Trying to iterate through folders and take recursive actions on each file - powershell

Question

I'm trying to build a script that I can use to delete old files based on Last Accessed date. As part of the script I want to interrogate each sub folder, find files not accessed in the last X days, create a log in the same folder of the files found and record file details in the log then delete the files.
What I think I need is a nested loop, loop 1 will get each subfolder (Get-ChildItem -Directory -Recurse) then for each folder found a second loop checks all files for last accessed date and if outside the limit will append the file details to a logfile in the folder (for user reference) and also to a master logfile (for IT Admin)
loop 1 is working as expected and getting the subfolders, but I cannot get the inner loop to recurse through the objects in the folder, I'm trying to use Get-ChildItem inside the first loop, is this the correct approach?
Code sample below, I have added pseudo to demo the logic, its really the loops I need help with:
# Set variables
$FolderPath = "E:TEST_G"
$ArchiveLimit = 7
$ArchiveDate = (Get-Date).AddDays(-$ArchiveLimit)
$MasterLogFile = "C:\Temp\ArchiveLog $(Get-Date -f yyyy-MM-dd).csv"
# Loop 1 - Iterate through each subfolder of $FolderPath
Get-ChildItem -Path $FolderPath -Directory -Recurse | ForEach-Object {
# Loop 2 - Check each file in the Subfolder and if Last Access is past
# $ArchiveDate take Action
Get-ChildItem -Path $_.DirectoryName | where {
$_.LastAccessTime -le $ArchiveDate
} | ForEach-Object {
# Check if FolderLogFile Exists, if not create it
# Append file details to folder Log
# Append File & Folder Details to Master Log
}
}

Answer 1

I think you're overcomplicating a bit:
#Set Variables
$FolderPath = "E:\TEST_G"
$ArchiveLimit = 7
$ArchiveDate = (Get-Date).AddDays(-$ArchiveLimit)
$MasterLogFile = "C:\Temp\ArchiveLog $(get-date -f yyyy-MM-dd).csv"
If (!(Test-Path $MasterLogFile)) {New-Item $MasterLogFile -Force}
Get-ChildItem -Path $FolderPath -File -Recurse |
Where-Object { $_.LastAccessTime -lt $ArchiveDate -and
$_.Extension -ne '.log' } |
ForEach-Object {
$FolderLogFile = Join-Path $_.DirectoryName 'name.log'
Add-Content -Value "details" -Path $FolderLogFile,$MasterLogFile
Try {
Remove-Item $_ -Force -EA Stop
} Catch {
Add-Content -Value "Unable to delete item! [$($_.Exception.GetType().FullName)] $($_.Exception.Message)"`
-Path $FolderLogFile,$MasterLogFile
}
}
Edit:
Multiple recursive loops are unnecessary since you're already taking a recursive action in the pipeline. It's powerful enough to do the processing without having to take extra action. Add-Content from the other answer is an excellent solution over Out-File as well, so I replaced mine.
One note, though, Add-Content's -Force flag does not create the folder structure like New-Item's will. That is the reason for the line under the $MasterLogFile declaration.

Answer 2

Your nested loop doesn't need recursion (the outer loop already takes care of that). Just process the files in each folder (make sure you exclude the folder log):
Get-ChildItem -Path $FolderPath -Directory -Recurse | ForEach-Object {
$FolderLogFile = Join-Path $_.DirectoryName 'FolderLog.log'
Get-ChildItem -Path $_.DirectoryName -File | Where-Object {
$_.LastAccessTime -le $ArchiveDate -and
$_.FullName -ne $FolderLogFile
} | ForEach-Object {
'file details' | Add-Content $FolderLogFile
'file and folder details' | Add-Content $MasterLogFile
Remove-Item $_.FullName -Force
}
}
You don't need to test for the existence of the folder log file, because Add-Content will automatically create it if it's missing.