If you have a filename such as "Committee minutes [October 2010] - hq.doc", how do you get Powershell to replace the square brackets? The following doesn't work:
ls -filter *`[*`]* | foreach -Process { Rename-Item $_ -NewName ($_.Name -replace '\[', '\(') | Rename-Item $_ -NewName ($_.Name -replace '\]', '\)')}
I get the error:
Rename-Item : Cannot rename because item at 'Committee minutes [October 2010] - hq.doc' does not exist.
At line:1 char:53
+ ls -filter *`[*`]* | foreach -Process { Rename-Item <<<< $_ -NewName ($_.Name -replace '\['
]', '\)')}
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [Rename-Item], PSInvalidOperationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidOperation,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RenameItemCommand
Unfortunately this is a known bug/limitation of PowerShell. A suitable and actually not bad workaround is to use Move-Item for renaming items: it has the -LiteralPath parameter which is missing in Rename-Item.
See reported issues:
https://connect.microsoft.com/PowerShell/feedback/details/277707/rename-item-fails-when-renaming-a-file-and-the-filename-contains-brackets
https://connect.microsoft.com/PowerShell/feedback/details/553052/rename-item-literalpath
Related
I altered some code for powershell:
Get-ChildItem -Filter *.txt | ForEach-Object { # Loop over files of interest
$newName = (Get-Content $_.FullName -Head 1)[-1] # Extract 1st line
$_ | Rename-Item -NewName $newName # Rename input file
}
It is supposed to take each text file in a directory, and rename it to the first line of the file.
Rename-Item : The path is not of a legal form.
At line:3 char:8
+ $_ | Rename-Item -NewName $newName # Rename input file
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [Rename-Item], ArgumentException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.ArgumentException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RenameItemCommand
But it gives me that error.
Use (Get-Content $_.FullName -First 1) instead of (Get-Content $_.FullName -Head 1)[-1]
-First has been introduced in PowerShell 3.0.
I am a PowerShell newbie. I have the following command to rename all subfolders:
Get-ChildItem -r | foreach{Rename-Item $_.FullName ($_.Name -replace "2021", "2021 renamed")}
This command works correctly, but also returns an error message:
Rename-Item : Source and destination path must be different.
At line:1 char:28
+ ... e | foreach{Rename-Item $_.FullName ($_.Name -replace "2021", "2021 r ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : WriteError: (C:\Users\abc\...def\ghi\2025:String) [Rename-Item], IOException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : RenameItemIOError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RenameItemCommand
Where ...def\ghi\2025 is the last subfolder.
Could someone please advise me what the error in my command is?
If you want to only rename subfolders, then you should add -Directory parameter. Also, you can pipe directly to Rename-Item, no foreach loop is required. The error message is shown for those items that you don't actually change (don't have 2021 in the name for example so the new name is the same as the old.) You could just set erroraction to silently continue.
Get-ChildItem -Directory -Recurse |
Rename-Item -NewName {$_.Name -replace "2021", "2021 renamed"} -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Or if you'd prefer you can stick with the loop and only attempt to rename those that actually have the matching criteria
Get-ChildItem -r | ForEach-Object{
if($_.name -match '2021')
{
Rename-Item $_.FullName ($_.Name -replace "2021", "2021 renamed")
}
}
I'm basically trying to trim() any filenames that have a leading or trailing space at the end of the name. This is the code I've got so far
$foldersToCheck = "$env:userprofile\documents", "$env:userprofile\pictures", "$env:userprofile\desktop"
foreach ($folder in $foldersToCheck) {
get-childitem -path $folder -recurse | foreach-object {
if ($_.name.startswith(" ") -or $_.name.endswith(" ")) {
$newName = $_.name.trim()
rename-item -path $_ -newName $newname
}
}
}
If I create a test file (c:\users\someusername\desktop\ test.txt), then I receive this error
rename-item : Cannot rename because item at ' test.txt' does not exist.
At line:6 char:13
+ rename-item -path $_ -newName $newname
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [Rename-Item], PSInvalidOperationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidOperation,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RenameItemCommand
So, it looks like it found the file that needs to be renamed, but then says it doesnt exist.
The problem here is that PowerShell resolves $_ to just the file name when attempting to convert it to a string it can bind to -Path.
Explicitly pass the full path of the file and it'll work:
Rename-Item -Path $_.FullName -NewName $newname
Alternatively, pipe the $_ file object to Rename-Item and PowerShell will automatically figure out that it needs to bind $_.FullName to Rename-Item's -LiteralPath parameter:
$_ |Rename-Item -NewName $newname
You can also turn the whole loop into a single pipeline, and then take advantage of a pipeline-bound expression against -NewName:
$foldersToCheck |Get-ChildItem -Recurse |Rename-Item -NewName { $_.Name.Trim() }
If the existing Name and the -NewName values are the same, Rename-Item will just leave the files alone anyway :)
I'm completely new to PowerShell, or any shell for that matter. I'm trying to figure out a way to rename 109 photos that are marked IMG_3571 to IMG_3679. I want to number them consecutively starting at 236. I've tried a few things and this is where I am at right now:
Get-ChildItem "C:\Files to Transfer\test"*.jpg | ForEach-Object -begin {$count=236} -process {rename-item -Path "C:\Files to Transfer\test" -NewName "$count"}
I get this error message 108 times:
At line:1 char:95
+ ... } -process {rename-item -Path "C:\Files to Transfer\test" -NewName "$ ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [Rename-Item], PSInvalidOperationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidOperation,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RenameItemCommand
Also the file named "test" (where all the photos are contained) gets changed to 236...
Edit: I would like to have the files without "IMG" in the name. Only the numbers.
Thanks everyone! Here is what did it:
Get-ChildItem "C:\Files to Transfer\test\*.jpg" | ForEach-Object -begin {$count=236} -process {rename-item -Path $_.fullname -NewName "$count.jpg";$count++}
You are close.
You need $_ in the rename. $_ is the pipeline variable that Get-ChildItem is feeding.
Your output file needs IMG- as a prefix
And you need to increment count.
Try this:
Get-ChildItem "C:\Files to Transfer\test\*.jpg" | ForEach-Object -begin {$count=236} -process {rename-item -Path $_.fullname -NewName "$count.jpg";$count++}
It is very useful to add -WhatIf to things you are trying so that you can see what will happen without actually doing it.
I want to replace all space characters into "_" in names of all subfolders and files.
Unfortunately when I type:
Get-ChildItem -recurse -name | ForEach-Object { Rename-Item $_ $_.replace(" ","_") }
Error message:
Rename-Item : Source and destination path must be different. At line:1
char:60
+ Get-ChildItem -recurse -name | ForEach-Object { Rename-Item <<<< $_ $.replace(" ","") }
+ CategoryInfo : WriteError: (PATH_HERE) [Rename-Item], IOException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : RenameItemIOError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RenameItemCommand
How I should improve this short code?
Don't use the Name switch, it outputs only the names of the objects, not their full path. Try this:
Get-ChildItem -Recurse | `
Where-Object {$_.Name -match ' '} | `
Rename-Item -NewName { $_.Name -replace ' ','_' }
The issue here is that if there is no space in the file name the name does not change. This is not supported by Rename-Item. You should use Move-Item instead:
Get-ChildItem -recurse -name | ForEach-Object { Move-Item $_ $_.replace(" ", "_") }
Additionally, in your answer you missed the underscore in $_.replace(...) plus you where replacing spaces with an empty string. Included this in my answer.
Adding a filter worked for me:
Get-ChildItem C:\path-to-directory -Recurse -Filter *foo* | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.name -replace 'foo', 'bar'} -verbose