I am looking for some help with writing the code in PowerShell to check for and report back.
I want to search C:\MyData\MyCustomerNames for folders MyTests, MyProducts, and MyReturns, and then report back C:\MyData\MyCustomerNames\MyTests is Present or C:\MyData\MyCustomerNames\MyProducts is Missing.
I know that the code Test-Path C:\MyData\MyCustomerNames\MyProductscould work but I also want to test for *.xml, *.docx, etc. Plus, the only part of the path that is a variable is MyCustomerNames.
If you can point me to something that would work, that would be awesome, or provide an example more so than what I provided.
Please and Thank you!
To expand on what sodawillow recommended. Save your locations in an array, then use the foreach statement to run the loop for each value in the array. You can use Get-ChildItem in an if statement to search for those directories and evaluate if they exist.
$folders = "MyTests", "MyProducts", "MyReturns"
foreach ($folder in $folders) {
if (Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\MyData\MyCustomerNames" -Filter $folder -Directory) {
"$folder exists"
} else {
"$folder does not exist"
}
}
Related
I'm working on a project where I have to apply a file to multiple folders every so often. I'm trying to learn some PowerShell commands to make this a little easier. I came up with the following script, which works, but I feel that this is too verbose and could be distilled down with a better script:
[string]$sourceDirectory = "C:\Setup\App Folder Files\*"
# Create an array of folders
$destinationDirectories = #(
'C:\Users\GG_RCB1\Documents\',
'C:\Users\GG_RCB2\Documents\',
'C:\Users\LA_RCB1\Documents\',
'C:\Users\PR_RCB1\Documents\',
'C:\Users\PQ_RCB1\Documents\',
'C:\Users\PQ_RCB2\Documents\',
'C:\Users\XC_RCB1\Documents\',
'C:\Users\XC_RCB2\Documents\',
'C:\Users\XC_RCB3\Documents\',
'C:\Users\XC_RCB4\Documents\',
'C:\Users\XC_RCB5\Documents\',
'C:\Users\XC_RCB6\Documents\',
'C:\Users\XC_RCB7\Documents\',
'C:\Users\XC_RCB8\Documents\')
# Perform iteration to create the same file in each folder
foreach ($i in $destinationDirectories) {
Copy-item -Force -Recurse -Verbose $sourceDirectory -Destination $i
}
I go into this process knowing that every folder in the User folder area is going to have the same format: _RCB<#>\Documents\
I know that I can loop through those files using this code:
Get-ChildItem -Path 'C:\Users'| where-object {$_.Name -match "^[A-Z][A-Z]_RCB"}
What I'm not sure how to do is to how, within that loop, drill down to the Documents folder and do the copy. I want to avoid having to keep updating the array from the first code sample, particularly when I know the naming convention of the subfolders in the Users folder. I'm just looking for a cleaner way to do this.
Thanks for any suggestions!
Ehh, I'll go ahead and post what I had in mind as well. Not to take away from #Mathias suggestion in the comments, but to offer my solution, here's my take:
Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\users\[A-Z][A-Z]_RCB*\documents" |
Copy-Item -Path $sourceDirectory -Destination { $_.FullName } -Recurse -WhatIf
Since everyone loves the "One-Liners" that can accomplish your needs. Get-ChildItem accepts wildcard-expressions in it's path which let's us accomplish this in one go. Given that your directories are...
consistent with the same naming pattern,
[A-Z][A-Z]_*
and the folder destination is the same.
Documents
Luckily, Copy-Item also has some cool features on it's own such as being able to use a script block that will allow the passing of $_.FullName property as it's destination, while they are passed down the pipeline one at a time.
Remove the -WhatIf common parameter when you've dictated the results are what you're after.
This is currently what I am trying to execute.
$folderPath = 'M:\abc\WORKFORCE\Media\Attachments'
Write-Host "Executing Script..."
foreach ($file in Get-ChildItem $folderPath -file)
{
# execute code
}
However when I execute the powershell script it freezes on me. It's been this way for an hour now. I'm assuming it might be because the directory has over 8 million items in it. Is there a more efficient way to move these items? Is waiting my only option? Or is it not possible to do this at all with powershell because of how large the directory is?
When you do not need any information except file name, you should use [System.IO.Directory]::EnumerateFiles($folderPath, '*')
EnumerateFiles returns IEnumerable[String].
IEnumerable is a special type that can be used in foreach statements. It does not loads information into memory, but instead it gets next item only when requested. It works almost immediately.
So, your code will be
$filesIEnumerable = [System.IO.Directory]::EnumerateFiles($folderPath,'*')
foreach ($fullName in $filesIEnumerable) {
# code here
$fileName = [System.IO.Path]::GetFileName($fullName)
# more code here
}
In case you want to keep in-memory all list of files instead of iterating once ( for example you need to iterate several times ), EnumerateFiles is still a faster and requires less memory than Get-ChildItem because it does not get any extended file attributes:
$files = #([System.IO.Directory]::EnumerateFiles($folderPath,'*'))
Look further about EnumerateFiles at learn.microsoft.com
Without further explanation of what the end-goal of the script is; there can not really be a solution to this question.
However, a tip on performance, can be given.
Original script:
$folderPath = 'M:\abc\WORKFORCE\Media\Attachments'
Write-Host "Executing Script..."
foreach ($file in Get-ChildItem $folderPath -file)
{
# execute code
}
Suggested approach:
$files = Get-ChildItem 'M:\abc\WORKFORCE\Media\Attachments' -file
$DestinationPath = 'F:\DestinationFolder'
Write-Host "Executing Script..."
$Files | ForEach-Object {
# execute code
# Write-Verbose "Moving $_.Name"
# Move-Item -Destination $DestinationPath
}
That being said, it looks like filimonic's take on an answer has a superior speed to its execution, than my suggestion.
( To expand on that, check this thread)
I am new to PowerShell and new to IT. I've been asked by my boss to write a PowerShell script that will identify filenames that have no file extension and then change them to .PDF files. After doing some research online I've found a script that had a similar purpose and tried to tailor it to my needs:
$proj_files = Get-ChildItem | Where-Object {$_.Extension -eq "."}
ForEach ($file in $proj_files) {
$filenew = $file.Name + ".pdf"
Rename-Item $file $filenew
}
My first question is does the logic in this script make sense? Is "Extension -eq "." the correct syntax to specify a filename with no extension? My other thought was to use Extension -eq "null" or something similar. If I do need to use a null value, what would that look like? My other question is how would I specify a given directory for this script to search through, or would I even need to? My thought here would be to specify the path under Get-ChildItem, like so: $proj_files = Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Users\mthomas\Documents | Where-Object {$_.Extension -eq ".'} Does that seem correct? I am hesitant to test this out before getting a second opinion because I don't want to change every file extension on my computer or something stupid like that. Anyhow, thanks everyone for the help.
You can do something like the following to find files in a directory without an extension, and rename them to have a PDF extension:
$directory = "C:\Path\To\Directory"
Get-ChildItem -File $directory | Where-Object { -Not $_.Extension } | Foreach-Object {
$_ | Rename-Item -NewName "$($_.Name).pdf"
}
Let's break this down
$directory = "C:\Path\To\Directory"
This is where we set the directory we want to locate files without extensions in. It doesn't have to be set as a static variable but since you are just getting your feet wet with Powershell this keeps it simple.
Get-ChildItem -File $directory
Get-ChildItem is the cmdlet which is used to list directory contents (also aliased to gci, ls, and dir). -File tells it to only list files, and $directory references the directory we want to search from, which we set above. Note that Get-ChildItem might behave differently depending on the provider (for example, you can also use Get-ChildItem on a registry key), but if you are working with a filesystem path you do not need to worry about additional providers for this case.
|
Passes the previous output down the pipeline. This is a common operator in Powershell, but basically you can string commands together using it. You can read more about the pipeline at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/getting-started/fundamental/understanding-the-windows-powershell-pipeline?view=powershell-6
Where-Object { -Not $_.Extension }
Where-Object evaluates a condition on one or more items, and filters out items that do not meet the condition. Since Get-ChildItem can return one or more files, we use the -Not operator in the ScriptBlock (denoted by {} and make sure that there is no extension on the file. $_, or $PSItem, is a special variable used by the pipeline, in this case $_ equals each item returned by Get-ChildItem. The Extension property exists on files returned by Get-ChildItem, and will be blank, or evaluated as $False. So filtering on -Not $_.Extension is the same as saying to only match objects that are missing a file extension. Where-Object can be read about in more detail here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/where-object?view=powershell-6
Foreach-Object { SCRIPTBLOCK }
Similar to Where-Object, but runs code for each object in the pipeline rather than evaluating and filtering out objects which don't match a condition. In this case, we pipe the each file without an extension to Rename-Item, which I'll break down further below. More information on Foreach-Object can be read about here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/foreach-object?view=powershell-6
$_ | Rename-Item -NewName "$($_.Name).pdf"
Rename the current file in the Foreach-Object block to the new name with .pdf appended. The "$( ... )" is called a sub-expression, which is a string interpolation technique that lets you run a command within a string, and make its output part of the string. You could achieve the same effect by doing $_ | Rename-Item -NewName ( $_.Name + ".pdf" ) which just adds a .pdf to the end of the current name.
Summary
The pipeline is a very powerful tool in Powershell, and is key to writing efficient and less bloated scripts. It might seem complex at first, but the more you use it the less daunting it will seem. I highly suggest reading the additional documentation I linked to above as it should help fill in any gaps I may have missed in my explanations above.
To simplify the breakdown above, the command does this, in this order: Gets all files in the specified directory, selects only the files that do not have an extension, then renames each file found without an extension to have a .pdf at the end.
The logic in the script - the overall shape - makes understandable sense, but is not right for it to work as you intend.
Testing on my computer here:
new-item -ItemType File -Name 'test'
get-item test | format-list *
get-item test | foreach { $_.extension; $_.Extension.length; $_.extension.GetType().name }
a file with no extension shows up with an empty string (blank content, length 0, type String, so your where-object { $_.Extension -eq "." } needs to be looking for "" instead of ".".
But:
Get-ChildItem | Where-Object { $_.Extension -eq '' }
shows me some folders as well, because they also have no extension in their name, so you might want Get-ChildItem -File to restrict it to just files.
how would I specify a given directory for this script to search through, or would I even need to?
It would run in the current directory, whichever shows up in your prompt PS C:\wherever> so if you need it to run somewhere else, yes you'd need to change to that folder or specify in get-childitem -LiteralPath 'c:\path\to\wherever'. You haven't mentioned subfolders, if you need those included, get-childitem -Recurse switch as well.
Speaking of subfolders, your $filenew = $file.Name + ".pdf" only makes sense in the current directory, I think it would work better if you used the full filename including path, so they definitely get renamed in the same place they were found $filenew = $file.FullName + ".pdf"
Is "Extension -eq "." the correct syntax to specify a filename with no extension?
Being careful here, what you wrote in your question was correct syntax but incorrect string content. What you've written here with quotes on the left of Extension is incorrect syntax.
My other thought was to use Extension -eq "null" or something similar. If I do need to use a null value, what would that look like?
And being careful here, "null" is not a null value, it's a string containing the four letter word 'null'.
You don't need to use a null value here, normally if you do it looks like $null, but in this case you could use where-object { [string]::IsNullOrEmpty($_.Extension) } but there's no benefit to it, I think.
And, as a stylistic choice, both "" and '' are strings, but "" can contain variables and sub-expressions, so if you have plain text it's a neat habit to use '' for it because it makes it clear to the reader that you intend there to be nothing special happening in this string.
Then your code, with parameter names given, looks more like:
$proj_files = Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath 'C:\Users\mthomas\Documents' |
Where-Object {$_.Extension -eq '.'}
foreach ($file in $proj_files)
{
$filenew = $file.FullName + '.pdf'
Rename-Item -LiteralPath $file.FullName -NewName $filenew
}
If you want to see what it will do, use -WhatIf on the end of Rename-Item:
Rename-Item -LiteralPath $file.FullName -NewName $filenew -WhatIf
Then it won't make the changes, just tell you what it would do.
I am hesitant to test this out before getting a second opinion because I don't want to change every file extension on my computer or something stupid like that
Sensible. But internet people are going to tell you to test their code before running it, because ultimately it's your responsibility to safeguard your files, rather than trust random code from the internet, so having test folders, having a spare machine, having a good backup, playing with PowerShell in pieces until you are happy with what they do, they're all good habits to get into as well.
I have multiple files (Datafile_1.txt,Datafile_2.txt and so on) and for each file I would like to perform some command.
This is what I have put together but it's not working as expected.
$FileName=$Datafile + "*.txt"
Files=#($FileName)
foreach ($File in $Files)
{
Do something....
}
Could someone please share the right way to accomplish this.
Thanks in advance
What you have is a string with an asterisk in it (and Files is missing a $ but I imagine that's a typo).
You need to query the filesystem to get files matching the pattern and use them:
Get-ChildItem -Path "DataFile*.txt" | ForEach-Object {
Do-Something -With $_
}
I have a powershell script that creates folders on our NAS for each student according to their student numbers. The names for the folders comes from a .csv file that I import from the server. This is what I have got:
Set-Location "C:\studentdata"
$StudFolders = import-csv \\servername\datafolder\studfolders.csv
ForEach ($StudFolders in $StudFolders) {
if(Test-Path -Path C:\Studentdata\$StudFolders) {
New-Item $StudFolders.Name -type directory
}else{
"Folders already created"
}
}
This script works great, if I run it only once. If I run it again, I get errors in the console window about the folders already existing. What I want to do is catch the errors with the IF part of the script, but I am not sure if I have the correct usage of the IF for powershell. This will help if I edit the .csv with more student number it will display without errors.
Can someone point me in the right direction?
EDIT:
This is what I have in the studfolders.csv
Name
2003040052
2003060213
2003060310
2003060467
Lets take a look at your logic:
you are using an if statement, which works if something returns true
you are using a test-path cmdlet which returns true if something exists
See the problem? you need to do it vice versa:
if (!(test-path ...)) { ... } # ! - is the operator to invert true to false
or you can switch if and else content, so when if executes it returns "Folders already created", and else creates folders
As a matter of coding style, I would avoid using the same variable name with different semantics, as in ($Studfolders in $Studfolders). Code like this is very hard to read a few months down the road. I generally use the singular for each object in the collection, as in ($Studfolder in $Studfolders). But if your style works for you, OK.
Previous answers have already pointed out that your logic is backwards. You need to reverse it.
Next, it doesn't look to me as though you are accessing the component of each item in the loop. When you do an Import-Csv, several things happen: The first record in the csv file is treated as a header, providing the names for the fields that follow. If there is indeed a header in your csv file, you need to reference it when you retrieve the first field from each item, even if it's the only field.
The result of an import-csv is an array of custom objects. Each custom object looks like a hashtable that contains key, value pairs. Something like this might work
Set-Location "C:\studentdata"
$StudFolders = import-csv \\servername\datafolder\studfolders.csv
ForEach ($StudFolder in $StudFolders) {
if(Test-Path -Path C:\Studentdata\$StudFolder.Name) {
"Folders already created"
}else{
New-Item $StudFolder.Name -type directory
}
}
I have presumed that the first record in the Csv file looks like this:
"Name"
That is why I referenced the field as $Studfolder.Name"
If this isn't the case, you are going to have to do something different.
Having tried everything with the script, I could not get it to catch the errors. I decided to ask my manager, and he came up with the following solution that works quite well and catches the errors.
import-csv '\\servername\datafolder\studfolders.csv'|ForEach-Object -process {
$path =$_.Name
$path='C:\Studentdata\'+$path
if (Test-Path -Path $path){
"Folder already created"
} else {
New-Item $path -type directory
}
}
Thanks to #Walter Mitty and #4c74356b41 for help try to find an answer.