PowerShell Switch parameter requires input - powershell

Question

I'm a bit in the dark on what would be best practice. I'm creating a function to delete files older than, but I would like to add a switch called -Remote that is optional, but when you choose to use it, the switch requires mandatory information like $Server to have the whole function below executed on the remote server by using the Invoke-Command.
Something like this:
Delete-OldFiles -Target "\\Share\Dir1" -OlderThanDays "10" -LogName "Auto_Clean.log" -Remote "SERVER1"
The script/function
Function Delete-OldFiles
{
[CmdletBinding()]
Param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True,Position=1)]
[ValidateScript({Test-Path $_})]
[String]$Target,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True,Position=2)]
[Int]$OlderThanDays,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True,Position=3)]
[String]$LogName
)
if ($PSVersionTable.PSVersion.Major -ge "3") {
# PowerShell 3+ Remove files older than (FASTER)
Get-ChildItem -Path $Target -Exclude $LogName -Recurse -File |
Where-Object { $_.LastWriteTime -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-$OlderThanDays) } | ForEach {
$Item = $_.FullName
Remove-Item $Item -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
$Timestamp = (Get-Date).ToShortDateString()+" | "+(Get-Date).ToLongTimeString()
# If files can't be removed
if (Test-Path $Item)
{ "$Timestamp | FAILLED: $Item (IN USE)" }
else
{ "$Timestamp | REMOVED: $Item" }
} | Tee-Object $Target\$LogName -Append } # Output file names to console & logfile at the same time
Else {
# PowerShell 2 Remove files older than
Get-ChildItem -Path $Target -Exclude $LogName -Recurse |
Where-Object { !$_.PSIsContainer -and $_.LastWriteTime -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-$OlderThanDays) } | ForEach {
$Item = $_.FullName
Remove-Item $Item -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
$Timestamp = (Get-Date).ToShortDateString()+" | "+(Get-Date).ToLongTimeString()
# If files can't be removed
if (Test-Path $Item)
{
Write-Host "$Timestamp | FAILLED: $Item (IN USE)"
"$Timestamp | FAILLED: $Item (IN USE)"
}
else
{
Write-Host "$Timestamp | REMOVED: $Item"
"$Timestamp | REMOVED: $Item"
}
} | Out-File $Target\$LogName -Append }
}
Delete-OldFiles -Target "\\Share\Dir1" -OlderThanDays "10" -LogName "Auto_Clean.log"
#Delete-OldFiles "E:\Share\Dir1" "5" "Auto_Clean.log"
When I master this I can make the $LogName (logfile) optional to. Thank you for your help. I'm still new to PowerShell and trying to figure this stuff out.

Answer 1

You can use parameters like this
Param (
[switch] $Remote = $false,
[string] $server = $(
if ($Remote)
{
Read-Host -Prompt "Enter remote server:"
}
)
)
In this case, if you call script without -Remote, $server will remain $null.
If you'll call script.ps1 -Remote, it will ask you to enter server name.
If you'll use it like scripts.ps1 -Remote -server "Servername", $server will become Servername.
It can be complicated to wrap function into Invoke-Command based on switch, but you can always use Invoke-Command (it should be as fast as direct command), just use parameters like this
Param (
[switch] $Remote = $false,
[string] $server = $(
if ($Remote)
{
Read-Host -Prompt "Enter remote server:"
}
else
{
"localhost"
}
)
)