Powershell (PS2) logging Remove-Item - powershell

Question

I'm fairly new to Powershell but manged so far to pull together a script that deletes files older than a defined Created Date and excluding certain file types. However, I'm struggling to incorporate both verbose and file logging output. I've tried various methods I've found online and I think Out-File is the most appropriate however I simply can't make it work. Hoping someone can help!
Set-StrictMode -Version Latest
# $Logfile = "C:\Temp\Log.log"
function Remove-Files([parameter(Mandatory=$true)][ValidateScript({Test-Path $_})][string] $Path, [parameter(Mandatory=$true)][DateTime] $DateTime, [switch] $WhatIf)
{
Get-ChildItem -Path $Path -Recurse -Force | Where-Object { !$_.PSIsContainer -and $_.CreationTime -lt $DateTime -and ($_.Name -notlike "*.txt"-and $_.Name -notlike "*.log")} |
# Out-File -filepath $logfile -append
ForEach-Object { Remove-Item -Path $_.FullName -Force -WhatIf:$WhatIf}
}
Remove-Files -Path "C:\Temp" -DateTime ((Get-Date).AddDays(-10)) # -whatif

Answer 1

You are not sending any content to the log file.
Uncomment the $logfile declaration, and use this for instance:
ForEach-Object {
Remove-Item -Path $_.FullName -Force -WhatIf:$WhatIf
"Removed $($_.FullName)" | Out-File -FilePath $logfile -Append
}

Answer 2

What you want to do is just Tee-Object the files before you remove them. Like, literally just replace your Out-File with Tee-Object:
function Remove-Files {
[CmdletBinding()]
param(
[parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
[ValidateScript({Test-Path $_})]
[string]$Path,
[parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
[DateTime]$DateTime,
# Personally, I would pass the log file as a parameter
# [string]$LogFile,
[switch]$WhatIf
)
Get-ChildItem -Path $Path -Recurse -Force |
Where-Object {
!$_.PSIsContainer -and
$_.CreationTime -lt $DateTime -and
($_.lName -notlike "*.txt" -and $_.Name -notlike "*.log")
} |
Tee-Object -Filepath $LogFile -Append |
Remove-Item -Force -WhatIf:$WhatIf
}
Remove-Files -Path "C:\Temp" -Log "C:\Temp\Rm.log" -DateTime ((Get-Date).AddDays(-10))
The only problem is that:
The output in the log would be formatted the same as if you output to the console, so it's not quite what you'd normally log ...
The log will be the same whether you remove or not (i.e.: -Whatif makes it not delete, but doesn't stop the log)

Answer 3

Here's my updated code to get the logging working..
function Remove-FilesCreatedBeforeDate([parameter(Mandatory=$true)][ValidateScript({Test-Path $_})][string] $Path, [parameter(Mandatory=$true)][DateTime] $DateTime, [string]$LogFile = "C:\Temp\Log.log", [switch] $WhatIf)
{
"LOG START $(Get-Date –f "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss")" | Out-File -FilePath $logfile -Append
Get-ChildItem -Path $Path -Recurse -Force | Where-Object { !$_.PSIsContainer -and $_.CreationTime -lt $DateTime -and ($_.Name -notlike "*.txt"-and $_.Name -notlike "*.log")} |
ForEach-Object { Remove-Item -Path $_.FullName -Force -WhatIf:$WhatIf
"$(Get-Date –f o) Removed $($_.FullName)" | Out-File -FilePath $logfile -Append | Write-host "Removed $($_.FullName)"}
"LOG END $(Get-Date –f "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss")" | Out-File -FilePath $logfile -Append
}
Remove-FilesCreatedBeforeDate -Path "C:\Temp" -DateTime ((Get-Date).AddDays(-0))

Answer 4

A while ago I have created a Log-Entry framework where you can do inline logging like:
Remove-Item -Path (Log "Removing:" $_.FullName ?) -Force -WhatIf:$WhatIf