I need to search for a string and then replace it with another in multiple files. Sound easy, but the hard part is that is that it's multiple files on multiple network locations. I've tried connecting to all of the locations at once with vscode and then using the built-in search and replace function. This allmost works, except when I get to big searches is seems to hang.
I'm now looking for another, more stable, way to do this. Anybody got any ideas? I thought powershell could be a good competitor, but unfortunately I'm not that used to working with powershell.
I found this guide and it's a bit like what I want, except I need to do it on multiple files at multiple locations at once.
https://mcpmag.com/articles/2018/08/08/replace-text-with-powershell.aspx
I would settle with running one skript for each location since it's only < 20 locations to scan. But it needs to include subfolders.
Any tips are appreciated, thanks! :)
Edit 1:
The folder structure differs from location to location so its hard to say how it looks. But I can say that no location has a folder structure deeper than 15 steps. The text that I'm replacing are thumbprints of certificates stored in .config files. The files are between 100 and 1000 characters long and the thumbprints I'm replacing looks something like this d2e8c58e5b34021671f2121483572f03f54ab9ae
This is assuming that the different network locations are in trusted domains or at least part of the wmi trustedhosts. PowerShell remoting will also need to be enabled on all computers involved. Run (In elevated PowerShell) Enable-PSRemoting -Force to enable PowerShell Remoting
$command = { Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Test\ -Include *.config -Name -Recurse | ForEach-Object {$configContent = Get-Content -Path $_ -Raw; $configContent.Replace("Old Value", "New Value") | Out-File -FilePath ($_.FullName) -Force } }
Invoke-Command -ComputerName "TestServer1", "TestServer2", "etc..." -ScriptBlock $command
If you are not part of the domain but have a domain/server login, you will need to use the -Credentials switch on the Invoke-Command function. This will basically find all files that have the .config extension in any subfolders in the path, get the current content of the .config file, replace your value, and finally overwrite the existing config file. WATCH OUT THOUGH this will get EVERY .config file that is in that path. If you have more than one it will also grab it, but if it doesn't have the string it will just rewrite the same file.
Without seeing an example of the folder structures and files this is quite hard to give a thorough answer on. However I would probably build a series of ForEach segments. For example:
ForEach ($Server in $Servers)
{
ForEach ($File in $Files)
{
Select-String -Path $File -Pattern "$ExampleString"
}
}
I am trying to make a powershell script (5.1) that will copy several files and folders from several hosts, these hosts change frequently therefore it would be ideal if I can use a list that I can append when required.
I have this all working using xcopy so I know the locations exist. I want to ensure that if a change is made when I am not In work someone can just add or remove a host in the text file and the back up will continue to work.
The code I have is supposed to go through each host in my list of hosts and copy all the files from the list of file paths before moving onto the next host.
But there are 2 errors showing up:
The term '\REMOTEHOST\c$\Users\Public\desktop\back-up\$Computers' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script
file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.
At line:8 char:17
and:
copy-item : Cannot find path '\HOST\C$\LK\Appdata\Cmmcfg C$\LKAppData\Errc C$\LK\Appdata\TCOMP C$\LK\Probes C$\LK\Appdata\CAMIO C$\LK\Appdata\LaunchPad C$\LK\Appdata\Wincmes
C$\barlen.dta C$\Caliprogs C$\Cali' because it does not exist.
This does not seem to reading through the list as I intended, I have also noticed that the HOST it is reading from is 6th in the list and not first.
REM*This file contains the list of hosts you want to copy files from*
$computers = Get-Content 'Y:\***FILEPATH***\HOSTFILE.txt'
REM*This is the file/folder(s) you want to copy from the hosts in the $computer variable*
$source = Get-Content 'Y:\***FILEPATH***\FilePaths.txt'
REM*The destination location you want the file/folder(s) to be copied to*
$destination = \\**REMOTEHOST**\c$\Users\Public\desktop\back-up\$Computers
foreach ($item in $computers) {
}
foreach ($item in $source) {
}
copy-item \\$computer\$source -Destination $destination -Verbose
Your destination variable needs to be enclosed in quotes. To have it evaluate other variables inside of it, enclose it in double quotes. Otherwise PowerShell thinks it's a command you are trying to run.
$destination = "\\**REMOTEHOST**\c$\Users\Public\desktop\back-up\$Computers"
cracked it, thank you for your help. I was messing up the foreach command!I had both variables set to Item, so I was confusing things!
foreach ($itemhost in $computers) {
$destination = "\Remotehost\c$\Users\xoliver.jeffries\desktop\back-up\$itemhost"
foreach ($item in $source)
{copy-item "\$itemhost\$item*" -Destination $destination -Verbose -recurse}
}
Its not the neatest output but that's just a snag! the code now enables me to use a list of hosts and a list files and copy them to a remote server!
I'm writing a PowerShell script to make several directories and copy a bunch of files together to "compile" some technical documentation. I'd like to generate a manifest of the files and directories as part of the readme file, and I'd like PowerShell to do this, since I'm already working in PowerShell to do the "compiling".
I've done some searching already, and it seems that I need to use the cmdlet "Get-ChildItem", but it's giving me too much data, and I'm not clear on how to format and prune out what I don't want to get my desired results.
I would like an output similar to this:
Directory
file
file
file
Directory
file
file
file
Subdirectory
file
file
file
or maybe something like this:
+---FinGen
| \---doc
+---testVBFilter
| \---html
\---winzip
In other words, some kind of basic visual ASCII representation of the tree structure with the directory and file names and nothing else. I have seen programs that do this, but I am not sure if PowerShell can do this.
Can PowerShell do this? If so, would Get-ChildItem be the right cmdlet?
In your particular case what you want is Tree /f. You have a comment asking how to strip out the part at the front talking about the volume, serial number, and drive letter. That is possible filtering the output before you send it to file.
$Path = "C:\temp"
Tree $Path /F | Select-Object -Skip 2 | Set-Content C:\temp\output.tkt
Tree's output in the above example is a System.Array which we can manipulate. Select-Object -Skip 2 will remove the first 2 lines containing that data. Also, If Keith Hill was around he would also recommend the PowerShell Community Extensions(PSCX) that contain the cmdlet Show-Tree. Download from here if you are curious. Lots of powerful stuff there.
The following script will show the tree as a window, it can be added to any form present in the script
function tree {
[void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Windows.Forms")
[void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Drawing")
# create Window
$Form = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Form
$Form.Text = "Files"
$Form.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(390, 390)
# create Treeview-Object
$TreeView = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.TreeView
$TreeView.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(48, 12)
$TreeView.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(290, 322)
$Form.Controls.Add($TreeView)
###### Add Nodes to Treeview
$rootnode = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.TreeNode
$rootnode.text = "Root"
$rootnode.name = "Root"
[void]$TreeView.Nodes.Add($rootnode)
#here i'm going to import the csv file into an array
$array=#(Get-ChildItem -Path D:\personalWorkspace\node)
Write-Host $array
foreach ( $obj in $array ) {
Write-Host $obj
$subnode = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.TreeNode
$subnode.text = $obj
[void]$rootnode.Nodes.Add($subnode)
}
# Show Form // this always needs to be at the bottom of the script!
$Form.Add_Shown({$Form.Activate()})
[void] $Form.ShowDialog()
}
tree
In Windows, navigate to the directory of interest
Shift+ right click mouse -> Open PowerShell window here
Get-ChildItem | tree /f > tree.log
The best and clear way for me is:
PS P:\> Start-Transcript -path C:\structure.txt -Append
PS P:\> tree c:\test /F
PS P:\> Stop-Transcript
You can use command Get-ChildItem -Path <yourDir> | tree >> myfile.txt this will output tree-like structure of a directory and write it to "myfile.txt"
So I'm trying to write a powershell script that will go through a folder full of .evtx files, send out each one via syslog, then append ".done" to the filename of the .evtx file after doing so.
The thing is, I'm not quite sure how to reference the current log file I am on within the Foreach-Object loop.
Hopefully the following code will explain my dillema.
# begin foreach loop
Get-ChildItem $evtxfolder -Filter *.evtx | `
Foreach-Object {
$LPARGS = ("-i:evt", "-o:syslog", "SELECT STRCAT(`' evt-Time: `', TO_STRING(TimeGenerated, `'dd/MM/yyyy, hh:mm:ss`')),EventID,SourceName,ComputerName,Message INTO $SERVER FROM $CURRENTOBJECT") #obviously, this won't work.
$LOGPARSER = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Logparser 2.2\logparser.exe"
$LP = Start-Process -FilePath $LOGPARSER -ArgumentList $LPARGS -Wait -Passthru -NoNewWindow
$LP.WaitForExit() # wait for logs to finish
If you look in $LPARGS, you'll see that I put $SERVER and $CURRENTOBJECT. Obviously, the way I have it now will not work, but obviously, that won't work. So basically, I'm trying to put the variable $SERVER (passed in as a parameter) into the arguments for logparser, and reference whatever current event log it is working on to put in the "FROM" statement so that it knows to work on one .evtx file at a time. What would be the proper way to do this?
An example of the INTO FROM statement:
..snippet..
SourceName,ComputerName,Message INTO #192.168.56.30 FROM 'C:\Eventlogs\20131125.evtx'"
Of course, 'C:\Eventlogs\20131125.evtx' would change as it goes through the contents of the directory.
If $server is defined outside your script above it will be available inside your string for $LPARGS. As for the $CURRENTOBJECT, that would be $_. In this case, it will be a FileInfo object. It is likely you want the Name property e.g. $($_.Name).
This should be a simple task, but I have seen several attempts on how to get the path to the directory where the executed cmdlet is located with mixed success. For instance, when I execute C:\temp\myscripts\mycmdlet.ps1 which has a settings file at C:\temp\myscripts\settings.xml I would like to be able to store C:\temp\myscripts in a variable within mycmdlet.ps1.
This is one solution which works (although a bit cumbersome):
$invocation = (Get-Variable MyInvocation).Value
$directorypath = Split-Path $invocation.MyCommand.Path
$settingspath = $directorypath + '\settings.xml'
Another one suggested this solution which only works on our test environment:
$settingspath = '.\settings.xml'
I like the latter approach a lot and prefer it to having to parse the filepath as a parameter each time, but I can't get it to work on my development environment. What should I do? Does it have something to do with how PowerShell is configured?
Yes, that should work. But if you need to see the absolute path, this is all you need:
(Get-Item .).FullName
The reliable way to do this is just like you showed $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path.
Using relative paths will be based on $pwd, in PowerShell, the current directory for an application, or the current working directory for a .NET API.
PowerShell v3+:
Use the automatic variable $PSScriptRoot.
The easiest method seems to be to use the following predefined variable:
$PSScriptRoot
about_Automatic_Variables and about_Scripts both state:
In PowerShell 2.0, this variable is valid only in script modules (.psm1). Beginning in PowerShell 3.0, it is valid in all scripts.
I use it like this:
$MyFileName = "data.txt"
$filebase = Join-Path $PSScriptRoot $MyFileName
You can also use:
(Resolve-Path .\).Path
The part in brackets returns a PathInfo object.
(Available since PowerShell 2.0.)
Try :
(Get-Location).path
or:
($pwd).path
Path is often null. This function is safer.
function Get-ScriptDirectory
{
$Invocation = (Get-Variable MyInvocation -Scope 1).Value;
if($Invocation.PSScriptRoot)
{
$Invocation.PSScriptRoot;
}
Elseif($Invocation.MyCommand.Path)
{
Split-Path $Invocation.MyCommand.Path
}
else
{
$Invocation.InvocationName.Substring(0,$Invocation.InvocationName.LastIndexOf("\"));
}
}
Get-Location will return the current location:
$Currentlocation = Get-Location
I like the one-line solution :)
$scriptDir = Split-Path -Path $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition -Parent
Try this:
$WorkingDir = Convert-Path .
In Powershell 3 and above you can simply use
$PSScriptRoot
If you just need the name of the current directory, you could do something like this:
((Get-Location) | Get-Item).Name
Assuming you are working from C:\Temp\Location\MyWorkingDirectory>
Output
MyWorkingDirectory
Most answers don't work when debugging in the following IDEs:
PS-ISE (PowerShell ISE)
VS Code (Visual Studio Code)
Because in those the $PSScriptRoot is empty and Resolve-Path .\ (and similars) will result in incorrect paths.
Freakydinde's answer is the only one that resolves those situations, so I up-voted that, but I don't think the Set-Location in that answer is really what is desired. So I fixed that and made the code a little clearer:
$directorypath = if ($PSScriptRoot) { $PSScriptRoot } `
elseif ($psise) { split-path $psise.CurrentFile.FullPath } `
elseif ($psEditor) { split-path $psEditor.GetEditorContext().CurrentFile.Path }
For what it's worth, to be a single-line solution, the below is a working solution for me.
$currFolderName = (Get-Location).Path.Substring((Get-Location).Path.LastIndexOf("\")+1)
The 1 at the end is to ignore the /.
Thanks to the posts above using the Get-Location cmdlet.
this function will set the prompt location to script path, dealing with the differents way to get scriptpath between vscode, psise and pwd :
function Set-CurrentLocation
{
$currentPath = $PSScriptRoot # AzureDevOps, Powershell
if (!$currentPath) { $currentPath = Split-Path $pseditor.GetEditorContext().CurrentFile.Path -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue } # VSCode
if (!$currentPath) { $currentPath = Split-Path $psISE.CurrentFile.FullPath -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue } # PsISE
if ($currentPath) { Set-Location $currentPath }
}
You would think that using '.\' as the path means that it's the invocation path. But not all the time. Example, if you use it inside a job ScriptBlock. In which case, it might point to %profile%\Documents.
This is what I came up with. It's an array including multiple methods of finding a path, uses the current location, filters out null\empty results, and returns the first not-null value.
#((
($MyInvocation.MyCommand.Module.ModuleBase),
($PSScriptRoot),
(Split-Path -Parent -Path $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue),
(Get-Location | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Path)
) | Where-Object { $_ })[0]
To only get the current folder name, you can also use:
(Split-Path -Path (Get-Location) -Leaf)
To expand on #Cradle 's answer: you could also write a multi-purpose function that will get you the same result per the OP's question:
Function Get-AbsolutePath {
[CmdletBinding()]
Param(
[parameter(
Mandatory=$false,
ValueFromPipeline=$true
)]
[String]$relativePath=".\"
)
if (Test-Path -Path $relativePath) {
return (Get-Item -Path $relativePath).FullName -replace "\\$", ""
} else {
Write-Error -Message "'$relativePath' is not a valid path" -ErrorId 1 -ErrorAction Stop
}
}
I had similar problems and it made me a lot of trouble since I am making programs written in PowerShell (full end user GUI applications) and I have a lot of files and resources I need to load from disk.
From my experience, using . to represent current directory is unreliable. It should represent current working directory, but it often does not.
It appears that PowerShell saves location from which PowerShell has been invoked inside ..
To be more precise, when PowerShell is first started, it starts, by default, inside your home user directory. That is usually directory of your user account, something like C:\USERS\YOUR USER NAME.
After that, PowerShell changes directory to either directory from which you invoked it, or to directory where script you are executing is located before either presenting you with PowerShell prompt or running the script. But that happens after PowerShell app itself originally starts inside your home user directory.
And . represents that initial directory inside which PowerShell started. So . only represents current directory in case if you invoked PowerShell from the wanted directory. If you later change directory in PowerShell code, change appears not to be reflected inside . in every case.
In some cases . represents current working directory, and in others directory from which PowerShell (itself, not the script) has been invoked, what can lead to inconsistent results.
For this reason I use invoker script. PowerShell script with single command inside:
POWERSHELL.
That will ensure that PowerShell is invoked from the wanted directory and thus make . represent current directory. But it only works if you do not change directory later in PowerShell code.
In case of a script, I use invoker script which is similar to last one I mentioned, except it contains a file option:
POWERSHELL -FILE DRIVE:\PATH\SCRIPT NAME.PS1.
That ensures that PowerShell is started inside current working directory.
Simply clicking on script invokes PowerShell from your home user directory no matter where script is located.
It results with current working directory being directory where script is located, but PowerShell invocation directory being C:\USERS\YOUR USER NAME, and with . returning one of these two directories depending on the situation, what is ridiculous.
But to avoid all this fuss and using invoker script, you can simply use either $PWD or $PSSCRIPTROOT instead of . to represent current directory depending on weather you wish to represent current working directory or directory from which script has been invoked.
And if you, for some reason, want to retrieve other of two directories which . returns, you can use $HOME.
I personally just have invoker script inside root directory of my apps I develop with PowerShell which invokes my main app script, and simply remember to never ever change current working directory inside my source code of my app, so I never have to worry about this, and I can use . to represent current directory and to support relative file addressing in my applications without any problems.
This should work in newer versions of PowerShell (newer than version 2).
Mine was a short, so unplug everything but USB from it and recompile