so trying to find a way to combine a couple of things the Stack Overflow crowd has helped me do in the past. So I know how to find folders with a specific name and move them where I want them to go:
$source_regex = [regex]::escape($sourceDir)
(gci $sourceDir -recurse | where {-not ($_.psiscontainer)} | select -expand fullname) -match "\\$search\\" |
foreach {
$file_dest = ($_ | split-path -parent) -replace $source_regex,$targetDir
if (-not (test-path $file_dest)){mkdir $file_dest}
move-item $_ -Destination $file_dest -force -verbose
}
And I also know how to find and delete files of a specific file extension within a preset directory:
Get-ChildItem $source -Include $searchfile -Recurse -Force | foreach{ "Removing file $($_.FullName)"; Remove-Item -force -recurse $_}
What I'm trying to do now is combine the two. Basically, I'm looking for a way to tell Powershell:
"Look for all folders named 'Draft Materials.' When you find a folder with that name, get its full path ($source), then run a command to delete files of a given file extension ($searchfile) from that folder."
What I'm trying to do is create a script I can use to clean up an archive drive when and if space starts to get tight. The idea is that as I develop things, a lot of times I go through a ton of incremental non-final drafts (hence folder name "Draft Materials"), and I want to get rid of the exported products (the PDFs, the BMPs, the AVIs, the MOVs, atc.) and just leave the master files that created them (the INDDs, the PRPROJs, the AEPs, etc.) so I can reconstruct them down the line if I ever need to. I can tell the script what drive and folder to search (and I'd assign that to a variable since the backup location may change and I'd like to just change it once), but I need help with the rest.
I'm stuck because I'm not quite sure how to combine the two pieces of code that I have to get Powershell to do this.
If what you want is to
"Look for all folders named 'Draft Materials.' When you find a folder with that name, get its full path ($source), then run a command to delete files of a given file extension ($searchfile) from that folder."
then you could do something like:
$rootPath = 'X:\Path\To\Start\Searching\From' # the starting point for the search
$searchFolder = 'Draft Materials' # the folder name to search for
$deleteThese = '*.PDF', '*.BMP', '*.AVI', '*.MOV' # an array of file patterns to delete
# get a list of all folders called 'Draft Materials'
Get-ChildItem -Path $rootPath -Directory -Filter $searchFolder -Recurse | ForEach-Object {
# inside each of these folders, get the files you want to delete and remove them
Get-ChildItem -Path $_.FullName -File -Recurse -Include $deleteThese |
Remove-Item -WhatIf
}
Or use Get-ChildItem only once, having it search for files. Then test if their fullnames contain the folder called 'Draft Materials'
$rootPath = 'X:\Path\To\Start\Searching\From'
$searchFolder = 'Draft Materials'
$deleteThese = '*.PDF', '*.BMP', '*.AVI', '*.MOV'
# get a list of all files with extensions from the $deleteThese array
Get-ChildItem -Path $rootPath -File -Recurse -Include $deleteThese |
# if in their full path names the folder 'Draft Materials' is present, delete them
Where-Object { $_.FullName -match "\\$searchFolder\\" } |
Remove-Item -WhatIf
In both cases I have added safety switch -WhatIf so when you run this, nothing gets deleted and in the console is written what would happen.
If that info shows the correct files are being removed, take off (or comment out) -Whatif and run the code again.
Related
Got another multi-step process I'm looking to streamline. Basically, I'm looking to build a Powershell script to do three things:
Get-Childitem to look for folders with a specific name (we'll call it NAME1 as a placeholder)
For each folder it finds that has the name, I want it to output the full directory to a TXT file (so that in the end I wind up with a text file that has a list of the results it found, with their full paths; so if it finds folders with "NAME1" in five different subdirectories of the folder I give it, I want the full path beginning with the drive letter and ending with "NAME1")
Then I want it to take the list from the TXT file, and copy each file path to another drive and preserve directory structure
So basically, if it searches and finds this:
D:\TEST1\NAME1
D:\TEST7\NAME1
D:\TEST8\NAME1\
That's what I want to appear in the text file.
Then what I want it to do is to go through each line in the text file and plug the value into a Copy-Item (I'm thinking the source directory would get assigned to a variable), so that when it's all said and done, on the second drive I wind up with this:
E:\BACKUP\TEST1\NAME1
E:\BACKUP\TEST7\NAME1
E:\BACKUP\TEST8\NAME1\
So in short, I'm looking for a Get-Childitem that can define a series of paths, which Copy-Item can then use to back them up elsewhere.
I already have one way to do this, but the problem is it seems to copy everything every time, and since one of these drives is an SSD I only want to copy what's new/changed each time (not to mention that would save time when I need to run a backup):
$source = "C:\"
$target = "E:\BACKUP\"
$search = "NAME1"
$source_regex = [regex]::escape($source)
(gci $source -recurse | where {-not ($_.psiscontainer)} | select -expand fullname) -match "\\$search\\" |
foreach {
$file_dest = ($_ | split-path -parent) -replace $source_regex,$target
if (-not (test-path $file_dest)){mkdir $file_dest}
copy-item $_ -Destination $file_dest -force -verbose
}
If there's a way to do this that wouldn't require writing out a TXT file each time I'd be all for that, but I don't know a way to do this the way I'm looking for except a Copy-Item.
I'd be very grateful for any help I can get with this. Thanks all!
If I understand correctly, you want to copy all folders with a certain name, keeping the original folder structure in the destination path and copy only files that are newer than what is in the destination already.
Try
$source = 'C:\'
$target = 'E:\BACKUP\'
$search = 'NAME1'
# -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue because in the C:\ disk you are bound to get Access Denied on some paths
Get-ChildItem -Path $source -Directory -Recurse -Filter $search -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | ForEach-Object {
# construct the destination folder path
$dest = Join-Path -Path $target -ChildPath $_.FullName.Substring($source.Length)
# copy the folder including its files and subfolders (but not empty subfolders)
# for more switches see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/robocopy
robocopy $_.FullName $dest /XO /S /R:0
}
If you don't want console output of robocopy you can silence it by appending 2>&1, so neither stdout nor stderr is echoed
If you want to keep a file after this with both the source paths and the destinations, I'd suggest doing
$source = 'C:\'
$target = 'E:\BACKUP\'
$search = 'NAME1'
$output = [System.Collections.Generic.List[object]]::new()
# -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue because in the C:\ disk you are bound to get Access Denied on some paths
Get-ChildItem -Path $source -Directory -Recurse -Filter $search -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | ForEach-Object {
# construct the destination folder path
$dest = Join-Path -Path $target -ChildPath $_.FullName.Substring($source.Length)
# add an object to the output list
$output.Add([PsCustomObject]#{Source = $_.FullName; Destination = $dest })
# copy the folder including its files and subfolders (but not empty subfolders)
# for more switches see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/robocopy
robocopy $_.FullName $dest /XO /S /R:0
}
# write the output to csv file
$output | Export-Csv -Path 'E:\backup.csv' -NoTypeInformation
I have mulitple sub-folders in the main folder which has number of files in each of them. I want to keep the contents of certain folders intact and delete the contents in the rest of them.
I tested the code, but it deletes the files in all the sub-folders 7 days before.
$Path="C:\Shreyas1"
$NumberOfDays="-7"
$CurrentDate=Get-Date
$DeleteDays=$CurrentDate.AddDays($NumberOfDays)
## Heading
##$excludes="Specs"
Get-ChildItem $Path -Exclude $excludes -Recurse |
Where-Object{($_.LastWriteTime -lt $DeleteDays )} |
Remove-Item
You should try using the same "Where" statement after your Get-ChildItem cmdlet to filter out specific file names. Try something like this:
Get-ChildItem $Path -Recurse | Where-Object {$_.Name -notlike "*$excludes*" -and $_.LastWriteTime -lt $DeleteDays}
Run that first to make sure you get what you want, then you can pipe to Remove-item -Confirm:$false like you have done in your OP. Edit: The -Confirm:$false switch means that it won't prompt you to confirm whether or not you want to delete the file, it will just delete. That is why you want to run Get-ChildItem first.
So I have danced with this off and on throughout the day and the timeless phrase "There's more than one way to skin a cat" keeps coming to mind so I decided to take to the community.
Scenario:
Source folder "C:\Updates" has 100 files of various extensions. All need to be copied to the sub-folders only of "C:\Prod\" overwriting any duplicates that it may find.
The Caveats:
The sub-folder names (destinations) in "C:\Prod" are quite dynamic and change frequently.
A naming convention is used to determine which sub-folders in the destination need to be excluded when the source files are being copied (to retain the original versions). For ease of explanation lets say any folder names starting with "!stop" should be excluded from the copy process. (!stop* if wildcards considered)
So, here I am wanting the input of those greater than I to tackle this in PS if I'm lucky. I've tinkered with Copy-Item and xcopy today so I'm excited to hear other's input.
Thanks!
-Chris
Give this a shot:
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Prod -Exclude !stop* -Directory `
| ForEach-Object { Copy-Item -Path C:\Updates\* -Destination $_ -Force }
This grabs each folder (the -Directory switch ensures we only grab folders) in C:\Prod that does not match the filter and pipes it to the ForEach-Object command where we are running the Copy-Item command to copy the files to the directory.
The -Directory switch is not available in every version of PowerShell; I do not know which version it was introduced in off the top of my head. If you have an older version of PowerShell that does not support -Directory then you can use this script:
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Prod -Exclude !stop* `
| Where-Object { $_.PSIsContainer } `
| ForEach-Object { Copy-Item -Path C:\Updates\* -Destination $_ -Force }
To select only sub folders which do not begin with "!stop" do this
$Source = "C:\Updates\*"
$Dest = "C:\Prod"
$Stop = "^!stop"
$Destinations = GCI -Path $Dest |?{$_.PSIsContainer -and $_.Name -notmatch $Stop }
ForEach ($Destination in $Destinations) {
Copy-Item -Path $Source -Destination $Destination.FullName -Force
}
Edited Now copies all files from Update to subs of Source not beginning with "!stop" The -whatif switch shows what would happen, to arm the script remove the -whatif.
Edit2 Streamlined the script. If also Sub/sub-folders of C:\Prod shall receive copies include a -rec option to the gci just in front of he pipe.
I am trying delete all files within a folder but there is 1 folder called pictures which I would like to keep but don't know how to do that. I am using the following script , it deletes everything in a folder
if ($message -eq 'y')
{
get-childitem "C:\test" -recurse | % {
remove-item $_.FullName -recurse
}
}
One solution is to use something like:
Get-ChildItem -Path "c:\test" -Recurse | Where-Object { $_.FullName -cnotmatch "\\Pictures($|\\)" -and (Get-ChildItem $_.FullName -Include "Pictures" -Recurse).Length -eq 0 } | Remove-Item -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue;
I suspect there must be a way more elegant way to do this. Here's what this does: it enumerates all files in the C:\test folder recursively (Get-ChildItem), then it removes all items from the result list using Where-Object where the path contains the directory to be excluded (specified using regex syntax) or when the item in question has child items that contains the file or directory to be excluded. The resulting list is fed to Remove-Item for removal. The -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue switch is applied to prevent errors being logged with recursive removal.
Get-ChildItem $PSScriptRoot -Force| Where-Object {$_.Name -ne "Pictures"} | Remove-Item -Recurse
I just tried this, and it worked for me. If you want to change what is deleted just change the "Pictures". This uses $PSScriptRoot for the path, which is the execution path of the Powershell script. You can rename that to be the path of where you want to delete.
I need to copy only certain parts of a folder using Powershell, specifically this list:
$files = #("MyProgram.exe",
"MyProgram.exe.config",
"MyProgram.pdb",
".\XmlConfig\*.xml")
In human readable form: 3 specific MyProgram.* files under root of target folder and all XML files under XmlConfig folder which itself is under root of source path (..\bin\Release\ in my case). XmlConfig folder must be created in destination, if it does not exist.
What I have tried:
(1) I tried the following, but it did not work, i.e. no folder or files were created at the destination path:
Copy-Item -Recurse -Path "..\bin\Release\" -Destination ".\Test\" -Include $files
(2) When -Include is removed, whole folder structure is successfully created, including subfolders and files:
Copy-Item -Recurse -Path "..\bin\Release\" -Destination ".\Test\"
It must be something wrong with my understanding of how -Include filter works:
(3) I tested an assumption that -Include needs an array of wildcards, but this did not work either:
$files = #("*MyProgram.exe*",
"*MyProgram.exe.config*",
"*MyProgram.pdb*",
"*.\XmlConfig\*.xml*")
Please advise on how to properly do Copy-Item in my case.
UPDATE (based on below answers):
I am looking for a generic implementation that takes an array of strings. It opens the possibility to put all necessary files/paths in one place, for easy editing, so that a non-Powershell knowledgeable person can understand and modify it as required. So in the end it would be single script to perform XCOPY deployments for any project, with input file being the only variable part. For above example, the input would look like this (saved as input.txt and passed as an argument to the main script):
MyProgram.exe
MyProgram.exe.config
MyProgram.pdb
.\XmlConfig\*.xml
I would prefer wildcards approach, since not many people know regex.
i don't know what is wrong with filter but you can still do
$files | % { copy-item ..\bin\release\$_ -Destination .\test}
if you want to preserve directoty structure you'll have to weak this a little, like :
$sourcedir="c:\temp\test"
$f=#("existing.txt","hf.csv";"..\dir2\*.txt")
$f |%{
$source=ls (join-Path $sourcedir $_) |select -expand directoryname
if ("$source" -like "$sourcedir*"){
$destination=$source.Substring($sourcedir.Length)+".\"
}
else{
$destination=$_
}
copy-item $sourcedir\$_ -Destination $destination -WhatIf
}
AFAICT -Include works only with file names or directory names and not combinations i.e. paths. You can try something like this:
$files = 'MyProgram\.exe|MyProgram\.exe\.config|MyProgram\.pdb|XmlConfig\\.*?\.xml'
Get-ChildItem ..\bin\release -r | Where {!$_.PSIsContainer -and ($_.FullName -match $files)} |
Copy-Item -Dest .\test
With wildcards you could do it this way:
$files = #('*MyProgram.exe','*MyProgram.exe.config','*MyProgram.pdb','*\XmkConfig\*.xml')
Get-ChildItem ..\bin\release -r |
Foreach {$fn=$_.Fullname;$_} |
Where {!$_.PSIsContainer -and ($files | Where {$fn -like $_})} |
Copy-Item -Dest .\test