How to recurse through folders and display relative folder path? - windows

Question

Here is a simple script:
$srcpth = "C:\Users\Mark\Desktop\dummy\"
$files = Get-ChildItem -Path $srcpth -File -Recurse
foreach ($f in $files) {
$filen = $f.Name
$filesize = $f.Length
Write-Output "$filen $filesize"
}
This will correctly loop through all subfolders in C:\Users\Mark\Desktop\dummy and output file name with file size, but it will not show relative path. How do I resolve the relative path? Thanks.
EDIT: added below for clarification of desired output:
For example, under C:\Users\Mark\Desktop\dummy are subfolders with files
C:\Users\Mark\Desktop\dummy\file00.txt
C:\Users\Mark\Desktop\dummy\folder01\file01_01.txt
C:\Users\Mark\Desktop\dummy\folder01\file01_02.txt
C:\Users\Mark\Desktop\dummy\folder01\file01_03.txt
C:\Users\Mark\Desktop\dummy\folder02\file02_01.txt
C:\Users\Mark\Desktop\dummy\folder02\file02_01.txt
C:\Users\Mark\Desktop\dummy\folder03\file03_01.txt
C:\Users\Mark\Desktop\dummy\folder03\file03_02.txt
C:\Users\Mark\Desktop\dummy\folder03\file03_03.txt
C:\Users\Mark\Desktop\dummy\folder03\file03_04.txt
Output with above code produces:
file00.txt 9
file01_01.txt 10
file01_02.txt 12
file01_03.txt 12
file02_01.txt 15
file02_01.txt 14
file03_01.txt 11
file03_02.txt 15
file03_03.txt 13
file03_04.txt 12
But what I want is:
file00.txt 9
\folder01\file01_01.txt 10
\folder01\file01_02.txt 12
\folder01\file01_03.txt 12
\folder02\file02_01.txt 15
\folder02\file02_01.txt 14
\folder03\file03_01.txt 11
\folder03\file03_02.txt 15
\folder03\file03_03.txt 13
\folder03\file03_04.txt 12
preceeding \, no slash, or .\ are fine.

Answer 1

Here you go:
$srcpth = "C:\Users\Mark\Desktop\dummy\"
$files = Get-ChildItem -Path $srcpth -File -Recurse
foreach ($f in $files) {
$filen = $f.Name
$filesize = $f.Length
$relativePath = $f.fullname.remove(0,($srcpth.length))
Write-Output "$filen $filesize $relativePath"
}
There aren't any object properties with the value you're looking for. But you can calculate it like above. It's always useful to look at the members of an object when you're trying to figure something like this out:
$files[0] | get-member
This will give you a better idea of what you can work with, what properties you can use, and what methods are available.

Answer 2

I would recommend you to output objects instead of strings as you're doing right now, in any case, you can get the relative paths either using .SubString(..):
foreach ($f in Get-ChildItem -Path $srcpth -File -Recurse) {
[pscustomobject]#{
FileName = $f.Name
FileSize = $f.Length
RelativePath = $f.FullName.Substring($srcpth.Length + 1)
}
}
Or if you're using PowerShell Core, you can access the .NET API Path.GetRelativePath(String, String):
foreach ($f in Get-ChildItem -Path $srcpth -File -Recurse) {
[pscustomobject]#{
FileName = $f.Name
FileSize = $f.Length
RelativePath = [IO.Path]::GetRelativePath($srcpth, $f.FullName)
}
}
There is also PathIntrinsics.NormalizeRelativePath(String, String) Method available to both, Windows PowerShell and PowerShell Core, though this seems an overkill:
$ExecutionContext.SessionState.Path.NormalizeRelativePath($f.FullName, $srcpth)

Answer 3

While the String.Substring() / .Remove() and [IO.Path]::GetRelativePath() solutions are sufficient when working with only absolute native paths, they fail when the -Path argument for Get-ChildItem is a relative path or a PowerShell-only path (see examples at the end of this answer for how they can fail).
For a solution that additionally supports PowerShell paths and relative paths, I recommend to use Resolve-Path -Relative:
# For this demo, create a Powershell-only path.
$null = New-PSDrive -Name TempDrv -Root ([IO.Path]::GetTempPath()) -PSProvider FileSystem
$srcpth = 'TempDrv:\RelativePathTest'
$null = New-Item "$srcpth\subdir\test.txt" -Force
# Set base path for Get-ChildItem and Resolve-Path. This is necessary because
# Resolve-Path -Relative resolves paths relative to the current directory.
Push-Location $srcpth
try {
foreach ($f in Get-ChildItem -File -Recurse) {
[pscustomobject]#{
FileName = $f.Name
FileSize = $f.Length
RelativePath = Resolve-Path $f.FullName -Relative
# Alternative to remove ".\" or "./" prefix from the path:
# RelativePath = (Resolve-Path $f.FullName -Relative) -replace '^\.[\\/]'
}
}
}
finally {
# Restore current directory even in case of script-terminating error
Pop-Location
}
Output:
FileName FileSize RelativePath
-------- -------- ------------
test.txt 0 .\subdir\test.txt
Modes of failure:
This is how the String.Substring() method fails for the PowerShell path of the sample above, on my system (you may see a different outcome depending on the location of your temp directory):
FileName FileSize RelativePath
-------- -------- ------------
test.txt 0 ubdir\test.txt
And this is how [IO.Path]::GetRelativePath() fails:
FileName FileSize RelativePath
-------- -------- ------------
test.txt 0 ..\..\..\..\temp\RelativePathTest\subdir\test.txt