Copy a file including it's relative path - powershell

I need to copy a large number of files to a backup folder but I want to maintain their relative paths. I only need specific files; i.e.
C:\scripts\folder\File.ext1
C:\scripts\folder2\file2.ext2
C:\scripts\file3.ext1
But I only need to copy the ext1 files like so:
C:\backup\folder\File.ext1.bak
C:\backup\file3.ext1.bak
The source paths are of multiple depths.
This is what I have to copy the files:
$files = gci -path C:\scripts\ -recurse -include *.ext1
$files | % { Copy-Item $_ "$($_).bak"; move-item $_ -destination C:\backup\ }
This just dumps all the files into C:\backup\ and does not appear to get any of the paths. Not sure how that part would be done.

Something like this could work:
gci -path C:\scripts\ -recurse -include *.ext1 |
% { Copy-Item $_.FullName "$($_.FullName).bak"
move-item $_.FullName -destination ($_.FullName -replace 'C:\\scripts\\','C:\backup\') }
It is not clever, but it's quick & dirty and works without a lot of effort.

get-childitem returns absolute paths, but you can make them relative to the current working directory as follows:
resolve-path -relative
So to copy a filtered set of files from the current directory recursively to a destination directory:
$dest = "c:\dest"
$filter = "*.txt"
get-childitem -recurse -include $filter | `
where-object { !$_.PSIsContainer } | `
resolve-path -relative | `
% { $destFile = join-path $dest $_; new-item -type f $destFile -force | out-null; copy-item $_ $destFile; get-item $destfile; }
new-item is needed to create the parent directories
get-item provides a display of all the new files it created
Of course robocopy does all this, but there will be times when you want to do more special filtering or filename mangling...

Use robocopy.
robocopy c:\scripts c:\backup *.ext1 /s
Oops. I failed to notice you wanted to add the .bak extension too. I still think it is a good idea to use robocopy to copy the files then:
dir c:\backup -recurse -include *.ext1 | % { ren $_ "$_.bak" }

You can try this
Clear-Host
$from = "'C:\scripts\"
$to = "'C:\backup\"
$inc = #('*.ext1', '*.extx')
$files = get-childItem -path $from -include $inc -Recurse
$files | % {$dest = (Join-Path $to $($_.FullName+".bak").SubString($from.length)); $dum = New-Item -ItemType file $dest -Force; Copy-Item -Path $_ -Destination $dest -Recurse -Force }
the new-item is there in order to force path creation.
Jean Paul

Related

Using powershell to move sub-folder contents up one level; different parent folders

I've looked through various questions on SO but can't get the script to work. New to Powershell and I'm sure this easy - any help would be great
I have a directory structure of 170 folders:
G:\Data\
folder1\
DCIM1\*jpgs
DCIM2\*jpgs
folder2\
DCIM1\*jpgs
DCIM2\*jpgs
I would like to move all the jpgs from each DCIM subfolder into the parent folder one level up:
G:\Data\
folder1\*jpgs
folder2\*jpgs
Each parent folder has a different name, and potentially differently named DCIM subfolders, but all the jpgs are named with their folder prefix (e.g., DCIM1_001.jpg).
I have tried Powershell:
G:\> $files = Get-ChildItem "G:\data"
>> Get-ChildItem $files | Move-Item -Destination { $_.Directory.Parent.FullName }
>> $files | Remove-Item -Recurse
but get a destination is null error. I have tried a wildcard too:
G:\> $files = Get-ChildItem "G:\data\*"
>> Get-ChildItem $files | Move-Item -Destination { $_.Directory.Parent.FullName }
>> $files | Remove-Item -Recurse
But I take it I have that completely wrong. What am I missing?
You can use Split-Path to get the parent directory:
$JPGs = Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\brief\datefolder" -Recurse -Filter "*.jpg"
foreach ($JPG in $JPGs) {
$Parent_Directory = Split-Path -Path $JPG.FullName -Parent
$Destination_Path = Split-Path -Path $Parent_Directory -Parent
Move-Item -Path $JPG.FullName -Destination $Destination_Path
if ($null -eq (Get-ChildItem -Path $Parent_Directory)) {
Remove-Item -Path $Parent_Directory
}
}
It's just a means of assigning it to a variable and moving along the line.

Powershell move files and folders based on older than x days

I am new to powershell and trying to learn a basic file move from one directory to another. My goal is to move files and folders that are over 18months old to cold storage folder run as a scheduled Task. I need to be able to easily modify it's directories to fit our needs. It needs to preserve the folder structure and only move files that fit the above parameters. I also need it to log everything it did so if something is off i know where.
If I run this it just copies everything. If I comment out the %{Copy-Item... then it runs and lists only based on my parameters and logs it. Where am I going wrong or am I way off base?
Yes it would be easy to use robocopy to do this but I want to use powershell and learn from it.
#Remove-Variable * -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue; Remove-Module *; $error.Clear();
#Clear-Host
#Days older than
$Days = "-485"
#Path Variables
$Sourcepath = "C:\Temp1"
$DestinationPath = "C:\Temp2"
#Logging
$Logfile = "c:\temp3\file_$((Get-Date).ToString('MM-dd-yyyy_hh-mm-ss')).log"
#transcript logs all outputs to txt file
Start-Transcript -Path $Logfile -Append
Get-ChildItem $Sourcepath -Force -Recurse |
Where-Object {$_.LastwriteTime -le (Get-Date).AddDays($Days)} |
% {Copy-Item -Path $Sourcepath -Destination $DestinationPath -Recurse -Force}
Stop-Transcript
Problem
Copy-Item -Path $Sourcepath -Destination $DestinationPath -Recurse -Force
You always specify the same path for source and destination. With parameter -recurse you will copy the whole directory $SourcePath for each matching file.
Solution
You need to feed the output of the previous pipeline steps to Copy-Item by using the $_ (aka $PSItem) variable, basically using Copy-Item in single-item mode.
Try this (requires .NET >= 5.0 for GetRelativePath method):
Get-ChildItem $Sourcepath -File -Force -Recurse |
Where-Object {$_.LastwriteTime -le (Get-Date).AddDays($Days)} |
ForEach-Object {
$relativeSourceFilePath = [IO.Path]::GetRelativePath( $sourcePath, $_.Fullname )
$destinationFilePath = Join-Path $destinationPath $relativeSourceFilePath
$destinationSubDirPath = Split-Path $destinationFilePath -Parent
# Need to create sub directory when using Copy-Item in single-item mode
$null = New-Item $destinationSubDirPath -ItemType Directory -Force
# Copy one file
Copy-Item -Path $_ -Destination $destinationFilePath -Force
}
Alternative implementation without GetRelativePath (for .NET < 5.0):
Push-Location $Sourcepath # Base path to use for Get-ChildItem and Resolve-Path
try {
Get-ChildItem . -File -Force -Recurse |
Where-Object {$_.LastwriteTime -le (Get-Date).AddDays($Days)} |
ForEach-Object {
$relativeSourceFilePath = Resolve-Path $_.Fullname -Relative
$destinationFilePath = Join-Path $destinationPath $relativeSourceFilePath
$destinationSubDirPath = Split-Path $destinationFilePath -Parent
# Need to create sub directory when using Copy-Item in single-item mode
$null = New-Item $destinationSubDirPath -ItemType Directory -Force
# Copy one file
Copy-Item -Path $_ -Destination $destinationFilePath -Force
}
}
finally {
Pop-Location # restore previous location
}
On a side note, $Days = "-485" should be replaced by $Days = -485.
You currently create a string instead of a number and rely on Powershell's ability to automagically convert string to number when "necessary". This doesn't always work though, so better create a variable with the appropriate datatype in the first place.

How can I pipe multiple files into Copy-Item and keep the directory structure?

I have a very large directory located at D:\Stuff and I want to create a copy of it at D:\CopyStuff, but I only want to take files with a certain extension as well as keep the folder structure.
Getting the files I want seems simple enough:
$from = "D:\stuff"
$to = "D:\CopyStuff"
$files = Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Path $from -Include *.config, *.txt, *.ini
However, copying the files and keeping the structure is a bit more challenging. I could use a for-loop, but that seems against the very nature of Powershell. Here https://stackoverflow.com/a/25780745/782880, it suggests to do it this way:
Get-ChildItem -Path $sourceDir | Copy-Item -Destination $targetDir -Recurse -Container
But that copies files to D:\CopyStuff with no folders, much less my original structure. What am I doing wrong? I'm using Powershell 5.
try this :
$Source="C:\temp\test1"
$Dest="C:\temp\test2"
$EnableExt=".config", ".txt" , ".ini"
Get-ChildItem $Source -Recurse | % {
$NewPath=$_.FullName.Replace($Source, $Dest)
if ($_.psiscontainer)
{
New-Item -Path $NewPath -ItemType Directory -Force
}
elseif ($_.Extension -in $EnableExt)
{
Copy-Item $_.FullName $NewPath -Force
}
}
First of all, Copy-Item can do it on its own like:
$fromFolder = "C:\Temp\Source"
$toFolder = "C:\Temp\Dest"
Copy-Item -Path $fromFolder -Destination $toFolder -Recurse -Filter *.txt
But, you may not like the result: it will make folder "Source" inside the "Dest" folder, and then copy the structure. I reckon, you need the same files/folders from inside "Source" folder to be copy to the "Dest" folder. Well, it's a bit more complex, but here it is:
$fromFolder = "C:\Temp\Source"
$toFolder = "C:\Temp\Dest"
Get-ChildItem -Path $fromFolder -Directory -Recurse | Select-Object FullName, #{N="NewPath";E={$_.FullName.Replace($fromFolder, $toFolder)}} | ForEach-Object { New-Item -Path $_.NewPath -ItemType "Directory" }
Get-ChildItem -Path $fromFolder -Include "*.txt" -Recurse | Select-Object FullName, #{N="NewPath";E={$_.FullName.Replace($fromFolder, $toFolder)}} | ForEach-Object { Copy-Item -Path $_.FullName -Destination $_.NewPath }
It copies folder structure first, then files.
NB! I do strongly recommend to use absolute paths only. Otherwise, the Replace method may give unexpected results.
Note: The solution below creates analogous target folders only for those source folders that contain files matching the -Include filter, not for all source folders.
You can get away with a single-pipeline solution by combining Get-ChildItem -Name with delay-bind script blocks:
$from = 'D:\stuff'
$to = 'D:\CopyStuff'
Get-ChildItem -Name -Recurse -LiteralPath $from -Include *.config, *.txt, *.ini |
Copy-Item `
-LiteralPath { Join-Path $from $_ } `
-Destination { New-Item -Type Directory -Force (Split-Path (Join-Path $to $_)) }
-Name emits paths relative to the input directory as strings.
Delay-bind script block { Join-Path $from $_ } builds the full input file name from each relative input path.
Delay-bind script block { New-Item -Type Directory -Force (Split-Path (Join-Path $to $_)) } builds the full path of the target directory from the target root path and the relative input path and creates that directory on demand, using a preexisting one if present (-Force).

move files with specific extension to folder in higher hierarchy

All my files are in specific folders:
17\1\1\PRO
17\1\2\PRO
17\2\1\PRO
xx\xx\xx\PRO
17 is the year (so 18 for next year etc)
the first 1 is the folder specifying the case number (can be up to 100).
The second 1 is the sub parts on the case number.
That last 1 has a folder PRO in it where all data resides.
We need to move these files, but the files need to stay inside their respective "PRO" folders.
For example:
a file in 17\1\1\pro\xxx\www\ needs to go to 17\1\1\pro\movies
a file in 17\2\2\pro\xxdfsdf\eeee\ needs to go to 17\2\2\pro\movies.
The movies folder should get created if there are files to move.
I need to get a part of the full name of a file and move the file there to the "movie" folder. The problem is I do not know how to split the full name, add \movies to it and move the files there.
This is my code so far:
Get-ChildItem -Path $mypath -Recurse -File -Filter $extension | select $_Fullname |
Move-Item -Force -Destination ($_Fullname.Split("pro"))
If the destination is always "movies subdirectory of the grandparent directory of the file's directory" you can build the destination path relative to the file's location:
Get-ChildItem ... | ForEach-Object {
$dst = Join-Path $_.Directory '..\..\movies'
if (-not (Test-Path -LiteralPath $dst -PathType Container)) {
New-Item -Type Directory -Path $dst | Out-Null
}
Move-Item $_.FullName -Destination $dst
}
If the PRO directory is your anchor you could use a regular expression replacement like this instead:
Get-ChildItem ... | ForEach-Object {
$dst = $_.Directory -replace '^(.*\\\d+\\\d+\\\d+\\PRO)\\.*', '$1\movies'
if (-not (Test-Path -LiteralPath $dst -PathType Container)) {
New-Item -Type Directory -Path $dst | Out-Null
}
Move-Item $_.FullName -Destination $dst
}
If you don't know how many directories there are, I would do something like this:
Get-ChildItem -Path $mypath -Recurse -File -Filter $extension | ForEach-Object {
if ($_.FullName.IndexOf('\PRO\') -gt 0) {
$Destination = Join-Path -Path $_.FullName.Substring(0,$_.FullName.IndexOf('\PRO\') + 5) -ChildPath 'movies';
New-Item $Destination -ItemType Directory -ea Ignore;
$_ | Move-Item -Destination $Destination;
} else {
throw ("\PRO\ path not found in '$($_.FullName)'");
}
}
This will work fine as long as your paths only have \pro\ once. If they have it more than once like customer\pro\17\pro\17\1\1\pro\xx\yy\zz\www and you need the last index, then use $_.FullName.LastIndexOf('\pro\').
If you've got \pro\ directories both before and after the directory that .\pro\movies\ is in, well, you're in trouble. You'll probably have to find a different point of reference.
With a set of folders
17\1\1\PRO
17\1\2\PRO
17\2\1\PRO
You could try the following
$RootPaths = Get-ChildItem -Path C:\folder\*\*\*\pro
$RootPaths will then contain all 3 paths mentioned above and the code below will move all files to the appropriate directory.
ForEach( $Path in $RootPaths)
{
$Movies = Join-Path $Path -Child "Movies"
If( -not (Test-Path $Movies ) ) { New-Item -Path $Movies -ItemType Directory }
Get-ChildItem -Path $Path -Recurse -File -Filter $Extension |
Move-Item -Path $_.FullName -Destination "$( $Path )\Movies"
}
This way it doesn't matter how many levels down your files are. They always get moved to the same directory.

Copy-item Files in Folders and subfolders in the same directory structure of source server using PowerShell

I am struggling really hard to get this below script worked to copy the files in folders and sub folders in the proper structure (As the source server).
Lets say, there are folders mentioned below:
Main Folder: File aaa, File bbb
Sub Folder a: File 1, File 2, File 3
Sub Folder b: File 4, File 5, File 6
Script used:
Get-ChildItem -Path \\Server1\Test -recurse | ForEach-Object {
Copy-Item -LiteralPath $_.FullName -Destination \\server2\test |
Get-Acl -Path $_.FullName | Set-Acl -Path "\\server2\test\$(Split-Path -Path $_.FullName -Leaf)"
}
Output:
File aaa, File bbb
Sub Folder a (Empty Folder)
Sub Folder b (Empty Folder)
File 1, File 2, File 3, File 4, File 5, File 6.
I want the files to get copied to their respective folders (Like the source folders). Any further help is highly appreciated.
This can be done just using Copy-Item. No need to use Get-Childitem. I think you are just overthinking it.
Copy-Item -Path C:\MyFolder -Destination \\Server\MyFolder -recurse -Force
I just tested it and it worked for me.
edit: included suggestion from the comments
# Add wildcard to source folder to ensure consistent behavior
Copy-Item -Path $sourceFolder\* -Destination $targetFolder -Recurse
If you want to mirror same content from source to destination, try following one.
function CopyFilesToFolder ($fromFolder, $toFolder) {
$childItems = Get-ChildItem $fromFolder
$childItems | ForEach-Object {
Copy-Item -Path $_.FullName -Destination $toFolder -Recurse -Force
}
}
Test:
CopyFilesToFolder "C:\temp\q" "c:\temp\w"
one time i found this script, this copy folder and files and keep the same structure of the source in the destination, you can make some tries with this.
# Find the source files
$sourceDir="X:\sourceFolder"
# Set the target file
$targetDir="Y:\Destfolder\"
Get-ChildItem $sourceDir -Include *.* -Recurse | foreach {
# Remove the original root folder
$split = $_.Fullname -split '\\'
$DestFile = $split[1..($split.Length - 1)] -join '\'
# Build the new destination file path
$DestFile = $targetDir+$DestFile
# Move-Item won't create the folder structure so we have to
# create a blank file and then overwrite it
$null = New-Item -Path $DestFile -Type File -Force
Move-Item -Path $_.FullName -Destination $DestFile -Force
}
I had trouble with the most popular answer (overthinking). It put AFolder in the \Server\MyFolder\AFolder and I wanted the contents of AFolder and below in MyFolder. This didn't work.
Copy-Item -Verbose -Path C:\MyFolder\AFolder -Destination \\Server\MyFolder -recurse -Force
Plus I needed to Filter and only copy *.config files.
This didn't work, with "\*" because it did not recurse
Copy-Item -Verbose -Path C:\MyFolder\AFolder\* -Filter *.config -Destination \\Server\MyFolder -recurse -Force
I ended up lopping off the beginning of the path string, to get the childPath relative to where I was recursing from. This works for the use-case in question and went down many subdirectories, which some other solutions do not.
Get-Childitem -Path "$($sourcePath)/**/*.config" -Recurse |
ForEach-Object {
$childPath = "$_".substring($sourcePath.length+1)
$dest = "$($destPath)\$($childPath)" #this puts a \ between dest and child path
Copy-Item -Verbose -Path $_ -Destination $dest -Force
}
Here you go.
Function Backup-Files {
[CmdletBinding()]
Param (
[Parameter(Mandatory)]
[System.IO.FileInfo[]]$Source,
[Parameter(Mandatory)]
[String]$Destination
)
if (!(Test-Path $Destination)) {[void][System.IO.Directory]::CreateDirectory($Destination)}
ForEach ($File in $Source) {
$SourceRoot = $(Convert-Path $File.PSParentPath).split('\')[0]
$NewFile = $($File.FullName).Replace($SourceRoot,$Destination)
$NewDir = $($File.DirectoryName).Replace($SourceRoot,$Destination)
[void][System.IO.Directory]::CreateDirectory($NewDir)
Copy-Item -Path $File.FullName -Destination $NewFile -Force
}
}
Examples
<#
.SYNOPSIS
Copy FileInfo object or array to a new destination while retaining the original directory structure.
.PARAMETER Source
FileInfo object or array. (Get-Item/Get-ChildItem)
.PARAMETER Destination
Path to backup source data to.
.NOTES
Version (Date): 1.0 (2023-02-04)
Author: Joshua Biddle (thebiddler#gmail.com)
Purpose/Change: Initial script development.
Known Bugs:
.EXAMPLE
Backup-Files -Source $(Get-ChildItem -Path 'C:\Users\*\Documents' -Recurse -Force -Exclude 'My Music','My Pictures','My Videos','desktop.ini' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -Destination "C:\Temp\UserBackup"
.EXAMPLE
Backup-Files -Source $(Get-ChildItem -Path 'C:\Users\*\Desktop' -Exclude "*.lnk","desktop.ini" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -Destination "C:\Temp\UserBackup"
#>
I wanted a solution to copy files modified after a certain date and time which mean't I need to use Get-ChildItem piped through a filter. Below is what I came up with:
$SourceFolder = "C:\Users\RCoode\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\MyProject"
$ArchiveFolder = "J:\Temp\Robin\Deploy\MyProject"
$ChangesStarted = New-Object System.DateTime(2013,10,16,11,0,0)
$IncludeFiles = ("*.vb","*.cs","*.aspx","*.js","*.css")
Get-ChildItem $SourceFolder -Recurse -Include $IncludeFiles | Where-Object {$_.LastWriteTime -gt $ChangesStarted} | ForEach-Object {
$PathArray = $_.FullName.Replace($SourceFolder,"").ToString().Split('\')
$Folder = $ArchiveFolder
for ($i=1; $i -lt $PathArray.length-1; $i++) {
$Folder += "\" + $PathArray[$i]
if (!(Test-Path $Folder)) {
New-Item -ItemType directory -Path $Folder
}
}
$NewPath = Join-Path $ArchiveFolder $_.FullName.Replace($SourceFolder,"")
Copy-Item $_.FullName -Destination $NewPath
}