A -Depth parameter would be usefull

I would like to dump data for human review in YAML, but some objects have seemingly endless recursion. A -Depth parameter would help here.

Exception calling "Serialize" with "2" argument(s): "Too much recursion when traversing the object graph"
At C:\Users\my\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\powershell-yaml\0.4.2\powershell-yaml.psm1:398 char:13

        $serializer.Serialize($wrt, $norm)

```
        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
```
- CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException
- FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidOperationException

+1 for that, even standard thing fails quite quick

gi C:\Windows\ | ConvertTo-Yaml

So it took less time for Frodo to take the ring to Mount Doom than it took me to get around to adding a -Depth flag, but would you mind giving this PR a try:

Major refactor - PSCustomObjects and powershell classes #199

It adds far more than a -Depth flag, but I have no idea when I will have enough time again, so it's a dump of many changes that were requested.

For this use case:

PS /home/gabriel/work/cloudbase/powershell-yaml> import-module ./powershell-yaml.psd1   
PS /home/gabriel/work/cloudbase/powershell-yaml> gi . | ConvertTo-Yaml -Depth 1
Name: powershell-yaml
Parent:
  Name: cloudbase
  Parent: {}
  Root: {}
  Exists: true
  FullName: /home/gabriel/work/cloudbase
  Extension: ""
  CreationTime: 2026-01-02T00:03:27.1986124+02:00
  CreationTimeUtc: 2026-01-01T22:03:27.1986124Z
  LastAccessTime: 2026-01-05T03:02:03.3350369+02:00
  LastAccessTimeUtc: 2026-01-05T01:02:03.3350369Z
  LastWriteTime: 2026-01-02T00:03:27.1986124+02:00
  LastWriteTimeUtc: 2026-01-01T22:03:27.1986124Z
  LinkTarget: 
  UnixFileMode: OtherExecute, OtherRead, GroupExecute, GroupWrite, GroupRead, UserExecute, UserWrite, UserRead
  Attributes: Directory
Root:
  Name: /
  Parent: 
  Root: {}
  Exists: true
  FullName: /
  Extension: ""
  CreationTime: 2025-05-02T20:51:31.2748649+03:00
  CreationTimeUtc: 2025-05-02T17:51:31.2748649Z
  LastAccessTime: 2026-01-05T00:06:56.2591474+02:00
  LastAccessTimeUtc: 2026-01-04T22:06:56.2591474Z
  LastWriteTime: 2025-05-02T20:51:31.2748649+03:00
  LastWriteTimeUtc: 2025-05-02T17:51:31.2748649Z
  LinkTarget: 
  UnixFileMode: OtherExecute, OtherRead, GroupExecute, GroupRead, UserExecute, UserWrite, UserRead
  Attributes: ReadOnly, Directory
Exists: true
FullName: /home/gabriel/work/cloudbase/powershell-yaml
Extension: ""
CreationTime: 2026-01-05T03:50:34.7428167+02:00
CreationTimeUtc: 2026-01-05T01:50:34.7428167Z
LastAccessTime: 2026-01-05T03:50:39.5861251+02:00
LastAccessTimeUtc: 2026-01-05T01:50:39.5861251Z
LastWriteTime: 2026-01-05T03:50:34.7428167+02:00
LastWriteTimeUtc: 2026-01-05T01:50:34.7428167Z
LinkTarget: 
UnixFileMode: OtherExecute, OtherRead, GroupExecute, GroupWrite, GroupRead, UserExecute, UserWrite, UserRead
Attributes: Directory

note, the absolute max recursion is 1000. Default recursion is 100. Most yaml won't ever get close to 100 let alone 1000, but I have learned not to doubt human creativity. To be fair, the stable version is limited at 50 as it is, so these values should be fine.

The PR was merged. There is now a -Depth flag for ConvertTo-Yaml

@gabriel-samfira

@gabriel-samfira, is -Depth also limited (to 1000)?

yes. The default is 100 (which is higher than the old default), but you can raise it up to 1000 if you need to.

There are self referencing, serializable objects like the Root object in the Get-Item . command you see above. Without a depth limiter, you will consume CPU forever, recursing to infinity. YamlDotNet itself has a limit of 50 by default. We raised that a bit and added the flag to the commandlet to allow a customizable range up to 1000. It is unlikely you will ever need more. If there are more than 1000 levels to a YAML, then YAML is probably the wrong tool for the job.

Navigation Menu

Repository navigation

A -Depth parameter would be usefull #81

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Type

Projects

Milestone

Relationships

Development

A -Depth parameter would be usefull #81

Description

Activity

Serpen commented on Mar 16, 2025

gabriel-samfira commented on Jan 5, 2026

gabriel-samfira commented on Jan 5, 2026

gabriel-samfira commented on Jan 5, 2026

beedell-roke commented on Jan 5, 2026

gabriel-samfira commented on Jan 5, 2026

beedell-roke commented on Jan 5, 2026

gabriel-samfira commented on Jan 5, 2026

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Type

Projects

Milestone

Relationships

Development

Issue actions