment = $configuration.'environment'
$target_site = $configuration.'target_site'

Answer 3

I wanted to add the solution if you need escaping (for example if you have paths with backslashes):

$file_content = Get-Content "./app.properties" -raw
$file_content = [Regex]::Escape($file_content)
$file_content = $file_content -replace "(\\r)?\\n", [Environment]::NewLine
$configuration = ConvertFrom-StringData($file_content)
$configuration.'app.name'

Without the -raw:

$file_content = Get-Content "./app.properties"
$file_content = [Regex]::Escape($file_content -join "`n")
$file_content = $file_content -replace "\\n", [Environment]::NewLine
$configuration = ConvertFrom-StringData($file_content)
$configuration.'app.name'

Or in a one-line fashion:

(ConvertFrom-StringData([Regex]::Escape((Get-Content "./app.properties" -raw)) -replace "(\\r)?\\n", [Environment]::NewLine)).'app.name'

Answer 4

I don't know if there is some Powershell integrated way of doing this, but I can do it with regex:

$target = "app.name=Test App
app.version=1.2
..."

$property = "app.name"
$pattern = "(?-s)(?<=$($property)=).+"

$value = $target | sls $pattern | %{$_.Matches} | %{$_.Value}

Write-Host $value

Should print "Test App"