How to copy a file then save the destination path to CSV - powershell

Question

I'm trying to copy a batch of files (those whose filename begins with 6 digits) from a temp folder to a permanent location, excluding those that already exist in the new location.
Once the copy is done, I want to export the filename and new path of the copied file into a CSV.
It's pretty easy to get the old file location and export to CSV, I'm just not quite sure how to get the new file location.
My script looks like this:
# Prompt for file origin
$file_location = Read-Host -Prompt "Where do you want your files to come from?"
# Prompt for file destination
$file_destination = Read-Host -Prompt "Where do you want your files to go? `n(They won't be copied if they're already there)"
# Save contents of file destination - used to check for duplicates
$dest_contents = Get-ChildItem $file_destination
<# For all of the files of interest (those whose names begin with 6 digits) in $file_location,
determine whether that filename already exists in the target directory ($file_destination)
If it doesn't, copy the file to the destination
Then save the filename and the new** filepath to a CSV #>
Get-ChildItem -Path $file_location |
Where-Object { $_.Name -match '^\d{6}' -And !($dest_contents -Match $_.Name ) } |
Copy-Item -Destination $file_destination -PassThru |
Select-Object -Property Name, FullName | # **Note: This saves the old filepath, not the new one
Export-CSV -Path "$file_location\files_copied.csv" -NoClobber

Answer 1

You can do this with a few changes to the code
# Prompt for file origin
$file_location = Read-Host -Prompt "Where do you want your files to come from?"
# Prompt for file destination
$file_destination = Read-Host -Prompt "Where do you want your files to go? `n(They won't be copied if they're already there)"
# Save contents of file destination - used to check for duplicates
$dest_contents = Get-ChildItem $file_destination | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name
<# For all of the files of interest (those whose names begin with 6 digits) in $file_location,
determine whether that filename already exists in the target directory ($file_destination)
If it doesn't, copy the file to the destination
Then save the filename and the new** filepath to a CSV #>
Get-ChildItem -Path $file_location |
Where-Object { $_.Name -match '^\d{6}' -and ($dest_contents -notcontains $_.Name ) } |
ForEach-Object {
Copy-Item -Path $_.FullName -Destination $file_destination
# emit a PSObject storing the Name and (destination) FullName of the file that has been copied
# This will be used to generate the output in the 'files_copied.csv'
New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property ([ordered]#{ Name = $_.Name; FullName = (Join-Path $file_destination $_.Name)})
} |
Export-CSV -Path "$file_location\files_copied.csv" -NoTypeInformation -Force
Note that i only gather the Names of the files already in the destination path instead of the fileInfo objects. This makes it a lot 'leaner' since the only reason for gathering is to have a collection of file names to compare with.
As it is now, you have a fixed name for the 'files_copied.csv' and personally i think it would be a good idea to make that more generic by adding the current date to it for instance like
Export-CSV -Path ("{0}\files_copied_{1}.csv" -f $file_location, (Get-Date).ToString("yyyy-MM-dd")) -NoTypeInformation -Force
P.s. I'm using the [ordered] here so the output will always have the properties in the same order. This however requires PowerShell v3 or better.
Also, i suggest looking at the -File or -Attributes switches on the Get-ChildItem command if you need to make sure the code only copies Files, not Directories. If your version of PowerShell is 2.0, you can use the Where-Object { !$_.PSIsContainer } construct to filter out files only.

Answer 2

I'd use a different approach testing if destination exist while iterating source files.
To append to a present csv (log) file you need to remove the header of the new one.
As Get-ChildItem allows ranges [0-9] you can directly select leading numbers
## Q:\Test\2018\08\08\SO_51738853.ps1
# Prompt for file origin
$SrcDir = Read-Host -Prompt "Where do you want your files to come from?"
# Prompt for file destination
$DstDir = Read-Host -Prompt "Where do you want your files to go? `n(They won't be copied if they're already there)"
$SrcFiles = Join-Path (Get-Item $SrcDir).Fullname [0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]*
$CopiedFiles = ForEach ($SrcFile in (Get-ChildItem -Path $SrcFiles)){
$DstFile = Join-Path $DstDir $SrcFile.Name
If (!(Test-Path $DstFile)){
$SrcFile | Copy-Item -Destination $DstFile -PassThru |
Select-Object -Property Name, FullName
}
}
# Check if log file exists, if yes append, otherwise export.
$LogFile = Join-Path $SrcDir "files_copied.csv"
If ($CopiedFiles){
If (!(Test-Path $LogFile)){
Export-CSV -Path $LogFile -InputObject $CopiedFiles -NoTypeInformation
} else {
# We need to remove the Header appending to the present csv
$CopiedFiles | ConvertTo-Csv -NoType | Select-Object -Skip 1 | Add-Content -Path $LogFile
}
}