A -Depth parameter would be usefull

[x86Since8088]

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

[Serpen]

+1 for that, even standard thing fails quite quick

gi C:\Windows\ | ConvertTo-Yaml

[gabriel-samfira]

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

[gabriel-samfira]

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.

[gabriel-samfira]

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

[roke-julian-lockhart]

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

[gabriel-samfira]

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

[roke-julian-lockhart]

@gabriel-samfira, why does such a limit exist?

[gabriel-samfira]

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.