I'm trying to gather a report of long directory paths to provide to each user who has them so that they can use it and make this folders paths short.
How can I replace \\server\Share$ to X: ? I tried the below but nothing changes. I can only get results if I do only one character or one string "\\server" but not the combination "\\server\Share$" can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong.
$results= "\\\server\Share$\super\long\directory\path\"
$usershare="\\\server\Share$"
$Results | ForEach-Object { $_.FullName = $_.FullName -replace "$usershare", 'X:' }
The output I need is which is what the users will see in their systems.
X:\super\long\directory\path\
Because the $userShare variable contains characters that have special meaning in Regular Expressions (and -replace uses Regex), you need to [Regex]::Escape() that string.
First thing to notice is that you start the UNC paths with three backslashes, where you should only have two.
Next is that your $results variable is simply declared as string and should probably be the result of a Get-ChildItem command..
I guess what you want to do is something like this:
$uncPath = "\\server\Share$\super\long\directory\path\" #"# the UNC folder path
$usershare = "\\server\Share$"
$results = Get-ChildItem -Path $uncPath | ForEach-Object {
$_.FullName -replace ([regex]::Escape($usershare)), 'X:'
}
Hope that helps
Related
I am trying to replace every instance of a string within a directory. However my code is not replacing anything.
What I have so far:
Test Folder contains multiple files and folders containing content that I need to change.
The folders contain .txt documents, the .txt documents contain strings like this: Content reference="../../../PartOfPath/EN/EndofPath/Caution.txt" that i need to change into this: Content reference="../../../PartOfPath/FR/EndofPath/Caution.txt"
Before this question comes up, yes it has to be done this way, as there are other similar strings that I don't want to edit. So I cannot just replace all instances of EN with FR.
$DirectoryPath = "C:\TestFolder"
$Parts =#(
#{PartOne="/PartOfPath";PartTwo="EndofPath/Caution.txt"},
#{PartOne="/OtherPartOfPath";PartTwo="EndofPath/Note.txt"},
#{PartOne="/ThirdPartOfPath";PartTwo="OtherEndofPath/Warning.txt"}) | % { New-Object object | Add-Member -NotePropertyMembers $_ -PassThru }
Get-ChildItem $DirectoryPath | ForEach {
foreach($n in $Parts){
[string]$PartOne = $n.PartOne
[string]$PartTwo = $n.PartTwo
$ReplaceThis = "$PartOne/EN/$PartTwo"
$WithThis = "$PartOne/FR/$PartTwo"
(Get-Content $_) | ForEach {$_ -Replace $ReplaceThis, $WithThis} | Set-Content $_
}
}
The code will run and overwrite files, however no edits will have been made.
While troubleshooting I came across this potential cause:
This test worked:
$FilePath = "C:\TestFolder\Test.txt"
$ReplaceThis ="/PartOfPath/EN/Notes/Note.txt"
$WithThis = "/PartOfPath/FR/Notes/Note.txt"
(Get-Content -Path $FilePath) -replace $ReplaceThis, $WithThis | Set-Content $FilePath
But this test did not
$FilePath = "C:\TestFolder\Test.txt"
foreach($n in $Parts){
[string]$PartOne = $n.PartOne
[string]$PartTwo = $n.PartTwo
[string]$ReplaceThis = "$PartOne/EN/$PartTwo"
[string]$WithThis = "$PartOne/FR/$PartTwo"
(Get-Content -Path $FilePath) -replace $ReplaceThis, $WithThis | Set-Content $FilePath
}
If you can help me understand what is wrong here I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks to #TessellatingHeckler 's comments I revised my code and found this solution:
$DirectoryPath = "C:\TestFolder"
$Parts =#(
#{PartOne="/PartOfPath";PartTwo="EndofPath/Caution.txt"},
#{PartOne="/OtherPartOfPath";PartTwo="EndofPath/Note.txt"},
#{PartOne="/ThirdPartOfPath";PartTwo="OtherEndofPath/Warning.txt"}) | % { New-Object object | Add-Member -NotePropertyMembers $_ -PassThru }
Get-ChildItem $LanguageFolderPath -Filter "*.txt" -Recurse | ForEach {
foreach($n in $Parts){
[string]$PartOne = $n.PartOne
[string]$PartTwo = $n.PartTwo
$ReplaceThis = "$PartOne/EN/$PartTwo"
$WithThis = "$PartOne/FR/$PartTwo"
(Get-Content $_) | ForEach {$_.Replace($ReplaceThis, $WithThis)} | Set-Content $_
}
}
There were two problems:
Replace was not working as I intended, so I had to use .replace instead
The original Get-ChildItem was not returning any values and had to be replaced with the above version.
PowerShell's -replace operator is regex-based and case-insensitive by default:
To perform literal replacements, \-escape metacharacters in the pattern or call [regex]::Escape().
By contrast, the [string] type's .Replace() method performs literal replacement and is case-sensitive, invariably in Windows PowerShell, by default in PowerShell (Core) 7+ (see this answer for more information).
Therefore:
As TessellatingHeckler points out, given that your search strings seem to contain no regex metacharacters (such as . or \) that would require escaping, there is no obvious reason why your original approach didn't work.
Given that you're looking for literal substring replacements, the [string] type's .Replace() is generally the simpler and faster option if case-SENSITIVITY is desired / acceptable (invariably so in Windows PowerShell; as noted, in PowerShell (Core) 7+, you have the option of making .Replace() case-insensitive too).
However, since you need to perform multiple replacements, a more concise, single-pass -replace solution is possible (though whether it actually performs better would have to be tested; if you need case-sensitivity, use -creplace in lieu of -replace):
$oldLang = 'EN'
$newLang = 'FR'
$regex = #(
"(?<prefix>/PartOfPath/)$oldLang(?<suffix>/EndofPath/Caution.txt)",
"(?<prefix>/OtherPartOfPath/)$oldLang(?<suffix>/EndofPath/Note.txt)",
"(?<prefix>/ThirdPartOfPath/)$oldLang(?<suffix>/OtherEndofPath/Warning.txt)"
) -join '|'
Get-ChildItem C:\TestFolder\Test.txt -Filter *.txt -Recurse | ForEach-Object {
($_ |Get-Content -Raw) -replace $regex, "`${prefix}$newLang`${suffix}" |
Set-Content -LiteralPath $_.FullName
}
See this regex101.com page for an explanation of the regex and the ability to experiment with it.
The expression used as the replacement operand, "`${prefix}$newLang`${suffix}", mixes PowerShell's up-front string interpolation ($newLang, which could also be written as ${newLang}) with placeholders referring to the named capture groups (e.g. (?<prefix>...)) in the regex, which only coincidentally use the same notation as PowerShell variables (though enclosing the name in {...} is required; also, here the $ chars. must be `-escaped to prevent PowerShell's string interpolation from interpreting them); see this answer for background information.
Note the use of -Raw with Get-Content, which reads a text file as a whole into memory, as a single, multi-line string. Given that you don't need line-by-line processing in this case, this greatly speeds up the processing of a given file.
As a general tip: you may need to use the -Encoding parameter with Set-Content to ensure the desired character encoding, given that PowerShell never preserves a file's original coding when reading it. By default, you'll get ANSI-encoded files in Windows PowerShell, and BOM-less UTF-8 files in PowerShell (Core) 7+.
I have the following code that works for most files. The input file (FoundLinks.csv) is a UTF-8 file with one file path per line. It is full paths of files on a particular drive that I need to process.
$inFiles = #()
$inFiles += #(Get-Content -Path "C:\Users\sw_admin\FoundLinks.csv")
foreach ($inFile in $inFiles) {
Write-Host("Processing: " + $inFile)
$objFile = Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $inFile
New-Object PSObject -Prop #{
FullName = $objFile.FullName
ModifyTime = $objFile.LastWriteTime
}
}
But even though I've used -LiteralPath, it continues to not be able to process files that have a non-breaking space in the file name.
Processing: q:\Executive\CLC\Budget\Co 2018 Budget - TO Bob (GA Prophix).xlsx
Get-ChildItem : Cannot find path 'Q:\Executive\CLC\Budget\Co 2018 Budget - TO Bob (GA Prophix).xlsx'
because it does not exist.
At ListFilesWithModifyTime.ps1:6 char:29
+ $objFile = Get-ChildItem <<<< -LiteralPath $inFile
+ CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (Q:\Executive\CL...A Prophix).xlsx:String) [Get-ChildItem], ItemNotFound
Exception
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : PathNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetChildItemCommand
I know my input file has the non-breaking space in the path because I'm able to open it in Notepad, copy the offending path, paste into Word, and turn on paragraph marks. It shows a normal space followed by a NBSP just before 2018.
Is PowerShell not reading in the NBSP? Am I passing it wrong to -LiteralPath? I'm at my wit's end. I saw this solution, but in that case they are supplying the path as a literal in the script, so I can't see how I could use that approach.
I've also tried: -Encoding UTF8 parameter on Get-Content, but no difference.
I'm not even sure how I can check $inFile in the code just to confirm if it still contains the NBSP.
Grateful for any help to get unstuck!
Confirmed that $inFile has NBSP
Thank you all! As per #TheMadTechnician, I have updated the code like this, and also reduced my input file to only the one file having a problem.
$inFiles = #()
$inFiles += #(Get-Content -Path "C:\Users\sw_admin\FoundLinks.csv" -Encoding UTF8)
foreach ($inFile in $inFiles) {
Write-Host("Processing: " + $inFile)
# list out all chars to confirm it has an NBSP
$inFile.ToCharArray()|%{"{0} -> {1}" -f $_,[int]$_}
$objFile = Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $inFile
New-Object PSObject -Prop #{
FullName = $objFile.FullName
ModifyTime = $objFile.LastWriteTime
}
}
And so now I can confirm that $inFile in fact still contains the NBSP just as it gets passed to Get-ChildItem. Yet Get-ChildItem says the file does not exist.
More I've tried:
Same if I use Get-Item instead of Get-ChildItem
Same if I use -Path instead of -LiteralPath
Windows explorer and Excel can deal with the file successfully.
I'm on a Windows 7 machine, Powershell 2.
Thanks again for all the responses!
It's still unclear why Sandra's code didn't work: PowerShell v2+ is capable of retrieving files with paths containing non-ASCII characters; perhaps a non-NTFS filesystem with different character encoding was involved?
However, the following workaround turned out to be effective:
$objFile = Get-ChildItem -Path ($inFile -replace ([char] 0xa0), '?')
The idea is to replace the non-breaking space char. (Unicode U+00A0; hex. 0xa) in the input file path with wildcard character ?, which represents any single char.
For Get-ChildItem to perform wildcard matching, -Path rather than -LiteralPath must be used (note that -Path is actually the default if you pass a path argument positionally, as the first argument).
Hypothetically, the wildcard-based paths could match multiple files; if that were the case, the individual matches would have to be examined to identify the specific match that has a non-breaking space in the position of the ?.
Get-ChildItem is for listing children so you would be giving it a directory, but it seems you are giving it a file, so when it says it cannot find the path, it's because it can't find a directory with that name.
Instead, you would want to use Get-Item -LiteralPath to get each individual item (this would be the same items you would get if you ran Get-ChildItem on its parent.
I think swapping in Get-Item would make your code work as is.
After testing, I think the above is in fact false, so sorry for that, but I will leave the below in case it's helpful, even though it may not solve your immediate problem.
But let's take a look at how it can be simplified with the pipeline.
First, you're starting with an empty array, then calling a command (Get-Content) which likely already returns an array, wrapping that in an array, then concatenating it to the empty one.
You could just do:
$inFiles = Get-Content -Path "C:\Users\sw_admin\FoundLinks.csv"
Yes, there is a chance that $inFiles will contain only a single item and not an array at all.
But the nice thing is that foreach won't mind one bit!
You can do something like this and it just works:
foreach ($string in "a literal single string") {
Write-Host $string
}
But Get-Item (and Get-ChildItem for that matter) accept pipeline input, so they accept multiple items.
That means you could do this:
$inFiles = Get-Content -Path "C:\Users\sw_admin\FoundLinks.csv" | Get-Item
foreach ($inFile in $inFiles) {
Write-Host("Processing: " + $inFile)
New-Object PSObject -Prop #{
FullName = $inFile.FullName
ModifyTime = $inFile.LastWriteTime
}
}
But even more than that, there is a pipeline-aware cmdlet for processing items, called ForEach-Object, to which you pass a [ScriptBlock], in which $_ represents the current item, so we could do it like this:
Get-Content -Path "C:\Users\sw_admin\FoundLinks.csv" |
Get-Item |
ForEach-Object -Process {
Write-Host("Processing: " + $_)
New-Object PSObject -Prop #{
FullName = $_.FullName
ModifyTime = $_.LastWriteTime
}
}
All in one pipeline!
But further, you're creating a new object with the 2 properties you want.
PowerShell has a nifty cmdlet called Select-Object which takes an input object and returns a new object containing only the properties you want; this would make for a cleaner syntax:
Get-Content -Path "C:\Users\sw_admin\FoundLinks.csv" |
Get-Item |
Select-Object -Property FullName,LastWriteTime
This is the power of the the pipeline passing real objects from one command to another.
I realize this last example does not write the processing message to the screen, however you could re-add that in if you wanted:
Get-Content -Path "C:\Users\sw_admin\FoundLinks.csv" |
Get-Item |
ForEach-Object -Process {
Write-Host("Processing: " + $_)
$_ | Select-Object -Property FullName,LastWriteTime
}
But you might also consider that many cmdlets support verbose output and try to just add -Verbose to some of your existing cmdlets. Sadly, it won't really help in this case.
One final note, when you pass items to the filesystem cmdlets via pipeline, the parameter they bind to is in fact -LiteralPath, not -Path, so your special characters are still safe.
I just run into the same issue. Looks like get-childitem ak gci expects the path in unicode (UTF-16). So either convert the csv file into unicode or convert the lines that include the path as unicode within your script.
Testet on PS 5.1.22621.608
I have over a million files like such: First_Last_MI_DOB_ and lots more information. Is there a way I can run a rename script that can remove just the first, last, Mi, and DOB from the file name, but keep the stuff after that? Thank you.
Edited from my answer to this question: Parse and Switch Elements of Folder Names using Powershell
# Path to folder
$Path = '.\'
# Regex to match "ID_000000..."
$Regex = 'ID_\d+.*$'
# Get all objects in path
Get-ChildItem -Path $Path |
# Select only objects that are not directory and name matches regex
Where-Object {!$_.PSIsContainer -and $_.Name -match $Regex} |
# For each such object
ForEach-Object {
# Rename object
Rename-Item -Path $_.FullName -NewName $Matches[0]
}
UPDATE #1 : It seems that you need to write a regex that will match a required part of the name and then use it in to rename a document.
Assuming that file name is x-John_Doe_._DOB_01-11-1990_M_ID_000000_TitleofDocument_DateofDocument_Docpagenumber_, here is couple of the examples:
Regex (https://regex101.com/r/gI0fZ2/2): (ID_\d+.*)$ - will match ID_{ONE_OR_MORE_DIGITS}{ANY_CHARACTERS}
Result:ID_000000_TitleofDocument_DateofDocument_Docpagenumber_
Regex (https://regex101.com/r/gI0fZ2/1): \d{4}_(M|F)_(.*)$ - will match {4_DIGITS}_M_{or}_F_ and capture everything after that in capture group.
Result:
1st match - M
2nd match (the one to use) - ID_000000_TitleofDocument_DateofDocument_Docpagenumber_
UPDATE #2:
All the names in each file are different, a long with different ID's.
For example: John_Doe_DOB_01/01/01_ID_000000 and the next file name
could be: John_Smith_DOB_01/02/01_ID_100000 and so on. I am thinking I
would just want to read the file name in as a string, split it by _
and then make the new file name the stuff from [4] and after. Is there
a way to do that?
Sure, you can do that, but I'd recommend a regex approach, because it would work for every filename that has ID_0xxxx string, no matter of what. I've modified my initial example with first regex, so it should work for you.
But if you'd like to try splitting approach, here is how to do it:
# Path to folder
$Path = '.\'
# Filename separator
$Separator = '_'
# Get all objects in path
Get-ChildItem -Path $Path |
# Select only objects that are not directory and name matches regex
Where-Object {!$_.PSIsContainer} |
# For each such object
ForEach-Object {
# Generate new name
$NewName = ($_.Name -split $Separator | Select-Object -Skip 4) -join $Separator
# Rename object
Rename-Item -Path $_.FullName -NewName $NewName
}
I need to verify one path using powershell. The problem is when given the path like Test-Path -Path "\\\10.2.200.13\share\Logger\Logger" its working fine, but my requirement is that, this path will be available in a Notepad - we need to read the path from the notepad then verify it. Here is the code:
$var = ( Get-Content D:\TestPathIssue\Params.txt ) -split '='
$source1=$var[1].Trim();
test-path -Path $source1;
I am able to get path in $source1 but I don't understand why its failing in Test-Path in this approach.
Fixed by trying this-
$source1=$source1 -replace '"', ""
Check if the variable $source1 is returning path in quotes eg:- "\10.2.200.13\share\Logger\Logger" instead of \10.2.200.13\share\Logger\Logger
The following powershell code will take a list of legal characters with regex and report back on any non-legal characters found in filenames. Modify the list of legal characters as desired.
$legal = "[a-zA-Z\d\.\-'_\s\(\)&,%\[\];\!\$\+#~=#]"
ForEach ($File in Get-ChildItem -Path C:\mypath -Recurse){
ForEach ($char in $File.Name.ToCharArray()){
If ($char -notmatch $legal){
$output = $char+" found in "+$file.fullname
write-output $output
break
}
}
}
I have a remote directory under it I have a folder structure as below
Logs
Data
Install
Rollback
I know how to display from the directory in question but I need the output in following sequence sorted by lastwritetime.
\\shareddrive\xyz\Install\file1
\\shareddrive\xyz\Install\file2
\\shareddrive\xyz/Install\file3
\\shareddrive\xyz\Rollback\file1
\\shareddrive\xyz\Data\file1
\\shareddrive\xyz\Logs\file1
Now replace directory location in text file as below
..\xyz\Install\file1
..\xyz\Install\file2
..\xyz/Install\file3
..\xyz\Rollback\file1
..\xyz\Data\file1
..\xyz\Logs\file1
How can I achieve this?
I feel that you are asking for the files to be output in that exact order. To take a slightly different take on gathering the data I present the following:
$uncPath = "\\servername\xyz"
[void]($uncPath -match '^(?<Server>\\\\\w+)')
$shareServerRegex = [regex]::Escape($Matches.Server)
$shareServerReplacement = ".."
$folderOrder = "\Install\","\Rollback\","\Data\","\Logs\"
$data = Get-ChildItem $uncPath -Recurse
$folderOrder | ForEach-Object{
$currentFolder = [regex]::escape($_)
$data | Where-Object{$_.FullName -match $currentFolder} |
Sort-Object LastWriteTime |
ForEach-Object{$_.FullName -replace $shareServerRegex,$shareServerReplacement}
} | Out-File -Encoding ascii -FilePath c:\pathtofile.txt
$uncPath contains the path to the folder we are going to parse from. To make the script a little more dynamic we gather the \serverpath into $Matches.Server and the use the static method of Escape from regex to build the regex match string we will use soon to massage the path as you requested. Gather all the files from the $uncPath into the variable $data. Using the $folderOrder array we go though each item and select the files that have that as part of the folder path. You will see that the array has the folders with a slash before and after. That will ensure no files themselves, containing any of those words, end up filtered in the wrong order. Again, since we use slashes that are control characters in regex we use the Escape method to match the files from $data we need what I presume is the correct order. Proof is in the pudding.
..\xyz\Install\file1
..\xyz\Install\file2
..\xyz\Install\file3
..\xyz\Rollback\file1
..\xyz\Data\file1
..\xyz\Logs\file1
In short all I was trying to help you address is the output. You can ignore all my other code and just focus on what I think you needed help with. This will work as long as you populate $data and set or replace the parameters of -replace
$folderOrder = "\Install\","\Rollback\","\Data\","\Logs\"
...
$folderOrder | ForEach-Object{
$currentFolder = [regex]::escape($_)
$data | Where-Object{$_.FullName -match $currentFolder} |
Sort-Object LastWriteTime |
ForEach-Object{$_.FullName -replace $shareServerRegex,$shareServerReplacement}
} | Out-File -Encoding ascii -FilePath c:\pathtofile.txt