creating a log file in powershell - powershell

Question

I have the following powershell code in which,
backup of (original) files in folder1 is taken in folder2 and the files in folder1 are updated with folder3 files.
The concept of hotfix !!
cls
[xml] $XML = Get-content -Path <path of xml>
$main = $XML.File[0].Path.key
$hotfix = $XML.File[1].Path.key
$backup = $XML.File[2].Path.key
Get-ChildItem -Path $main | Where-Object {
Test-Path (Join-Path $hotfix $_.Name)
} | ForEach-Object {
Copy-Item $_.FullName -Destination $backup -Recurse -Container
}
write-host "`nBack up done !"
Get-ChildItem -Path $hotfix | ForEach-Object {Copy-Item $_.FullName -Destination $main -force}
write-host "`nFiles replaced !"
Now, as the backup of files is taken in folder2, I need to create a log file which contains - name of the file whose backup is taken, date and time, location where the backup is taken
Can anyone please help me with this?
I did the following code, but its of no use, as I cannot sync the both.
cls
$path = "C:\Log\Nlog.log"
$numberLines = 25
For ($i=0;$i -le $numberLines;$i++)
{
$SampleString = "Added sample {0} at {1}" -f $i,(Get-Date).ToString("h:m:s")
add-content -Path $path -Value $SampleString -Force
}
Any help or a different approach is appreciated !!

Answer 1

You can use the -PassThru switch parameter to have Copy-Item return the new items it just copied - then do the logging immediately after that, inside the ForEach-Object scriptblock:
| ForEach-Object {
$BackupFiles = Copy-Item $_.FullName -Destination $backup -Recurse -Container -PassThru
$BackupFiles |ForEach-Object {
$LogMessage = "[{0:dd-MM-yyyy hh:mm:ss.fff}]File copied: {1}" -f $(Get-Date),$_.FullName
$LogMessage | Out-File ".\backups.log" -Append
}
}