C# output differs between PowerShell and Windows Terminal PS

Question

Why in C#, when I invoke a script with PowerShell and capture the buffer, is the output completely different from running in Windows Terminal PS?

I'm supposed to be invoking the same application to run the command (PowerShell) from C#... as is running in Windows Terminal PS.

I'm running this C# application open with elevated privileges:

string command = "docker-compose -p wsdd-projects -f C:\Docker-Structure\init.yml up -d --build"

string policy = "Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Force";

string arguments = $"-NoProfile -Command \"{policy} ; '{command}'\"";

ProcessStartInfo processBuilder = new("powershell")
{
    Arguments = arguments,
    RedirectStandardOutput = true,
    RedirectStandardError = true,
    UseShellExecute = false,
    Verb = "runas",
    CreateNoWindow = true,
    StandardOutputEncoding = Encoding.UTF8,
    StandardErrorEncoding = Encoding.UTF8
};

Capture output with:

Process process = new() { StartInfo = processBuilder };

process.OutputDataReceived += (sender, e) =>
{
    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(e.Data))
    {
        if (showOutput) { terminal.AddToTerminal(e.Data); }
        output.AppendLine(e.Data);
    }
};

process.ErrorDataReceived += (sender, e) =>
{
    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(e.Data))
    {
        if (showOutput) { terminal.AddToTerminal(e.Data); }
        output.AppendLine(e.Data);
    }
};

process.Start();
process.BeginOutputReadLine();
process.BeginErrorReadLine();

await process.WaitForExitAsync();

I get this output from PS invoke from C#:

 reverse-proxy Pulled
 phpmyadmin Pulled
 faef57eae888 Pull complete
 989a1d6c052e Pull complete
 0705c9c2f22d Pull complete
 621478e043ce Pull complete
 98246dcca987 Pull complete
 bfed8c155cb6 Pull complete
 7a7c2e908867 Pull complete
 d176994b625c Pull complete
 2d8ace6a2716 Pull complete
 c70df516383c Pull complete
 15e1b44fe4c7 Pull complete
 65e50d44e95a Pull complete
 77f68910bc0a Pull complete
 605dd3a6e332 Pull complete
 99ce27188f07 Pull complete
 74d64e32c5d5 Pull complete
 ef5fc9928b9f Pull complete
 163f3256e112 Pull complete
 8a1e25ce7c4f Pull complete
 e78b137be355 Pull complete
 39fc875bd2b2 Pull complete
 035788421403 Pull complete
 87c3fb37cbf2 Pull complete
 c5cdd1ce752d Pull complete
 33952c599532 Pull complete
 80bad5b02d6c Pull complete
 b86cede81497 Pull complete
 876ba35ce95b Pull complete
 ac8fec215cc8 Pull complete
 7795496aa545 Pull complete
 4f4fb700ef54 Pull complete

Instead of this output in Terminal PS Windows:

[+] Running 33/33
 ✔ reverse-proxy 13 layers [⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿]      0B/0B      Pulled                   14.3s
   ✔ 8a1e25ce7c4f Pull complete                                                      8.1s
   ✔ e78b137be355 Pull complete                                                      8.5s
   ✔ 39fc875bd2b2 Pull complete                                                      6.9s
   ✔ 035788421403 Pull complete                                                      7.6s
   ✔ 87c3fb37cbf2 Pull complete                                                      8.1s
   ✔ c5cdd1ce752d Pull complete                                                      8.6s
   ✔ 33952c599532 Pull complete                                                      8.7s
   ✔ 80bad5b02d6c Pull complete                                                      9.0s
   ✔ b86cede81497 Pull complete                                                      9.4s
   ✔ 876ba35ce95b Pull complete                                                      9.8s
   ✔ ac8fec215cc8 Pull complete                                                      9.6s
   ✔ 7795496aa545 Pull complete                                                      10.1s
   ✔ 4f4fb700ef54 Pull complete                                                      10.2s
 ✔ phpmyadmin 18 layers [⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿]      0B/0B      Pulled                  18.4s
   ✔ faef57eae888 Pull complete                                                      2.3s
   ✔ 989a1d6c052e Pull complete                                                      0.5s
   ✔ 0705c9c2f22d Pull complete                                                      4.7s
   ✔ 621478e043ce Pull complete                                                      1.0s
   ✔ 98246dcca987 Pull complete                                                      3.0s
   ✔ bfed8c155cb6 Pull complete                                                      2.8s
   ✔ 7a7c2e908867 Pull complete                                                      3.5s
   ✔ d176994b625c Pull complete                                                      4.3s
   ✔ 2d8ace6a2716 Pull complete                                                      4.1s
   ✔ c70df516383c Pull complete                                                      5.1s
   ✔ 15e1b44fe4c7 Pull complete                                                      4.8s
   ✔ 65e50d44e95a Pull complete                                                      5.3s
   ✔ 77f68910bc0a Pull complete                                                      5.4s
   ✔ 605dd3a6e332 Pull complete                                                      5.9s
   ✔ 99ce27188f07 Pull complete                                                      6.1s
   ✔ 74d64e32c5d5 Pull complete                                                      6.5s
   ✔ ef5fc9928b9f Pull complete                                                      6.4s

Where is this line in my code? [+] Running

And the characters ✔ and [⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿]?

Answer 1

Almost all console apps will detect if the output is a terminal or a pipeline or a redirected file and stop outputting formatting in case the stdout is not a terminal. The formatting characters are just for beautified output and aren't useful for processing in scripts, therefore console apps will turn it off in a non-terminal output. If you run docker-compose | where { $True } in PowerShell or docker-compose | cat in a *nix terminal then the result will be the same as in your C# app

In docker it's the --ansi or --no-ansi option. Use docker compose --ansi never or docker compose --no-ansi depending on your docker version for consistent results. docker compose --ansi always also works but is only suitable for printing the output to an ANSI terminal because it may show hidden ANSI escape sequences which is unexpected in a text editor. It's the same effect as if you allocate a pseudo-tty in your C# and run docker-compose normally

Since you only want to process the output in C# then