Write to the output between two pipeline - powershell

Question

I'm trying to write to the output (echo) within two pipe to have a trace of what I'm doing but I have an error.
Get-ChildItem $path -Recurse |
Where-Object { $_.Name -match '.+?\.log\.(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})$' -and $_.LastWriteTime -lt $deleteDate } |
Write-Output "deleting file" -PassThru |
Remove-Item
but I have this error :
Write-Output : The input object cannot be bound to any parameters for the command either because the command does not take pipeline input or the input and its properties do not match any of the parameters that take pipeline input.
I also tested in the Foreach-Object function
Get-ChildItem $path -Recurse |
Where-Object { $_.Name -match '.+?\.log\.(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})$' -and $_.LastWriteTime -lt $deleteDate } |
Foreach-Object {
echo "deleting $($_.Name)";
Remove-Item($_);
}
but here nothing is printed in the console (but the script finish without error and deleted the files I wanted)
So how can I print to thje output wihtin two Pipe ?
Thx

Answer 1

Write-Output sends output to the pipeline. It accepts input via pipeline or argument, but not both, so you can do this:
Write-Output "Test"
or this:
"Test" | Write-Output
but not this:
"Test" | Write-Output "Test"
Solution:
Get-ChildItem $path -Recurse | where {
$_.Name -match '.+?\.log\.(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})$' -and $_.LastWriteTime -lt $deleteDate
} | foreach {
# Write-Host writes to the console only
Write-Host "Deleting $($_.Name)"
Remove-Item $_
}
Mind that Remove-Item expects a string argument, so everything you pass will be converted to string. Casting a FileInfo object to string might not always return the full path (because of its implementation of ToString()) depending on how it was created!
In the example above, it is safe to use, but this for instance will throw an an exception (if your current working directory is not $path):
(Get-Item $path).GetFiles() | foreach { Remove-Item $_ }
So it's always safest to use $_.FullName.