How can I use a PowerShell output in the next command? - powershell

Question

I am working on a PowerShell command to search across drives for a specific file. I am new to PowerShell so most of what I have already is just stuff I found online. At the moment I have this:
$ExclDrives = ('C')
>> Get-PSDrive -PSProvider FileSystem | Where-Object {$_.Name -notin $ExclDrives} `
>> | % {write-host -f Green "Searching " $_.Root;get-childitem $_.Root -include *MyFile.txt -r `
>> | sort-object Length -descending}
Which outputs this:
Searching D:\
Searching E:\
Searching F:\
Directory: F:\MyDirectory
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a---- 8/13/2022 12:03 AM 0 MyFile.txt
PS C:\Windows\system32>
I would like to know how I can take the directory that is listed in the output and use it in a following command such as:
cd F:\MyDirectory
If this is possible through piping or something I would really appreciate an answer :)
Thanks for reading

Answer 1

I wasn't really sure what the best way to handle this would be if multiple files were found. We wouldn't be able to change directory into the parent folders while the script was running nor would we be able to do so for all of the returned files unless we opened new PowerShell windows for each. Since it appears that you will be searching for specific files which I assume will not return too many results and not knowing your ultimate goal I went with opening a new file explorer window for each file with the file being highlighted/selected.
$excludeDrives = ('C')
Get-PSDrive -PSProvider FileSystem | Where-Object { $_.Name -notin $excludeDrives } |
ForEach-Object {
Write-Host -f Green 'Searching ' $_.Root
Get-ChildItem -Path $_.Root -Recurse -Include *MyFile.txt -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
ForEach-Object {
# This line will open a file explorer window with the file highlighted
explorer.exe /select, $_
# This line will send the file object out through the pipeline
$_
} | Sort-Object Length -Descending
}
To answer your question about how to access the file's directory in the next command, you can use Foreach-Object and $_.Directory:
Get-ChildItem -Path $_.Root -Recurse -Include *MyFile.txt -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
Sort-Object Length -Descending |
ForEach-Object {
# Using the pipeline we can pass object along and access them
# using a special automatic variable called $_
# a property exists on FileInfo objects called Directory
'The directory is ' + $_.Directory
}
UPDATE
Hopefully this will answer the question in your comment
$ExclDrives = ('C')
Get-PSDrive -PSProvider FileSystem |
Where-Object { $_.Name -in $ExclDrives } |
ForEach-Object {
Write-Host -f Green 'Searching ' $_.Root
Get-ChildItem $_.Root -Include *MyFile.txt -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
ForEach-Object {
# do whatever you want with the file. Reference using $_
Write-Host "Found Filename: $($_.Name)`tDirectory: $($_.Directory)" -ForegroundColor Cyan
explorer.exe /select, $_
# output the fileinfo object, in this case
# to the next command in the pipeline which is Sort-Object
$_
} |
Sort-Object Length -Descending
}