How to log copied items during the backup script? - powershell

Question

I need to make basic / or more advanced backup script that would copy items from folder A to folder B and then log what it did.
This copies the files just fine:
$source = 'path\gamybinis\*'
$dest = 'path\backup'
Get-ChildItem -Path $source -Recurse | Where-Object { $_.LastWriteTime -gt [datetime]::Now.AddMinutes(-5)
}| Copy-Item -Destination $dest -Recurse -Force
Write-Host "Backup started"
Pause
But after this I can't write the log with | Out-File, So I've tried this:
$source = 'path\gamybinis\*'
$dest = 'path\backup'
$logFile = 'path\log.txt'
$items = Get-ChildItem -Path $source -Recurse | Where-Object { $_.LastWriteTime -gt [datetime]::Now.AddMinutes(-5)
}
foreach($item in $items){
Out-File -FilePath $logFile -Append
Copy-Item -Path "$source\$item" -Destination $dest -Recurse -Force
}
Write-Host "Backup started"
Pause
This one does absolutely nothing, what exactly am I doing wrong?
(Advanced script part would be: backing up recently modified files then files should be archived to .rar/.zip, log file have to have structure that is easily readable and log file should have information which user was working on the device during the backup) - For those who are wondering.

Answer 1

If you can't use robocopy, in pure PowerShell code you could do this
$source = 'path\gamybinis' # no need for '\*' because you're specifying -Recurse
$dest = 'path\backup'
$logFile = 'path\log.txt'
# test if the destination path exists. If not, create it first
if (!(Test-Path -Path $dest -PathType Container)) {
$null = New-Item -Path $dest -ItemType Directory
}
Write-Host "Backup started"
Get-ChildItem -Path $source -Recurse |
Where-Object { $_.LastWriteTime -gt (Get-Date).AddMinutes(-5) } |
ForEach-Object {
$_ | Copy-Item -Destination $dest -Recurse -Force
Add-Content -Path $logFile -Value "$((Get-Date).ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss")) - Copied file '$($_.FullName)'"
}
Write-Host "Backup done"
From your comments, I understand you have problems when using the -Container switch.
Below code does not use that and creates the folder structure of the copied files in the backup folder, strictly using Powershell code:
$source = 'path\gamybinis' # no need for '\*' because you're specifying -Recurse
$dest = 'path\backup'
$logFile = 'path\log.txt'
Write-Host "Backup started"
Get-ChildItem -Path $source -File -Recurse |
Where-Object { $_.LastWriteTime -gt (Get-Date).AddMinutes(-5) } |
ForEach-Object {
$target = Join-Path -Path $dest -ChildPath $_.DirectoryName.Substring($source.Length)
if (!(Test-Path $target -PathType Container)) {
# create the folder if it does not already exist
$null = New-Item -Path $target -ItemType Directory
}
$_ | Copy-Item -Destination $target -Force
Add-Content -Path $logFile -Value "$((Get-Date).ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss")) - Copied file '$($_.FullName)'"
}
Write-Host "Backup done"