How to compare Last.Write.Time using Powershell - powershell

I wanted to write script which will merge files to one, IF they were modified later then the one which should be a destination. My script looks like this:
Function UnifyConfigs { param ( $destination = "C:\temp\all.txt", [Parameter()] $files )
foreach ($config in $files) {
If((Get-ChildItem $config ).LastWriteTime -gt (Get-Item $destination).LastWriteTime)
{
Clear-Content -path $destination
Set-Content -path $destination -value (Get-Content $config)
}
else {
break
}
}
}
My main problem is that $destination file is modified ALWAYS . As far as I understand it should be changed only if modification date of $config is greater than modification date of $destination. But now, it is overwritten each time I run script. What is wrong?

$destination as defined in your param block is a string - you need to resolve the corresponding item in the file system provider to get to the LastWriteTime value - here using Get-Item:
if((Get-Item $config).LastWriteTime -gt (Get-Item $destination).LastWriteTime)
{
# ...
}

Related

I have a file organiser powershell script which runs without any error but it doesnt perform the moving operation

It is a file organiser script I wrote for myself. For a specific purpose of mine. Whenever I try to run it It runs and closes off. But the move operation is not happening. The below comments may help you understand what the code is doing.Please help me on what am i doing wrong here. I am extremely new to Powershell Scripting.
Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser
# Global variable declarations
$global:pathsFromConfig = Get-Content -Path $PSScriptRoot"\MoverPaths.txt"
$global:categoriesFromConfig = Get-Content -Path $PSScriptRoot"\MoverCategories.txt"
$global:categryHash = #{}
# Method call to read configs, create dirs, & move files
readCreateAndMoveFiles
# Method definition
function readCreateAndMoveFiles{
# Reads categories config.txt and splits them line by line
# Adds each line as a key value pair to a hashtable
foreach($category in $categoriesFromConfig)
{
$temp = $category -split ":"
$categryHash.add($temp[0].trim().toString(),($temp[1]).trim().toString())
}
# For each category in the hash table, calls create directory method, and then moves the files based on current category
foreach($hashItem in $categryHash.GetEnumerator()){
# Creates a directory with the Hash Key
Foreach($pathToMonitor in $pathsFromConfig){
$categoryFullPath = $pathToMonitor+$hashItem.Name
createDirectory($categoryFullPath)
# Moves files into that directory
Set-Location -Path $pathToMonitor
$extentions = $hashItem.Value
Get-Item $extentions | Move-Item -Destination $categoryFullPath
$categoryFullPath = ""
}
}
}
# Method Definition
function createDirectory ($categoryName)
{
if(Test-Path -Path $categoryName)
{
# Directory already Exists!
}
else
{
# Creates Directory
md $categoryName
}
}
The config files are hereby:
MoverCategories.txt
Images:*.jpg,*.jpeg,*.png,*.tiff,*.raw,*.heic,*.gif,*.svg,*.eps,*.ico
Documents:*.txt,*.pdf,*.doc,*.docx,*.xls,*.xlsx,*.ppt,*.pptx,*.html,*.xls,*.csv,*.rtx
MoverPaths.txt
D:\Downloads\
Found a way to do this. Thanks for all of your input. Now the script moves files. Instead of sending all extentions in a single shot, i made it into an array and sent it one by one. Now it works fine. If you guys could help me reduce the time of execution that would be great.But the code works now I am happy.
foreach($hashItem in $categryHash.GetEnumerator()){
# Creates a directory with the Hash Key
Foreach($pathToMonitor in $pathsFromConfig){
$categoryFullPath = $pathToMonitor+$hashItem.Name
createDirectory($categoryFullPath)
# Moves files into that directory
[String[]]$extentions = #()
$extentions = $hashItem.Value -split ','
foreach($string in $extentions)
{
Get-Item $pathToMonitor\* -Include $string | Move-Item -Destination $categoryFullPath
}
}
}
Try this
#specify path(s)
$path = "$env:USERPROFILE\Downloads"
## this is make an array of the extensions in the foloder
$extensions = Get-ChildItem -Path $path | Select-Object -Unique -Property #{label = 'ext'
expression = { $_.Extension.substring(1) }
}
## this function will
function New-FoldersByName {
param
(
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true, ValueFromPipeline = $true, HelpMessage = 'Data to process')]
$InputObject
)
process {
Set-Location $path
if (!(Test-Path -PathType Container $InputObject )) {
New-Item -ItemType directory -Name $InputObject.ext -WhatIf
Write-Host -Message "A folder named $($InputObject.ext) does not exist. Creating..."
}
else {
Write-Host -Message "A folder named $($InputObject.ext) already exists. Skipping..."
}
}
}
##this is a reuseable function to moves items in a folder into a subfolder named after the files extension
## if extension is .exe the file with be moved to ./EXE/filename.exe
function Move-ItemsByName {
param
(
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true, ValueFromPipeline = $true, HelpMessage = 'Data to process')]
$InputObject
)
process {
Set-Location -Path $path
Move-Item -Path ('*.{0}' -f $InputObject.ext) -Destination ('{0}' -f $InputObject.ext) -WhatIf
}
}
$extensions | New-FoldersByName
$extensions | Move-ItemsByName

PowerShell create a duplicate folder with zero-size files

I want to create a 0-filesize mirror image of a set of folder, but while robocopy is really good, it doesn't save all of the information that I would like:
robocopy D:\documents E:\backups\documents_$(Get-Date -format "yyyyMMdd_HHmm")\ /mir /create
The /create switch makes each file in the duplicate folder have zero-size, and that is good, but I would like each file in the duplicate folder to have [size] appended to the end of the name with the size in KB or MB or GB, and the create / last modified time on every file to exactly match the original file. This way, I will have a zero-size duplicate of the folder that I can archive, but which contains all of the relevant information for the files in that directory, showing the size of each and the exact create / last modified times.
Are there good / simple ways to iterate through a tree in PowerShell, and for each item create a zero size file with all relevant information like this?
This would be one way to implement the copy command using the approach I mentioned in the comments. This should give you something to pull ideas from. I didn't intend to spend as much time on it as I did, but I ran it on several directories and found some problems and debugged each problem I encountered. This is a pretty solid example at this point.
function Copy-FolderZeroSizeFiles {
[CmdletBinding()]
param( [Parameter(Mandatory)] [string] $FolderPath,
[Parameter(Mandatory)] [string] $DestinationPath )
$dest = New-Item $DestinationPath -Type Directory -Force
Push-Location -LiteralPath $FolderPath
try {
foreach ($item in Get-ChildItem '.' -Recurse) {
$relPath = Resolve-Path -LiteralPath $item -Relative
$type = if ($item.Attributes -match 'Directory')
{ 'Directory' }
else { 'File' }
$destItem = New-Item "$dest\$relPath" -Type $type -Force
$destItem.Attributes = $item.Attributes
$destItem.LastWriteTime = $item.LastWriteTime
}
} finally {
Pop-Location
}
}
Note: the above implementation is simplistic and represents anything that isn't a directory as a file. That means symbolic links, et al. will be files with no information what they would be linked to.
Here's a function to get the conversion from number of bytes to N.N B/K/M/G format. To get more decimal places, just add 0's to the end of the format strings.
function ConvertTo-FriendlySize($NumBytes) {
switch ($NumBytes) {
{$_ -lt 1024} { "{0,7:0.0}B" -f ($NumBytes) ; break }
{$_ -lt 1048576} { "{0,7:0.0}K" -f ($NumBytes / 1024) ; break }
{$_ -lt 1073741824} { "{0,7:0.0}M" -f ($NumBytes / 1048576) ; break }
default { "{0,7:0.0}G" -f ($NumBytes / 1073741824); break }
}
}
Often, people get these conversions wrong. For instance, it's a common error to use 1024 * 1000 to get Megabytes (which is mixing the base10 value for 1K with the base2 value for 1K) and follow that same logic to get GB and TB.
Here is what I came up with with the additional parts in the question, change $src / $dst as required (D:\VMs is where I keep a lot of Virtual Machines). I have included setting all of CreationTime, LastWriteTime, LastAccessTime so that the backup location with zero-size files is a perfect representation of the source. As I want to use this for archival purposes, I have finally zipped things up and included a date-time stamp in the zipfile name.
# Copy-FolderZeroSizeFiles
$src = "D:\VMs"
$dst = "D:\VMs-Backup"
function ConvertTo-FriendlySize($NumBytes) {
switch ($NumBytes) {
{$_ -lt 1024} { "{0:0.0}B" -f ($NumBytes) ; break } # Change {0: to {0,7: to align to 7 characters
{$_ -lt 1048576} { "{0:0.0}K" -f ($NumBytes / 1024) ; break }
{$_ -lt 1073741824} { "{0:0.0}M" -f ($NumBytes / 1048576) ; break }
default { "{0:0.0}G" -f ($NumBytes / 1073741824); break }
}
}
function Copy-FolderZeroSizeFiles($FolderPath, $DestinationPath) {
Push-Location $FolderPath
if (!(Test-Path $DestinationPath)) { New-Item $DestinationPath -Type Directory }
foreach ($item in Get-ChildItem $FolderPath -Recurse -Force) {
$relPath = Resolve-Path $item.FullName -Relative
if ($item.Attributes -match 'Directory') {
$new = New-Item "$DestinationPath\$relPath" -ItemType Directory -Force -EA Silent
}
else {
$fileBaseName = [System.IO.Path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension($item.Name)
$fileExt = [System.IO.Path]::GetExtension($item.Name)
$fileSize = ConvertTo-FriendlySize($item.Length)
$new = New-Item "$DestinationPath\$(Split-Path $relPath)\$fileBaseName ($fileSize)$fileExt" -ItemType File
}
"$($new.Name) : creation $($item.CreationTime), lastwrite $($item.CreationTime), lastaccess $($item.LastAccessTime)"
$new.CreationTime = $item.CreationTime
$new.LastWriteTime = $item.LastWriteTime
$new.LastAccessTime = $item.LastAccessTime
$new.Attributes = $item.Attributes # Must this after setting creation/write/access times or get error on Read-Only files
}
Pop-Location
}
Copy-FolderZeroSizeFiles $src $dst
$dateTime = Get-Date -Format "yyyyMMdd_HHmm"
$zipName = "$([System.IO.Path]::GetPathRoot($dst))\$([System.IO.Path]::GetFileName($dst))_$dateTime.zip"
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.IO.Compression.FileSystem
[IO.Compression.ZipFile]::CreateFromDirectory($dst, $zipName)

zip multiple directories in Powershell using .NET classes, instead of compress-archive

I am trying to use .NET classes instead of native compress-archive to zip multiple directories (each containing sub-directories and files), as compress-archive is giving me occasional OutOfMemory Exception.
Some articles tell me .NET classes, makes for a more optimal approach.
My tools directory $toolsDir = 'C:\Users\Public\LocalTools' has more than one directory that need to be zipped (please note everything is a directory, not file) - whichever directory matches the regex pattern as in the code.
Below is my code:
$cmpname = $env:computername
$now = $(Get-Date -Format yyyyMMddmmhhss)
$pattern = '^(19|[2-9][0-9])\d{2}\-(0?[1-9]|1[012])\-(0[1-9]|[12]\d|3[01])T((?:[01]\d|2[0-3])\;[0-5]\d\;[0-5]\d)\.(\d{3}Z)\-' + [ regex ]::Escape($cmpname)
$toolsDir = 'C:\Users\Public\LocalTools'
$destPathZip = "C:\Users\Public\ToolsOutput.zip"
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.IO.Compression
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.IO.Compression.FileSystem
$CompressionLevel = [ System.IO.Compression.CompressionLevel ]::Optimal
$IncludeBaseDirectory = $false
$stream = New-Object System.IO.FileStream($destPathZip , [ System.IO.FileMode ]::OpenOrCreate)
$zip = New-Object System.IO.Compression.ZipArchive($stream , 'update')
$res = Get-ChildItem "${toolsDir}" | Where-Object {$_ .Name -match "${pattern}"}
if ($res -ne $null) {
foreach ($dir in $res) {
$source = "${toolsDir}\${dir}"
[ System.IO.Compression.ZipFileExtensions ]::CreateEntryFromFile($destPathZip , $source , (Split-Path $source -Leaf), $CompressionLevel)
}
}
else {
Write-Host "Nothing to Archive!"
}
Above code gives me this error:
When I researched about [ System.IO.Compression.ZipFileExtensions ]::CreateEntryFromFile , it is used to add files to a zip file already created. Is this the reason I am getting the error that I get ?
I also tried [ System.IO.Compression.ZipFile ]::CreateFromDirectory($source , $destPathZip , $CompressionLevel, $IncludeBaseDirectory) instead of [ System.IO.Compression.ZipFileExtensions ]::CreateEntryFromFile($destPathZip , $source , (Split-Path $source -Leaf), $CompressionLevel)
That gives me "The file 'C:\Users\Public\ToolsOutput.zip' already exists error.
How to change the code, in order to add multiple directories in the zip file.
There are 3 problems with your code currently:
First argument passed to CreateEntryFromFile() must be a ZipArchive object in which to add the new entry - in your case you'll want to pass the $zip which you've already created for this purpose.
CreateEntryFromFile only creates 1 entry for 1 file per call - to recreate a whole directory substructure you need to calculate the correct entry path for each file, eg. subdirectory/subsubdirectory/file.exe
You need to properly dispose of both the ZipArchive and the underlying file stream instances in order for the data to be persisted on disk. For this, you'll need a try/finally statement.
Additionally, there's no need to create the file if there are no files to archive :)
$cmpname = $env:computername
$pattern = '^(19|[2-9][0-9])\d{2}\-(0?[1-9]|1[012])\-(0[1-9]|[12]\d|3[01])T((?:[01]\d|2[0-3])\;[0-5]\d\;[0-5]\d)\.(\d{3}Z)\-' + [regex]::Escape($cmpname)
$toolsDir = 'C:\Users\Public\LocalTools'
$destPathZip = "C:\Users\Public\ToolsOutput.zip"
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.IO.Compression
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.IO.Compression.FileSystem
$CompressionLevel = [System.IO.Compression.CompressionLevel]::Optimal
$res = Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $toolsDir | Where-Object { $_.Name -match $pattern }
if ($res) {
try {
# Create file + zip archive instances
$stream = New-Object System.IO.FileStream($destPathZip, [System.IO.FileMode]::OpenOrCreate)
$zip = New-Object System.IO.Compression.ZipArchive($stream, [System.IO.Compression.ZipArchiveMode]::Update)
# Discover all files to archive
foreach ($file in $res |Get-ChildItem -File -Recurse) {
$source = $dir.FullName
# calculate correct relative path to the archive entry
$relativeFilePath = [System.IO.Path]::GetRelativePath($toolsDir, $source)
$entryName = $relativeFilePath.Replace('\', '/')
# Make sure the first argument to CreateEntryFromFile is the ZipArchive object
[System.IO.Compression.ZipFileExtensions]::CreateEntryFromFile($zip, $source, $entryName, $CompressionLevel)
}
}
finally {
# Clean up in reverse order
$zip, $stream | Where-Object { $_ -is [System.IDisposable] } | ForEach-Object Dispose
}
}
else {
Write-Host "Nothing to Archive!"
}
Calling Dispose() on $zip will cause it to flush any un-written modifications to the underlying file stream and free any additional file handles it might have acquired, whereas calling Dispose() on the underlying file stream flushes those changes to the disk and closes the file handle.

Bulk File Renaming - Extract parent foldername and use in file renaming

PowerShell novice here again with my proof of concept.
The code below successfully extracts attached files from .msg files located in folders and leaves the extracted filename without changing it. What I'm now looking for now is to extract part of the parent folder name, with standard format of...
nnnn+string (e.g. "8322 MyStudy") i.e. 4 digits followed by a space then string.
...to rename the extracted filename from...
ExtractedFilename.pdf to "0nnnn - ExtractedFilename.pdf". e.g. "08322 - ExtractedFilename.pdf"
My main problem is how to extract the numeric part of the parent folder name (from where my module will be run). I'm hoping that my poor PS formatting skills will allow me to do the rest.
Once again, any help appreciated.
##
## Source: https://chris.dziemborowicz.com/blog/2013/05/18/how-to-batch-extract-attachments-from-msg-files-using-powershell/
##
## Usage: Expand-MsgAttachment *
##
##
function Expand-MsgAttachment
{
[CmdletBinding()]
Param
(
[Parameter(ParameterSetName="Path", Position=0, Mandatory=$True)]
[String]$Path,
[Parameter(ParameterSetName="LiteralPath", Mandatory=$True)]
[String]$LiteralPath,
[Parameter(ParameterSetName="FileInfo", Mandatory=$True, ValueFromPipeline=$True)]
[System.IO.FileInfo]$Item
)
Begin
{
# Load application
Write-Verbose "Loading Microsoft Outlook..."
$outlook = New-Object -ComObject Outlook.Application
}
Process
{
switch ($PSCmdlet.ParameterSetName)
{
"Path" { $files = Get-ChildItem -Path $Path }
"LiteralPath" { $files = Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $LiteralPath }
"FileInfo" { $files = $Item }
}
$files | % {
# Work out file names
$msgFn = $_.FullName
# extract path, e.g. 'c:\path\to\'
$msgPath = Split-Path -Path $msgFn
# Skip non-.msg files
if ($msgFn -notlike "*.msg") {
Write-Verbose "Skipping $_ (not an .msg file)..."
return
}
# Extract message body
Write-Verbose "Extracting attachments from $_..."
$msg = $outlook.CreateItemFromTemplate($msgFn)
$msg.Attachments | % {
# Work out attachment file name
#$attFn = $msgFn -replace '\.msg$', " - Attachment - $($_.FileName)"
$attFn = Join-Path -Path $msgPath -ChildPath ($_.FileName)
# Do not try to overwrite existing files
if (Test-Path -literalPath $attFn) {
Write-Verbose "Skipping $($_.FileName) (file already exists)..."
return
}
# Save attachment
Write-Verbose "Saving $($_.FileName)..."
$_.SaveAsFile($attFn)
# Output to pipeline
Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $attFn
}
}
}
# This function to rename expanded attachment file to study renaming standards
Function RenameExpandedAttachments {
}
End
{
Write-Verbose "Done."
}
}
The currently running script is :
$script:MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path
Use Split-Path to get only the Path,
Split-Path $script:MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path
to get only the last element use again Split-Path with the -Leaf parameter
Split-Path -Leaf (Split-Path $script:MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path)
To extract leading numbers use a Regular Expression with a (capture group).
'^(\d+) (.*)$'
And wrap all this in an if:
If ((Split-Path -Leaf (Split-Path $script:MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path)) -match '^(\d+) (.*)$'){
$NewName = "{0:00000} - {1}" -f $Matches[1],$ExtractedFileName
} else {
"No numbers found in this path"
}

Get-Item fails with closed pipeline error

If I have an example function ...
function foo()
{
# get a list of files matched pattern and timestamp
$fs = Get-Item -Path "C:\Temp\*.txt"
| Where-Object {$_.lastwritetime -gt "11/01/2009"}
if ( $fs -ne $null ) # $fs may be empty, check it first
{
foreach ($o in $fs)
{
# new bak file
$fBack = "C:\Temp\test\" + $o.Name + ".bak"
# Exception here Get-Item! See following msg
# Exception thrown only Get-Item cannot find any files this time.
# If there is any matched file there, it is OK
$fs1 = Get-Item -Path $fBack
....
}
}
}
The exception message is ... The WriteObject and WriteError methods cannot be called after the pipeline has been closed. Please contact Microsoft Support Services.
Basically, I cannot use Get-Item again within the function or loop to get a list of files in a different folder.
Any explanation and what is the correct way to fix it?
By the way I am using PS 1.0.
This is just a minor variation of what has already been suggested, but it uses some techniques that make the code a bit simpler ...
function foo()
{
# Get a list of files matched pattern and timestamp
$fs = #(Get-Item C:\Temp\*.txt | Where {$_.lastwritetime -gt "11/01/2009"})
foreach ($o in $fs) {
# new bak file
$fBack = "C:\Temp\test\$($o.Name).bak"
if (!(Test-Path $fBack))
{
Copy-Item $fs.Fullname $fBack
}
$fs1 = Get-Item -Path $fBack
....
}
}
For more info on the issue with foreach and scalar null values check out this blog post.
I modified the above code slightly to create the backup file, but I am able to use the Get-Item within the loop successfully, with no exceptions being thrown. My code is:
function foo()
{
# get a list of files matched pattern and timestamp
$files = Get-Item -Path "C:\Temp\*.*" | Where-Object {$_.lastwritetime -gt "11/01/2009"}
foreach ($file in $files)
{
$fileBackup = [string]::Format("{0}{1}{2}", "C:\Temp\Test\", $file.Name , ".bak")
Copy-Item $file.FullName -destination $fileBackup
# Test that backup file exists
if (!(Test-Path $fileBackup))
{
Write-Host "$fileBackup does not exist!"
}
else
{
$fs1 = Get-Item -Path $fileBackup
...
}
}
}
I am also using PowerShell 1.0.