How can I get Powershell to generate logs after moving files? - powershell

Question

Hi this is the first time I create a program using powershell, I created a powershell script to move old files that are not in use to a NAS, the code works as what I want, but I need a Log.txt file for find out what files have been moved. can someone please help me?
$Date = Get-Date -UFormat %d-%m-%Y
$Source = 'C:\Source\'
$Temp = 'C:\Backup-Temp\'
$Nas = 'D:\Destination\'
$Ext = "*.zip","*.rar"
$SetTime = '-5'
New-Item -Path $Temp -Name "Backup-$Date" -ItemType "directory"
Foreach ($Ext in $Ext) {
get-childitem -Path "$Source" -Recurse |
Where-object {$_.LastWriteTime -lt (get-date).AddDays($SetTime) -and $_.name -like "$Ext"} |
Move-item -destination "$Temp\Backup-$Date" |
Compress-Archive -Path "$Temp\Backup-$Date" -DestinationPath "$Nas\Backup-$date.Zip"
}

Answer 1

$Date = Get-Date -UFormat %d-%m-%Y
$Source = 'C:\Source\'
$Temp = 'C:\Backup-Temp\'
$Nas = 'D:\Destination\'
$Ext = "*.zip","*.rar"
$SetTime = '-5'
$LogFileFullName = 'c:\tmp\log.txt'
function Write-Log([string]$msg){
Out-File -FilePath $LogFileFullName -InputObject "$([DateTime]::Now): $msg" -Append
}
New-Item -Path $Temp -Name "Backup-$Date" -ItemType "directory"
Foreach ($Ext in $Ext) {
get-childitem -Path "$Source" -Recurse |
Where-object {$_.LastWriteTime -lt (get-date).AddDays($SetTime) -and $_.name -like "$Ext"} |
ForEach-Object {
Move-item $_.FullName -destination "$Temp\Backup-$Date" |
Compress-Archive -Path "$Temp\Backup-$Date" -DestinationPath "$Nas\Backup-$date.Zip"
Write-Log $_.FullName
}
}

Answer 2

You could just add the following to your chain of piped commands:
Add-Content $logfile "$_.name`n"
where $logfile is set to a static filename prior.
I may be old-fashioned, but having so many commands in one chain is prone to failure. It would be more resilient to break-up the chain so that you can include some error checking along the way.
A better but less desirable option would be to put your chain within a try/catch block.
Best of luck.