My source files all reside in one folder whose path is contained in a variable named $template.
I need to specify the exact filename as each file goes to a different destination.
My goal is to merely concatenate the filename to the variable.
Example:
$template = "D:\source\templatefiles\"
Filename1 is: "graphic-183.jpg"
I have tried:
Join-Path $template graphic-183.jpg
Issuing this at the cli appears to do what I want.
But now, how do I reference this concatenated file path short of creating a new variable for each file? It isn't as simple as for-nexting my way through a list as depending on the filename that determines where the file goes.
I am toying with case else, elseIf, but surely it isn't this hard.
The bottom line is, I just want to prefix the folder path to each filename and hard code the destination as it will always be the same each time the script is run.
edit
I just edited this as I forgot to mention how I am trying to use this.
In my script I intend to have lines like:
Copy-Item -Path $template filename.ext -Destination $destfolder
It's the highlighted part above that I am trying to join $template to the filename.
Thanks for any advice.
-= Bruce D. Meyer
maybe this is what you want?
you can call cmdlets in place, using parentheses, like so:
Copy-Item -Path (Join-Path $template filename.ext) -Destination $destfolder
this causes PowerShell to go from "argument mode" to "expression mode" - i.e., it returns the output of the Join-Path cmdlet as an expression.
and yes, David's and Ansgar's suggestions are also helpful - try this to get full paths only:
(get-childitem $template) | select fullname
You could build the path like this:
$template = "D:\source\templatefiles\"
Copy-Item -Path "${template}filename.ext" ...
However, I think David's suggestion might be a better solution for your problem. You could map filenames to destination folders with a hash table and do something like this:
$locations = #{
"foo" = "C:\some",
"bar" = "C:\other",
...
}
Get-ChildItem $template | % { Copy-Item $_ $location[$_.Name] }
Related
I first create my array with a list of files in a directory (and subdirectories) using the Cmdlet Get-ChildItem, and store them in a variable
$PSVariable = (Get-ChildItem -Path "F:\SQL_Backups" -Recurse *.bak).FullName
I echo the variable ($PSVariable), this is my output (as desired):
F:\SQL_Backups\INTRAPORTAL\StoreDevelopment\StoreDevelopment_backup_2021_02_11_003002_3930170.bak
F:\SQL_Backups\INTRAPORTAL\StoreDevelopment\StoreDevelopment_backup_2021_02_12_003002_4780885.bak
F:\SQL_Backups\JDASQL\DEVMOD\DEVMOD_backup_2021_02_10_190002_5130923.bak
F:\SQL_Backups\JDASQL\DEVMOD\DEVMOD_backup_2021_02_11_190003_7621021.bak
Goal:
I need to remove the directory path from each array entries so it only contains the file name that will be stored in a temporary variable within a foreach loop:
StoreDevelopment_backup_2021_02_11_003002_3930170.bak
StoreDevelopment_backup_2021_02_12_003002_4780885.bak
DEVMOD_backup_2021_02_10_190002_5130923.bak
DEVMOD_backup_2021_02_11_190003_7621021.bak
Some will recommend simply using (.Name) in the Get-ChildItem command, but I need the array to have both the path and filename (FullName) as the array's contents are being used for other parts of the function. I'm a novice when it comes to regular expressions and I can't seem to get the results in the goal section. I've even tried using trim() methods, but no luck. Any recommendations would greatly be appreciated. Thank you.
Expanding on what #AdminOfThings recommended, you are making more work for yourself than you need. PowerShell is an object based scripting language, so to succeed you should use its full POWER.
The approach you're taking now is to take only one property from this useful object and then find you need to start slicing and dicing it in order to make it work.
There's an easier way. We love easy here, and the easy way to do this is to take the full object and then pick and chose its properties where it makes sense, like this:
$i = 0
#changed to remove the .FullName at then end
$PSVariable = (Get-ChildItem -Path "F:\SQL_Backups" -Recurse *.bak)
ForEach ($item in $psVariable){
$i++
Write-host "Processing [$($item.Name)], item number $i of $($psVariable.Count)"
Copy-item -Path $item.FullName -Destination C:\temp -WhatIf
}
It gives you meaningful output and then you have the full selection of properties to work with.
The one that makes the most sense to use is just .Name as you reference above. But then you still have .FullName, which includes the qualified path as well.
If you want to see the full selection of properties, try this:
$PsVariable[0] | Format-list *
Offered only as an inferior option to that of FoxDeploy's you can also use Split-Path to get the filename from a path
$PSVariable = (Get-ChildItem -Path "F:\SQL_Backups" -Recurse *.bak).FullName
$PSVariable | Split-Path -Leaf
I need to read a file (e.g. file.txt) which has file names as its content. File names are separated by unique character (e.g. '#'). So my file.txt looks something like:
ABC.txt#
CDE.csv#
XYZ.txt#
I need to read its content line by line based on its extension. I have 1 source folder and 1 destination folder. Below is my scenario that I need to achieve:
If extension = txt then
check if that file name exists in destination_folder1 or destination_folder2
if that file exists then
copy that file from source_folder1 to destination_folder1
else delete that file from destination_folder1
Else display msg as "Invalid file"
I am new to powershell scripting. can someone pls help? Thanks in advance.
It will make my job easier if we assume the following pseudocode. Then you can take the elements I demonstrate and change them to fit your needs.
If the string from "file.txt" contains the file extension "txt" then continue.
If the file does not exist in the destination folder then copy the file from the source folder to the destination folder.
Use Get-Content to read a text file.
Get-Content .\file.txt
Get-Content processes files line by line. This has a few consequences:
Each line in our input text file will trigger our code.
Each time our code triggers, it will have input that looks like this: ABC.txt#
We can focus on solving the problem for one line.
If we need to evaluate strings, I suggest using regular expressions.
Remember, we are operating on a single line from the text file:
ABC.txt#
We need to detect the file extension.
A good place to start would be the end of the string.
In regular expressions, the end of a string is represented by $
So let's start there.
Here is our regular expression so far:
$
The next thing that would be useful is if we accounted for that # symbol. We can do that by adding it before $
#$
If there was a different character, we would add that instead: ;$ Keep in mind that there are reserved characters in regular expressions. So we might need to escape certain characters with a backslash: \$$
Now we have to account for the file extension.
We have three letters, we don't know what they are.
Regular expressions have a special escape sequence (called a character class) that can match any letter: \w
Let's add three of those.
\w\w\w#$
Now, while crafting regular expressions, it is a good idea to limit the text we're looking for.
As humans, we know we're looking for .txt# But, so far, the computer only knows about txt# with no dot. So it would accept .txt#, .xlsx#, and anythingGoes# as matches. We limited the right side of our string. Now let's limit the left side.
We're only interested in three characters. And the left side is bounded by a . So let's add that to our regular expression. I'll also mention that a period is a reserved character in regular expressions. So, we will have to escape it.
\.\w\w\w#$
So if we're looking at text like this
ABC.txt#
then our regular expression will output text like this
.txt#
Now, .txt# is a pretty good result. But we can make our job a little easier by limiting the result to just the file extension.
There are several ways of doing this. But I suggest using regular expression groups.
We create a group by surrounding our target with parentheses.
\.(\w\w\w)#$
This now produces output like:
txt
From here, we can just make intuitive comparisons like if txt = txt.
Another piece of the puzzle is testing whether a file already exists. For this we can use the Test-Path and Join-Path cmdlets.
$destination = ".\destination 01"
$exampleFile = "ABC.txt"
$destinationFilePath = Join-Path -Path $destination -ChildPath $exampleFile
Test-Path -Path $destinationFilePath
With these concepts, it is possible to write a working example.
# Folder locations.
$source = ".\source"
$destination = ".\destination 01"
# Load input file.
Get-Content .\file.txt |
Where-Object {
# Enter our regular expression.
# I've added an extra group to capture the file name.
# The $matches automatic variable is created when the -match comparison operator is used.
if ($_ -match '([\w ]+\.(\w\w\w))#$')
{
# Which file extensions are we interested in processing?
# Here $matches[2] represents the file extension: ex "txt".
# We use a switch statement to handle each type of file extension.
# Accept new file types by creating new switch cases.
switch ($matches[2])
{
"txt" {$true; Break}
#"csv" {$true; Break}
#"pdf" {$true; Break}
default {$false}
}
}
else { $false }
} |
ForEach-Object {
# Here $matches[1] is the file name captured from the input file.
$sourceFilePath = Join-Path -Path $source -ChildPath $matches[1]
$destinationFilePath = Join-Path -Path $destination -ChildPath $matches[1]
$fileExists = Test-Path -Path $destinationFilePath
# Copy the source file to the destination if the destination doesn't exist.
if (!$fileExists)
{ Copy-Item -Path $sourceFilePath -Destination $destinationFilePath }
}
Note on Copy-Item
Copy-Item has known issues.
Issue #10458 | PowerShell | GitHub
Issue #2581 | PowerShell | GitHub
You can substitute robocopy which is more reliable.
Robocopy - Wikipedia
The robocopy syntax is:
robocopy <source> <destination> [<file>[ ...]] [<options>]
where <source> and <destination> can be folders only.
So, if you want to copy a file, you have to write it like this:
robocopy .\source ".\destination 01" ABC.txt
We can invoke robocopy using Start-Process and the variables we already have.
# Copy the source file to the destination if the destination doesn't exist.
if (!$fileExists)
{
Start-Process -FilePath "robocopy.exe" -ArgumentList "`"$source`" `"$destination`" `"$($matches[1])`" /unilog+:.\robolog.txt" -WorkingDirectory (Get-Location) -NoNewWindow
}
Using Get-ChildItem
You use file.txt as input. If you wanted to gather a list of files on disc, you can use Get-ChildItem.
Multiple Conditions
You wrote "destination_folder1 or destination_folder2". If you need multiple conditions you can construct this with three things.
Use the if statement. Inside the test condition, you can add multiple conditions with logical -or And you can group statements together to make them easier to read.
Functions
If you need to move a piece of code around, you can use a function. Just remember to create parameters for the inputs to the function. Then call a PowerShell function without parentheses or commas:
# Calling a PowerShell function.
myFunction parameterOne parameterTwo parameterThree
Writing Output
You can use Write-Output to send text to the console.
Write-Output "Invalid File"
Further Reading
Here are some references which you might find useful.
about_Comparison_Operators - PowerShell | Microsoft Docs
about_Pipelines - PowerShell | Microsoft Docs
about_Switch - PowerShell | Microsoft Docs
Regular-Expressions.info - Regex Tutorial, Examples and Reference - Regexp Patterns
Where-Object (Microsoft.PowerShell.Core) - PowerShell | Microsoft Docs
I want to check .jpg file in the 2nd folder. 2nd folder has some subfolder. if .jpg exist in the subfolder of 2nd folder, I will copy a file from 1st folder to subfolder of 2nd folder based on the base name. I can do this part refer to this great answer How to copy file based on matching file name using PowerShell?
https://stackoverflow.com/a/58182359/11066255
But I want to do this process with infinity loop. Once I use infinity loop, I found that I have a lot of duplicate file. How do I make limitation, if I already copy the file, I will not copy again in the next loop.
Anyone can help me please. Thank you.
for(;;)
{
$Job_Path = "D:\Initial"
$JobError = "D:\Process"
Get-ChildItem -Path "$OpJob_Path\*\*.jpg" | ForEach-Object {
$basename = $_.BaseName.Substring(15)
$job = "$Job_Path\${basename}.png"
if (Test-Path $job) {
$timestamp = Get-Date -Format 'yyyyMMddhhmmss'
$dst = Join-Path $_.DirectoryName "${timestamp}_${basename}.gif"
$Get = (Get-ChildItem -Name "$OpJob_Path\*\*$basename.jpg*" | Measure-Object).Count
Copy-Item $job $dst -Force
}
}
}
File management 101 is that, Windows will not allow duplicate file names in the same location. You can only have duplicate files, if the name of the file is unique, but the content is the same. Just check for the filename, but they must be the same filename, and do stuff if it is not a match else do nothing.
Also, personally, I'd suggest using a PowerShell FileSystemWatcher instead of a infinite loop. Just saying...
This line …
$timestamp = Get-Date -Format 'yyyyMMddhhmmss'
… will always generate a unique filename by design, the content inside it is meaningless, unless you are using file hashing for the compare as part of this.
Either remove / change that line to something else, or use file hash (they ensure uniqueness regardless of name used) ...
Get-FileHash -Path 'D:\Temp\input.txt'
Algorithm Hash Path
--------- ---- ----
SHA256 1C5B508DED35A28B9CCD815D47ECF500ECF8DDC2EDD028FE72AB5505C0EC748B D:\Temp\input.txt
... for compare and prior to the copy if another if/then.
something like...
If ($job.Hash -ne $dst.Hash)
{Copy-Item $job.Path $dst.Path}
Else
{
#Do nothing
}
There are of course other ways to do this as well, this is just one idea.
I'm trying to teach myself enough powershell or batch programming to figure out to achieve the following (I've had a search and looked through a couple hours of Youtube tutorials but can't quite piece it all together to figure out what I need - I don't get Tokens, for example, but they seem necessary in the For loop). Also, not sure if the below is best achieved by robocopy or xcopy.
Task:
Define a list of files to retrieve in a csv (file name will be listed as a 13 digit number, extension will be UNKNOWN, but will usually be .jpg but might occasionally be .png - could this be achieved with a wildcard?)
list would read something like:
9780761189931
9780761189988
9781579657159
For each line in this text file, do:
Search a network folder and all subfolders
If exact filename is found, copy to an arbitrary target (say a new folder created on desktop)
(Not 100% necessary, but nice to have) Once the For loop has completed, output a list of files copied into a text file in the newly created destination folder
I gather that I'll maybe need to do a couple of things first, like define variables for the source and destination folders? I found the below elsewhere but couldn't quite get my head around it.
set src_folder=O:\2017\By_Month\Covers
set dst_folder=c:\Users\%USERNAME&\Desktop\GetCovers
for /f "tokens=*" %%i in (ISBN.txt) DO (
xcopy /K "%src_folder%\%%i" "%dst_folder%"
)
Thanks in advance!
This solution is in powershell, by the way.
To get all subfiles of a folder, use Get-ChildItem and the pipeline, and you can then compare the name to the insides of your CSV (which you can get using import-CSV, by the way).
Get-ChildItem -path $src_folder -recurse | foreach{$_.fullname}
I'd personally then use a function to edit the name as a string, but I know this probably isn't the best way to do it. Create a function outside of the pipeline, and have it return a modified path in such a way that you can continue the previous line like this:
Get-ChildItem -path $src_folder -recurse | foreach{$_.CopyTo (edit-path $_.fullname)}
Where "edit-directory" is your function that takes in the path, and modifies it to return your destination path. Also, you can alternatively use robocopy or xcopy instead of CopyTo, but Copy-Item is a powershell native and doesn't require much string manipulation (which in my experience, the less, the better).
Edit: Here's a function that could do the trick:
function edit-path{
Param([string] $path)
$modified_path = $dst_folder + "\"
$modified_path = $path.substring($src_folder.length)
return $modified_path
}
Edit: Here's how to integrate the importing from CSV, so that the copy only happens to files that are written in the CSV (which I had left out, oops):
$csv = import-csv $CSV_path
Get-ChildItem -path $src_folder -recurse | where-object{$csv -contains $_.name} | foreach{$_.CopyTo (edit-path $_.fullname)}
Note that you have to put the whole CSV path in the $CSV_path variable, and depending on how the contents of that file are written, you may have to use $_.fullname, or other parameters.
This seems like an average enough problem:
$Arr = Import-CSV -Path $CSVPath
Get-ChildItem -Path $Folder -Recurse |
Where-Object -FilterScript { $Arr -contains $PSItem.Name.Substring(0,($PSItem.Length - 4)) } |
ForEach-Object -Process {
Copy-Item -Destination $env:UserProfile\Desktop
$PSItem.Name | Out-File -FilePath $env:UserProfile\Desktop\Results.txt -Append
}
I'm not great with string manipulation so the string bit is a bit confusing, but here's everything spelled out.
I would like to create a powershell function that can take 2 different types of inputs for one parameter.
The example I will use is a copy-file function.
If I call the function like this Copy-File –FileToCopy “c:\test” –FileDestination “c:\dest”
I would like the function to get all the files in the folder and copy them to the destination.
If I call the function like this Copy-File –FileToCopy “c:\filesToCopy.txt” –FileDestination “c:\dest”
I would like the function to get the list of files from the text file and then copy them to the filedestination.
So the part I am not sure how to figure out is how to get the –FileToCopy parameter to be intelligent and know what type of input I am giving it.
The actual code to copy the files I can do.
There may be more elegant methods, but you could do something like this:
1. Append "*" to your parameter value and use Test-Path against it. In this case, you're treating it like a folder, therefore c:\test would become c:\test\*.
2a. If Test-Path returns true, you have a folder and can proceed with copying its content.
2b. If Test-Path returns false, go to step 3.
3. Use Test-Path against the parameter as it is. If it returns true, then it is a file.
Update
Actually, it's much simpler than I thought. You can use parameter PathType with TestPath and specify if you're looking for a folder or a file.
- PathType Container will look for a folder.
- PahType Leaf will look for a file.
I'd determine if it's a text file or a folder and go from there. The function below should get you started and after the script has been run it can be executed like Copy-Thing -filename "sourcefile.txt" -Destination "C:\place"
Function Copy-Thing([string]$fileName,[string]$destination){
$thing = Get-Item $fileName
if ($thing.Extension -eq ".txt"){
Get-Content | %{
Copy-Item -Path $_ -Destination $destination
}
}
elseif ($thing.PSIsContainer){
Get-ChildItem -Path $fileName | %{
Copy-Item -Path $_.FullName -Destination $destination
}
}
else{
Write-Host "Please specifiy a valid filetype (.txt) or folder"
}
}