I'm very rusty on my Powershell. I have a folder with different types of files and I want to remove a constant string of text from each file. For example, I have 3 types of files each with the same text I want removed. But there are 300 of these in one folder.
file1(My Little Pony).nfo
file1(My Little Pony)-thumb.jpg
file1(My Little Pony).avi
file02(My Little Pony).nfo
file2(My Little Pony)-thumb.jpg
file002(My Little Pony).avi
I want to remove the text "(My Little Pony)"
It's going to be something like
$filepath ="C:\Folder 1"
foreach($file in $filepath){
# this is where I struggle
# rename $file take out "(My Little Pony)"
#
}
You are trying to iterate over the string "C:\Folder 1", but that is only the rootpath to where the files can be found.
You need to first get an array of FileInfo objects and iterate over that:
$files = Get-ChildItem -Path 'C:\Folder 1' -Filter '*(My Little Pony)*' -File
$files | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.Name -replace '\(My Little Pony\)'}
I'm using the regex -replace because that works Case-Insensitively as opposed to the string method .Replace()
By doing that, we need to escape the brackets (My Little Pony) with backslashes
Related
I'm searching through directories recursively. I want to find files that contain text i'm looking for OR the text is in the content of the file.
For example, if I search for "hello", i'd normally do this:
Find matching file names:
get-childitem -filter "*hello*"
Find files that have text in them:
get-childitem -recurse | select-string -pattern "*hello*"
But I want to do both at the same time. Which means you could have files that don't have "hello" in the name but it does appear in the contents of the file. Or visa versa.
EDIT: I considered using where-object with an -or but having trouble figuring out how to construct that properly.
EDIT: My mistake, meant to include select-string in the example.
Ideas?
Thanks
I don't think its possible to use -Filter because you might be excluding those files which's content could contain the word you're looking for.
An easy approach I could think of, is looping through all files in $startPath recursively and, if the word is contained in the file's name, go to the next iteration with continue or break if you want to stop the loop at first finding, and of course, use -Raw for Get-Content:
$startPath = 'C:\path\to\startFolder'
$magicWord = 'hello'
foreach($file in Get-ChildItem $startPath -Recurse -File)
{
if($file.Name -match $magicWord)
{
$file
continue
# or break here if you want to stop the loop
}
if((Get-Content $file.FullName -Raw) -match $magicWord)
{
$file
# break here if you want to stop the loop
}
}
Not sure if using this would be faster or not:
if([system.io.file]::ReadAllText($file.FullName) -match $magicWord)
{
...
}
I am using Beyond Compare and I have gotten it to ouput if there are any differences into a txt file. However, I want to script this in powershell so that if there are no differences in files, the script will continue and do something else. However, I am not sure this is possible. I have looked through Select-String, but unsure if that will be able to do what I am looking for. Attached is what the txt file looks like when there are no differences as well as what it looks like when there are differences.
Is it possible to convert name, size, or modified in the txt file into a variable and then do a condition on whether it is null? Or is there is another way I can do what I am trying to achieve in Powershell? Thanks in advance.
If all you need to know is whether any differences were found, the following should do:
$noDiffs = '' -eq ((Get-Content -Raw report.txt) -split '\r?\n-+\r?\n')[1].Trim()
(Get-Content -Raw report.txt) -split '\r?\n-+\r?\n splits the entire input file by the the divider line (----...) following the table-header line, using a regex (regular expression).
[1] looks a the 2nd element of the resulting array, i.e., whatever comes after the divider line, trims any leading and trailing whitespace, and the result is tested for being the empty string.
With all respect to the question and the answer from #mklement0.
Using Beyond Compare in a PowerShell script is putting the cart before the horse.
There are a lot of cmdlets in PowerShell which would let you easily compare folders (and a lot more) without doing any text scraping.
As using Compare-Object togehter with Get-ChildItem for the given example:
Compare-Object (Get-ChildItem .\Test) (Get-ChildItem .\Test1) -Property Name, Length, LastWriteTime
If you want to do a recursive compare on the relative path, you can do:
Compare-Object (Get-ChildItem .\Test -Recurse -Name) (Get-ChildItem .\Test1 -Recurse -Name)
Note that the -Name parameter will only list relative path strings, if you also want to compare Length and LastWriteTime, You can do:
$TestFolder = 'C:\Test'
$Test1Folder = 'C:\Test1'
$TestFiles = Get-ChildItem $TestFolder -File -Recurse |
Select-Object *,#{N='RelativePath'; E={$_.FullName.SubString($TestFolder.Length)}}
$Test1Files = Get-ChildItem $Test1Folder -File -Recurse |
Select-Object *,#{N='RelativePath'; E={$_.FullName.SubString($Test1Folder.Length)}}
Compare-Object $TestFiles $Test1Files -Property RelativePath,Length,LastWriteTime
I have various file names that are categorized in two different ways. They either just have a code like: "866655" or contain a suffix and prefix "eu_866655_001". My hope is to write to a text file the names of files in the same format. I cannot figure out a successful method for removing the suffix and prefix.
Currently this what I have in my loop in Powershell:
$docs = Get-ChildItem -Path $source | Where-Object {$_.Name -match '.doc*'}
if ($docs.basename -contians 'eu_*')
{
Write-Output ([io.fileinfo]"$doc").basename.split("_")
}
I'm hoping to turn "eu_866655_001" into "866655" by using "_" as the delimiter.
I'm aware that the answer is staring me down but I still can't seem to figure it out.
You could do something like the following. Feel free to tweak the -Filter on the Get-ChildItem command.
$source = 'c:\path\*'
$docs = Get-ChildItem -Path $source -File -Filter "*_*_*" -Include '*.doc','*.docx'
$docs | Rename-Item -NewName { "{0}{1}" -f $_.Basename.Split('_')[1],$_.Extension }
The important things to remember is that in order to use the -Include switch, you need an * at the end of the -Path value.
Explanation:
-Filter allows us to filter on names that contain two underscores separating three substrings.
-Include allows us to only list files ending in extensions .docx and .doc.
Rename-Item -NewName supports delayed script binding. This allows us use a scriptblock to perform any necessary operations for each piped object (each file).
Since the target files will always have two underscores, the .Split('_') method will result in an three index array delimited by the _. You have specified that you always want the second delimited substring and that is represented by index 1 ([1]).
The format operator (-f) puts the substring and extension together, completing the file name.
I am somewhat new to PowerShell so any help I would appreciate.
I am trying to put a PS script together so that I can search a file for sensitive words before transferring it from one network to another. Like 'Classified' and multiple other words that I can add to a word bank in a text file vice updating the code every time
Right now I am forced to use PS 2 windows 7 and server 2008
Select-String -Path e:\transfer_folder\*.* -pattern Classified,restricted
Then I can get an output for any hits on the list of words so that I can find them. I am trying to speed up my searching through hundreds of pages of documents with what I like to call a dirty word search so I do not put something that should not go on the wrong network.
You've got the right idea. The -Pattern tack in powershell can usually be called on to work with regular expressions. If you've never worked with regular expressions, take a look at this beginner's guide to using regex pattern matching. What you probably want is a set of variables that you can use to dynamically pick out those sensitive keywords.
The short and simple answer is that you want to use a pipe to separate your options for pattern, and pass it in as a string.
Select-String -Path e:\transfer_folder\*.* -pattern "Classified|Restricted"
Also, you might want to think about doing this at the file level rather than just importing all of your stuff in willynilly like that. I would go for something like:
$files = #(Get-ChildItem -Path E:\transfer_folder\ -Filter "*.txt|*.etc").FullName
(The # symbol means that you get your output as an array. The .FullName means that you're only selecting the FullName field from the object that's being produced by the command.)
Then you can process each file individually, like:
Foreach ($file in $files) {
Write-Host "Processing $file"
echo (Select-String -Path $file -Pattern $pattern)
}
One of the reasons that I love powershell is how comparatively easy it is to perform these types of matching operations. If you dig into Regex, you'll notice that you can represent "OR" as "|". So you have two options to do this logically:
Just hard write it out
$pattern = "Classified|Forbidden|Death|Danger"
Do it dynamically
Scripting is all about not having to do things more than once, right? So you'll probably want to encapsulate this in a function or something. Or maybe you want to get your words from a text file? You can be like:
(might take some tweaking)
function Get-ForbiddenWords ([string[]]$words, [string]$folder) {
ForEach ($word in $words) {
$pattern += "$word|"
}
#remove trailing pipe
$pattern -replace ".$"
$files = #(Get-ChildItem -Path $folder -Filter "*.txt|*.etc").FullName
Foreach ($file in $files) {
Write-Host "Processing $file"
echo (Select-String -Path $file -Pattern $pattern)
}
}
Now you can put this in your powershell profile and invoke it with
Get-ForbiddenWords -words secret dangerous whatever -folder E:\transfer_folder\
I am new to PowerShell and new to IT. I've been asked by my boss to write a PowerShell script that will identify filenames that have no file extension and then change them to .PDF files. After doing some research online I've found a script that had a similar purpose and tried to tailor it to my needs:
$proj_files = Get-ChildItem | Where-Object {$_.Extension -eq "."}
ForEach ($file in $proj_files) {
$filenew = $file.Name + ".pdf"
Rename-Item $file $filenew
}
My first question is does the logic in this script make sense? Is "Extension -eq "." the correct syntax to specify a filename with no extension? My other thought was to use Extension -eq "null" or something similar. If I do need to use a null value, what would that look like? My other question is how would I specify a given directory for this script to search through, or would I even need to? My thought here would be to specify the path under Get-ChildItem, like so: $proj_files = Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Users\mthomas\Documents | Where-Object {$_.Extension -eq ".'} Does that seem correct? I am hesitant to test this out before getting a second opinion because I don't want to change every file extension on my computer or something stupid like that. Anyhow, thanks everyone for the help.
You can do something like the following to find files in a directory without an extension, and rename them to have a PDF extension:
$directory = "C:\Path\To\Directory"
Get-ChildItem -File $directory | Where-Object { -Not $_.Extension } | Foreach-Object {
$_ | Rename-Item -NewName "$($_.Name).pdf"
}
Let's break this down
$directory = "C:\Path\To\Directory"
This is where we set the directory we want to locate files without extensions in. It doesn't have to be set as a static variable but since you are just getting your feet wet with Powershell this keeps it simple.
Get-ChildItem -File $directory
Get-ChildItem is the cmdlet which is used to list directory contents (also aliased to gci, ls, and dir). -File tells it to only list files, and $directory references the directory we want to search from, which we set above. Note that Get-ChildItem might behave differently depending on the provider (for example, you can also use Get-ChildItem on a registry key), but if you are working with a filesystem path you do not need to worry about additional providers for this case.
|
Passes the previous output down the pipeline. This is a common operator in Powershell, but basically you can string commands together using it. You can read more about the pipeline at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/getting-started/fundamental/understanding-the-windows-powershell-pipeline?view=powershell-6
Where-Object { -Not $_.Extension }
Where-Object evaluates a condition on one or more items, and filters out items that do not meet the condition. Since Get-ChildItem can return one or more files, we use the -Not operator in the ScriptBlock (denoted by {} and make sure that there is no extension on the file. $_, or $PSItem, is a special variable used by the pipeline, in this case $_ equals each item returned by Get-ChildItem. The Extension property exists on files returned by Get-ChildItem, and will be blank, or evaluated as $False. So filtering on -Not $_.Extension is the same as saying to only match objects that are missing a file extension. Where-Object can be read about in more detail here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/where-object?view=powershell-6
Foreach-Object { SCRIPTBLOCK }
Similar to Where-Object, but runs code for each object in the pipeline rather than evaluating and filtering out objects which don't match a condition. In this case, we pipe the each file without an extension to Rename-Item, which I'll break down further below. More information on Foreach-Object can be read about here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/foreach-object?view=powershell-6
$_ | Rename-Item -NewName "$($_.Name).pdf"
Rename the current file in the Foreach-Object block to the new name with .pdf appended. The "$( ... )" is called a sub-expression, which is a string interpolation technique that lets you run a command within a string, and make its output part of the string. You could achieve the same effect by doing $_ | Rename-Item -NewName ( $_.Name + ".pdf" ) which just adds a .pdf to the end of the current name.
Summary
The pipeline is a very powerful tool in Powershell, and is key to writing efficient and less bloated scripts. It might seem complex at first, but the more you use it the less daunting it will seem. I highly suggest reading the additional documentation I linked to above as it should help fill in any gaps I may have missed in my explanations above.
To simplify the breakdown above, the command does this, in this order: Gets all files in the specified directory, selects only the files that do not have an extension, then renames each file found without an extension to have a .pdf at the end.
The logic in the script - the overall shape - makes understandable sense, but is not right for it to work as you intend.
Testing on my computer here:
new-item -ItemType File -Name 'test'
get-item test | format-list *
get-item test | foreach { $_.extension; $_.Extension.length; $_.extension.GetType().name }
a file with no extension shows up with an empty string (blank content, length 0, type String, so your where-object { $_.Extension -eq "." } needs to be looking for "" instead of ".".
But:
Get-ChildItem | Where-Object { $_.Extension -eq '' }
shows me some folders as well, because they also have no extension in their name, so you might want Get-ChildItem -File to restrict it to just files.
how would I specify a given directory for this script to search through, or would I even need to?
It would run in the current directory, whichever shows up in your prompt PS C:\wherever> so if you need it to run somewhere else, yes you'd need to change to that folder or specify in get-childitem -LiteralPath 'c:\path\to\wherever'. You haven't mentioned subfolders, if you need those included, get-childitem -Recurse switch as well.
Speaking of subfolders, your $filenew = $file.Name + ".pdf" only makes sense in the current directory, I think it would work better if you used the full filename including path, so they definitely get renamed in the same place they were found $filenew = $file.FullName + ".pdf"
Is "Extension -eq "." the correct syntax to specify a filename with no extension?
Being careful here, what you wrote in your question was correct syntax but incorrect string content. What you've written here with quotes on the left of Extension is incorrect syntax.
My other thought was to use Extension -eq "null" or something similar. If I do need to use a null value, what would that look like?
And being careful here, "null" is not a null value, it's a string containing the four letter word 'null'.
You don't need to use a null value here, normally if you do it looks like $null, but in this case you could use where-object { [string]::IsNullOrEmpty($_.Extension) } but there's no benefit to it, I think.
And, as a stylistic choice, both "" and '' are strings, but "" can contain variables and sub-expressions, so if you have plain text it's a neat habit to use '' for it because it makes it clear to the reader that you intend there to be nothing special happening in this string.
Then your code, with parameter names given, looks more like:
$proj_files = Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath 'C:\Users\mthomas\Documents' |
Where-Object {$_.Extension -eq '.'}
foreach ($file in $proj_files)
{
$filenew = $file.FullName + '.pdf'
Rename-Item -LiteralPath $file.FullName -NewName $filenew
}
If you want to see what it will do, use -WhatIf on the end of Rename-Item:
Rename-Item -LiteralPath $file.FullName -NewName $filenew -WhatIf
Then it won't make the changes, just tell you what it would do.
I am hesitant to test this out before getting a second opinion because I don't want to change every file extension on my computer or something stupid like that
Sensible. But internet people are going to tell you to test their code before running it, because ultimately it's your responsibility to safeguard your files, rather than trust random code from the internet, so having test folders, having a spare machine, having a good backup, playing with PowerShell in pieces until you are happy with what they do, they're all good habits to get into as well.