So I'm working on a script that will have a variable set to a file path, then it will Get-ChildItem of that path and if these items are over a certain size then it will print the output of that with the name of the file and the file size.
Get-ChildItem $file | ? {$_.Length -gt 1mb} | ForEach-Object {Write-Host "Users:" $_.name "have Outlook Data Files larger than 8gb, with a total of" ("{0:N2}" -f($_.length/1mb)) "mb"}
I am trying to assign this output, to a variable so I can utilize the second command and send this output in an email to myself. Unless there is a better way to accomplish this.
$content = gci -Recurse -File | ? { $_.Length -gt 40000 }
Include $content as the body of your email.
As the previous comments have pointed out, it seems like your primary problem might be a misunderstanding about how the Write-* cmdlets work in PowerShell. Write-Host outputs directly to the host/console, bypassing the normal PowerShell output streams. This can be illustrated quickly by running the following commands in a PowerShell session:
$MyVariable1 = Write-Host "Hello, World!"
$MyVariable2 = Write-Output "Hello, World!"
$MyVariable1
$MyVariable2
If you run the above, you'll find that $MyVariable1 has no value assigned (and you could actually test it for that with something like $null -eq $MyVariable1) but $MyVariable2 will have the value 'Hello, World!'.
For your example to work to get your output into a variable you would need to run something like the following:
$LargeFiles = Get-ChildItem $file | ? {$_.Length -gt 1mb} | ForEach-Object {Write-Output "Users:" $_.name "have Outlook Data Files larger than 8gb, with a total of" ("{0:N2}" -f($_.length/1mb)) "mb"}
To learn more about PowerShell output streams you might also want to read the about_redirection article.
Related
I'm trying to use code to get files in a dir and choose the one(s) that are edited in the last 4 hours. For some reason, when I debug this in VisualStudioCode, the debugger says
Supply values for the following parameters:
Process[0]:
$out_path = "C:\Data\Monitor\PropertiesReport\"
#find latest scan file (within 4 hours from now)
$output_sprdsheet_blob_path = Join-Path -Path $out_path -ChildPath "\OutputSprdsht\" #location of scan output file...looks good for path
Get-ChildItem $output_sprdsheet_blob_path -Filter *.xlsx | Foreach-Object
{
$lastupdatetime=$_.LastWriteTime
$nowtime = get-date
if (($nowtime - $lastupdatetime).totalhours -le 4)
{
Write-Host $_.Name
$excel_File_from = $_.Name
#Select-String -Path $_.Name -Pattern "'Execute Time of Send Thread = 60.'"
}
}
#use file found above next
I'm not sure why powershell gives a prompt to supply values foreach-object, when the path is valid for Get-ChildItem. I've used similar code before, and it worked, but I was using PowershellISE, and the code started with the following instead of the Get-ChildItem.
powershell "Set-Location -Path $log_path ; Get-Item *.* | Foreach {...}
I was having the same issue with the above code, where the visual studio code debugger gave the Process[0] prompt and wanted me to supply values at the foreach. This had been tested and used before as well.
I am trying the Get-ChildItem because of the example below doing this, and it looks like it should work. Any idea why the visual studio code debugger gives the prompt and how to fix it?
I have used write-host to print the dir being used, and I pasted the path printed into windows file explorer and there was a file there, and the path was valid.
My powershell version is 5.1.
example get-childitem
Update:
This prints the filename. I'm not sure why it doesn't give the prompt.
$out_pth = "C:\Data\Monitor\PropertiesReport\"
Set-Location -Path $out_pth
Get-Item *.* | foreach-object {write-host $_.name}
Update2:
This prints the filename too:
Get-ChildItem $out_pth | Foreach-Object {write-host $_.name}
It looks like that newline made the difference. This is working:
Get-ChildItem $out_pth | Foreach-Object {$lastupdatetime=$_.LastWriteTime;$nowtime = get-date; if (($nowtime - $lastupdatetime).totalhours -le 40) {$excel_File_from = $_.Name;write-host $_.name}}
write-host "here"
write-host $excel_File_from
prints:
filename.xlsx
here
filename.xlsx
I changed the time from 4 to 40 hours above, because I realized the file was last edited yesterday. But it found the file as well, without the time check on the file properties.
I have found some great examples on foreach loops in Powershell here but I just can't wrap my head around foreach loops for what I am doing.
I found great scripts that deal with migrating printer when migrating from one Windows print server to another however my challenge is that I am migrating from an Novell iPrint server to a Windows server.
The struggle is that the printer name or share name (or any printer property) for iPrint printer is not the hostname so I have to come up with some translation table with iPrint name and Printer hostname.
Initially, I wanted to just have column 2 of my translation table have it execute my powershell command to install a network printer which would make things easier.
I am in the process of trying to create a logon script to query printers that are installed on computer and have it do a 'foreach' loop against a CSV with iPrint names and hostnames.
csv 1
installediprintprintername1
installediprintprintername2
installediprintprintername3
printtranslationtable.csv
column 1 column 2
iprintprintername1 hostnameprinter1
iprintprintername2 hostnameprinter2
iprintprintername3 hostnameprinter3
iprintprintername4 hostnameprinter4
This is what I got so far but not able to get it to work. Any help would be appreciated!
$printers = #(Get-wmiobject win32_printer)
$path = "\\networkdrive\printtranslationtable.csv"
$printertranslation = Import-Csv -path $path
foreach ($iprintprinter in $printtranslationtable) {
foreach ($name in $csv1) {
if ($name -eq $printtranslationtable.column1) {
Write-Host $newPrinter = $printtranslationtable.column2
}
}
}
Update
So I was able to tweak the script #TheMadTechnician suggested and able to get this PS script to work in my environment. What I am trying to do is to check if new printers are installed and if they are then just exit script. This is what I have but can't get it to exit or break. I was also trying to write the new printers into text file but not necessary, I would like for it to stop executing script.
if (($printers.name -like "\winprint*") -eq $true) {
$printers.name -like "\winprint\" | out-file -FilePath "C:\windowsprinters.txt" -Append
{break} {exit}
}
When you read the file with Import-Csv, PowerShell creates an array of custom objects with property names from the header line. On the other hand Get-Content produces simple array of string values. I came up with this one liner, which goes thru the translation table and checks if the printer list contains one. This is not optimal if you have billions of printers, but keeps things clear:
printers.txt:
iprinter2
iprinter3
printertable.csv:
"Column1";"Column2"
"iprinter1";"hostname1"
"iprinter2";"hostname2"
"iprinter3";"hostname3"
"iprinter4";"hostname4"
PowerShell:
$printers = Get-Content .\printers.txt
$prtable = Import-Csv -Delimiter ";" .\printertable.csv
$prtable | ?{ $printers -contains $_.Column1 } | %{Write-Host "Install $($_.Column2)"}
Ok, so you query what printers are installed, and you have a translation table loaded from a CSV, now you just need to look at that translation table and cross reference which entries have a listing in the local computer's printer listings.
$printers = #(Get-wmiobject win32_printer)
$path = "\\networkdrive\printtranslationtable.csv"
$printertranslation = Import-Csv -path $path
$printertranslation | Where{$_.Column1 -in $printers.ShareName} | ForEach{ Add-Printer $_.Column2 }
I don't know what property of the win32_printer object aligns best for you, but I would suggest ShareName or DeviceId. Those should be something like:
ShareName: XeroxColor02
DeviceId: \\printserver\XeroxColor02
I have a working powershell script to find and and replace a few different strings with a new string in thousands of files, without changing the modified date on the files. In any given file there could be hundreds of instances of said strings to replace. The files themselves aren't very large and probably range from 1-50MB (a quick glance at the directory I am testing with shows the largest as ~33MB).
I'm running the script inside a Server 2012 R2 VM with 4 vCPUs and 4GB of RAM. I have set the MaxMemoryPerShellMB value for Powershell to 3GB. As mentioned previously, the script works, but after 2-4 hours powershell will start throwing OutOfMemoryExceptions and crash. The script is 'V2 friendly' and I haven't adopted it to V3+ but I doubt that matters too much.
My question is whether or not the script can be improved to prevent/eliminate the memory exceptions I am running into at the moment. I don't mind if it runs slower, as long as it can get the job done without having to check back every couple of hours and restart it.
$i=0
$all = Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Include *.txt
$scriptfiles = Select-String -Pattern string1,string2,string3 $all
$output = "C:\Temp\scriptoutput.txt"
foreach ($file in $scriptFiles)
{
$filecreate=(Get-ChildItem $file.Path).creationtime
$fileaccess=(Get-ChildItem $file.Path).lastaccesstime
$filewrite=(Get-ChildItem $file.Path).lastwritetime
"$file.Path,Created: $filecreate,Accessed: $fileaccess,Modified: $filewrite" | out-file -FilePath $output -Append
(Get-Content $file.Path) | ForEach-Object {$_ -replace "string1", "newstring" `
-replace "string2", "newstring" `
-replace "string3", "newstring"
} | Set-Content $file.Path
(Get-ChildItem $file.Path).creationtime=$filecreate
(Get-ChildItem $file.Path).lastaccesstime=$fileaccess
(Get-ChildItem $file.Path).lastwritetime=$filewrite
$filecreate=(Get-ChildItem $file.Path).creationtime
$fileaccess=(Get-ChildItem $file.Path).lastaccesstime
$filewrite=(Get-ChildItem $file.Path).lastwritetime
"$file.Path,UPDATED Created: $filecreate,UPDATED Accessed: $fileaccess,UPDATED Modified: $filewrite" | out-file -FilePath $output -Append
$i++}
Any comments, criticisms, and suggestions welcomed.
Thanks
Biggest issue I can see is that you are repeatedly getting the file for every property you are querying. Replace that with one call per loop pass and save it to be used during the pass. Also Out-File is one of the slower methods of outputting data to file.
$output = "C:\Temp\scriptoutput.txt"
$scriptfiles = Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Include *.txt |
Select-String -Pattern string1,string2,string3 |
Select-Object -ExpandProperty Path
$scriptfiles | ForEach-Object{
$file = Get-Item $_
# Save currrent file times
$filecreate=$file.creationtime
$fileaccess=$file.lastaccesstime
$filewrite=$file.lastwritetime
"$file,Created: $filecreate,Accessed: $fileaccess,Modified: $filewrite"
# Update content.
(Get-Content $file) -replace "string1", "newstring" `
-replace "string2", "newstring" `
-replace "string3", "newstring" | Set-Content $file
# Write all the original times back.
$file.creationtime=$filecreate
$file.lastaccesstime=$fileaccess
$file.lastwritetime=$filewrite
# Verify the changes... Should not be required but it is what you were doing.
$filecreate=$file.creationtime
$fileaccess=$file.lastaccesstime
$filewrite=$file.lastwritetime
"$file,UPDATED Created: $filecreate,UPDATED Accessed: $fileaccess,UPDATED Modified: $filewrite"
} | Set-Content $output
Not tested but should be fine.
Depending on what you replacements are actually like you could probably save some time there as well. Test first before running in production obviously.
I remove the counter you had since it appeared nowhere in the code.
Your logging could easily be csv based since you have all the object ready to go but I just want to be sure we are one the right track before we go to far.
I am trying to compare two sets of folders to determine discrepancies in file and folder counts. I have found a command that will output the data I am looking for, but cannot find a way to print it to a file. Here is the command I am using currently:
dir -recurse | ?{ $_.PSIsContainer } | %{ Write-Host $_.FullName (dir $_.FullName | Measure-Object).Count }
This is getting me the desired data but I need to find a way to print this to a text file. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
The problem is the use of the Write-Host cmdlet, which bypasses almost all pipeline handling. In this case, it is also unnecessary, as any output that isn't used by a cmdlet is automatically passed into the pipeline (or to the console if there's nothing further).
Here is your code rewritten to output a string to the pipeline instead of using Write-Host. This uses PowerShell's string subexpression operator $(). At the console, it will look the same, but it can be piped to a file or other cmdlet.
gci -Recurse -Directory | %{ "$($_.FullName) $((gci $_.FullName).Count)" }
You may also find it useful to put the data into a PSCustomObject. Once you have the object, you can do further processing such as sorting or filtering based on the count.
$folders = gci -Recurse -Directory | %{ [PSCustomObject]#{Name=$_.FullName; Count=(dir $_.FullName).Count }}
$folders | sort Count
$folders | where Count -ne 0
Some notes on idioms: dir is an alias for Get-Childitem, as is gci. Using gci's -Directory parameter is the best way to list only directories, rather than the PSIsContainer check. Finally, Measure-Object is unnecessary. You can take the Count of the file listing directly.
See also Write-Host Considered Harmful from the inventor of PowerShell
I'm 'teaching myself to powershell' and have come a cropper already, and google/this site hasn't enabled me to find a solution. I'm compiling a text file with filelists from different directories, but i'm having trouble appemnding new data to the file.
get-childitem $dir -recurse | % {write-output $_.fullname} >$file
creates my file, but then i want to APPEND new records from the below
get-childitem $dir2 -recurse | % {write-output $_.fullname} >$file
I've tried both add-content and -append, but I cant figure out what I'm not doing to get it right.
Try:
get-childitem $dir -recurse | % {write-output $_.fullname} >> $file
(Tested and works)
The double >> makes it append always, a single > overwrites each time.
Or change your syntax to use Out-File
get-childitem $dir -recurse | % {write-output $_.fullname} | out-file -filepath $file -Append
(untested)
In this case the variable $file must hold the full path. Like: C:\directory\filename.txt
You can use Out-File to write to a file, adding the append parameter will append to the file.
Get-ChildItem $dir -recurse | Select-object -ExpandProperty Fullname | Out-File -FilePath $file
Get-ChildItem $dir2 -recurse | Select-object -ExpandProperty Fullname | Out-File -FilePath $file -Append
Short Answer
The pipeline used here can be eliminated, and usage of Out-File would make life easy:
Out-File (Get-ChildItem $dir -Recurse).FullName -FilePath $File
To append would be to simply use the -Append flag:
Out-File (Get-ChildItem $dir2 -Recurse).FullName -FilePath $File -Append
Note: This only works in PowerShell v3 and up, as PowerShell v2 relied on the pipeline to expand properties of objects within an array. In that case, the best route is to use something more like #david-martin proposed on this same thread.
Long Answer, and Best Practices
In a different thread, Script to Append The File, they were having similar difficulties with appending files. Though, they were also using the pipeline in a way that was unnecessary (more so than you have used in your example).
Their pipeline usage looked like this:
$PathArray | % {$_} | Out-File "C:\SearchString\Output.txt"
Now, again, Out-File has an -Append parameter. Simply modifying their code to have it tagged on at the end took care of things.
Though, their ForEach-Object statement (the % symbol) is pretty useless in the pipeline and isn't needed (very close in similarity to how yours is used). This is because you are only using the ForEach-Object loop to output the object without any modification. This is exactly what the pipeline does by default, which is pass each object along to the next command.
For more information on the pipeline: About Pipelines
If Update-Help has been run locally, one can use Get-Help to locally run Get-Help about_pipelines to see information too.
Instead of this:
$PathArray | % {$_} | Out-File "C:\SearchString\Output.txt" -Append
We could do this:
$PathArray | Out-File "C:\SearchString\Output.txt" -Append
[Recommended] That example can also eliminate the need for the pipeline all together, as using a pipeline is less efficient if it can be done without it. Doing everything one can possibly do without the pipeline, or to the left of each pipe in the pipeline, is to "filter left" (see the following article for more about why one should filter left, format right: Filtering Command Output in PowerShell):
Out-File -InputObject $PathArray -FilePath "C:\SearchString\Output.txt" -Append
Note: In the case above, -Append is only needed if the file already exists and is being extended.
Remember: Get-Help, and Read The Friendly Manual (RTFM)
The easiest way to troubleshoot is to checkout help documentation. Use Get-Help to checkup whatever you need: parameter sets, available parameters, examples, etc. Make sure to run Update-Help in order to have detailed documentation available locally. To checkout everything:
Update-Help
Get-Help Out-File -Full
For more detailed information that is good to know about data stream/output redirection:
PowerShell redirection operators, such as > and >> (but also redirection of data streams with n> and n>&1), and the available streams per PowerShell version: About Redirection in PowerShell (or: Get-Help about_redirection in PowerShell)
Tee-Object cmdlet), a cmdlet that acts as a more robust version of Out-File (or: Get-Help tee-object in powerShell)