How do I stop Jenkins truncating/wrapping at column 80

Question

I have a Powershell build step that is being executed in a Jenkins build and the console is wrapping the output at column 80 (as appears to be the default). Is there a way to prevent this column wrapping and have Jenkins utilize a more suitable column width for the output we're expecting?

Answer 1

I hit the same issue. I found via this link you can increase the console width and height. I was limited to a maximum of 128 W and 62 H though or I would get errors.

So I ended up with this:

$pshost = get-host

$pswindow = $pshost.ui.rawui

$newsize = $pswindow.buffersize

$newsize.height = 3000

$newsize.width = 128

$pswindow.buffersize = $newsize

$newsize = $pswindow.windowsize

$newsize.height = 62

$newsize.width = 128

$pswindow.windowsize = $newsize

As this width is not enough, when I output an array of objects I pipe it to format-table cmdlet and I use the -Wrap switch.

E.g.

Get-EventLog -LogName Application -Newest 10 | Format-Table -Wrap

Yields the following output:

Answer 2

Although Avner's answer is correct, I found out that the window and buffer size has to be re-defined each time your jenkins pipeline hits a new powershell step.

A way to avoid this, is to set a default window and buffer size for powershell.exe. One way to do it, is explained by mkelement0 in his answer.

Setting powershell.exe window-size defaults programmatically:

The following PSv5+ snippet sets the default window size for powershell.exe-launched console windows to 100 columns by 50 rows.

Note that the fact that screen buffer values are inherited from the overall default settings, stored directly in HKCU:\Console, adds complexity.

# Determine the target registry key path.
$keyPath = 'HKCU:\Console\%SystemRoot%_System32_WindowsPowerShell_v1.0_powershell.exe'

# Get the existing key or create it on demand.
$key = Get-Item $keyPath -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
if (-not $key) { $key = New-Item $keyPath }

# Determine the new size values.
[uint32] $cols = 100; [uint32] $lines = 50
# Convert to a DWORD for writing to the registry.
[uint32] $dwordWinSize = ($cols + ($lines -shl 16))

# Note: Screen *buffer* values are inherited from 
#       HKCU:\Console, and if the inherited buffer width is larger
#       than the window width, the window width is apparently set to 
#       the larger size.
#       Therefore, we must also set the ScreenBufferSize value, passing through
#       its inherited height value while setting its width value to the same
#       value as the window width.
[uint32] $dwordScreenBuf = Get-ItemPropertyValue HKCU:\Console ScreenBufferSize -EA SilentlyContinue
if (-not $dwordScreenBuf) {  # No buffer size to inherit.
  # Height is 3000 lines by default. 
  # Note that if we didn't set this explicitly, the buffer height would 
  # default to the same value as the window height.
  $dwordScreenBuf = 3000 -shl 16  
}

# Set the buffer width (low word) to the same width as the window
# (so that there's no horizontal scrolling).
$dwordScreenBuf = $cols + (($dwordScreenBuf -shr 16) -shl 16)

# Write the new values to the registry.
Set-ItemProperty -Type DWord $key.PSPath WindowSize $dwordWinSize
Set-ItemProperty -Type DWord $key.PSPath ScreenBufferSize $dwordScreenBuf